Monday, March 30, 2015

Warwick Street...

...is the home of this church, in the care of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Today, Ordinariate priests from across Britain came there to concelebrate the Chrism Mass. The chief celebrant was the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mennini.  It was all very splendid, and the large crowd of priests just about fitted in to the church, using up both the side sections and all around the back. The congregation was in the main seating area in the middle...and when the priests made their public re-affirmation of theirvows, it was rather splendid to hear the voices in a deep roar all around us...

The oils were brought up to the altar for hallowing with great solemnity, there was glorious music, and the prayers of the Chrism Mass are so beautiful,..

"...For in the beginning you commanded the earth
to produce fruit-bearing plants,
and among them the olive tree,
to bring forth the great richness of this Oil,
that its fruit might serve
for the making of sacred Chrism.

David, too, foreseeing by the spirit of prophecy
the sacraments of your grace,
sang of oil making our faces radiant with joy;
and when in former days
the world's sins were washed away in the Great Flood,
the dove, showing forth by an olive branch
a figure of the gift to come,
announced that peace had been restored to the earth..."

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