This weekend we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, not on the traditional date, which would have been 15 August, but on Sunday 16 August.  This is because the Bishops of England and Wales have decreed then when a Holyday of Obligation, such as this, falls on a Saturday or a Monday, it is celebrated on the nearest Sunday and the obligation is transferred to that day.  So Saturday is a ferial day, while Sunday is the feast, at least in this country.  Any parishioners who find themselves abroad, particularly in a traditionally Catholic country, will find that the feast is celebrated on Saturday.  In Catholic countries, 15 August is often a public holiday, whereas that is manifestly not the case in this country.

 

Coming up on Thursday of this coming week is the liturgical memorial of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a French monastic reformer from the 12th century, well known for his spiritual writings and his devotion to Our Blessed Lady.  Although not the founder of the Cistercian order of monks, he is associated with the reform of the order early in its history and is greatly venerated in Cistercian communities.  Indeed, the one Cistercian Abbey in England is Mount Saint Bernard’s Abbey in Leicestershire.  Cistercian abbeys are known for austerity, both in their architecture and in their manner of life.

 

Friday sees the liturgical memorial of the first canonized Pope in modern times, Saint Pius X, who occupied the Chair of Peter from 1903 until 1914.  It was he who appointed our own Rafael Merry del Val as Secretary of State, as readers of the recent biography, “A Cardinal for the Ages”, available from the Repository at Spanish Place, will know.  Pope Pius undertook a number of liturgical reforms, and he is particularly associated with the encouragement of frequent Communion and with lowering the age of First Holy Communion so as to encourage young children to receive the Sacrament.  

 

Saturday is another feast of Our Lady, the Queenship of Mary.  It falls on the octave day of the Assumption, or at least, the octave of the day that is normally kept as the Assumption.  While the latter is the subject of the fourth glorious mystery of the Rosary, the feast of Our Lady’s Queenship is the subject of the final glorious mystery, illustrated beautifully in the stained-glass windows of our own Lady Chapel. 

 

Astonishingly, we are now half-way through the month of August.  Soon it will be time for schools to reopen.  The new academic year will see some changes in the governance of our primary school, Saint Vincent’s, since at the start of this month it formally converted to academy status and has now joined the Saint John Southworth Catholic Academy Trust.  It is not anticipated that this change will give rise to many visible changes, but it will subtly transform the way the school is governed, and in particular, it is seen as a way of guaranteeing its future in view of the likely decline in the number of children seeking admission in the years ahead.  The Diocese of Westminster has been encouraging all its Catholic schools to join academy trusts in order to safeguard them in the future.  

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Parents eager to secure a place for their children in a Catholic school may well be asked for a certificate of Catholic practice supplied by their local parish.  If you would like us to supply one, there are forms available at the back of the church which you should take away and complete, before returning them to the parish office.  They include a space for the celebrant at the Sunday Mass you attend to confirm that you were present on each of three consecutive Sundays.

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Forms for enrolment in the parish’s sacramental programmes, that is to say for First Holy Communion, teenage Confirmation and the course for adults wishing to know more about the Catholic faith, will be available from September at the back of the church and on the website and they should be returned to the parish office, duly completed, by the first weekend in October.   

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There is always a need for voluntary service in parish life, and many parishioners, new and old, will be looking for ways in which they could offer their services.  We are in constant need of readers, collectors, catechists, altar servers, cleaners, counters of the collection, and indeed helpers of all kinds.  Although a manual list was compiled in the past, the time has come for it to be digitalized and updated, so there will soon be a fresh invitation to come forward.  So watch this space, and thank you in advance for your readiness to be of service.

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We are particularly grateful to those who facilitate the meetings of the Young Adults group, one of the growth areas of parish life, and we would remind readers of the mini-pilgrimage from Farm Street to St James’s scheduled for 17 October, which the Young Adults are helping to organize.  Some of the songs sung on the medieval pilgrimage to Santiago will be performed on this occasion, which is why booking is needed in advance, as well as attendance at one or two rehearsals before the day.  Booking is now open at http://bit.ly/caminosongs1.

 

Finally, news often reaches the parish clergy at rather a late stage that there are housebound parishioners who would welcome home visits and the opportunity to receive sacraments at home.  This is very much part of the service that parish offers, so if you or those known to you resident in the parish are in need of a service of this kind, do let us know.  In the meantime, Father Domenico and I wish you every blessing during the summer months.

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