And Another One - Brick by Brick

Brick by Brick is Father Z's motto for the building up of the traditional approach to the Catholic Church.
And yesterday evening we saw another brick put in place.
In St Augustine's Church, Darlington, I was present at the first traditional Latin Mass in this church for very many years ( I myself celebrated here an OF Mass in the mid-90's, before it was termed an OF Mass, for a Silver Wedding). It is intended that this 'new' Mass will be celebrated once a month on the second Wednesday of the month - and after a while, who knows what will come next?
The idea of having an OF Mass in St Augustine's was the idea of Doctor Carl Watson (whose sons regularly serve my Mass at Barnard Castle), and he had to persuade the parish council to approve the celebration, he made all preparations for the Mass and provided what was necessary for the celebration.
Last night's Mass was celebrated by Father Paul Tully; it was, I believe, his first public celebration, though he has been celebrating privately for quite some time.  The two servers were Carl's sons, James and John, who did very well. Almost sixty people were in the congregation and clearly many of them had no difficulty in answering the responses. Father Tully gave a short homily about St John the Baptist ("Are you the one we have been waiting for?") and the Real Presence of Jesus at Mass.
The Mass was very well received by the group I was with and we pray that the venue becomes established with a growing following of Catholics eager for the beautiful tradition Mass.

Insulted? I'm not sure!

I have just been insulted this afternoon. At least, I think it was an insult - but was it to me, or to the Church?

I celebrated a Requiem Mass for a deceased parishioner at midday today, and then we drove down to the nearest crematorium for the repose of the body.  We were joined there by quite a number of people who refused to come to the church for the Requiem.
After the cremation prayers, as the mourners were filing out, one lady came up to me, and declared that 'if that's the Catholic Faith, then I'm glad I belong to the Church of England.'

Was it something I said? Could it have been that, since I did not spend any time lauding the deceased and her wonderful life but instead encouraged those present to pray for her eternal soul to speed her way into heaven, that I had mistaken the whole purpose of dying, which is to get straight into heaven from one's death-bed? I will never know  -  well, not just yet anyway. As she walked off, I just grinned.  The undertaker had been the target of the neighbours as well. So we both commiserated with each other!

@pontifex

When Twitter first started up some years ago, I joined straight away, but rapidly lost interest. And I tried to delete my account, but I don't think that I ever succeeded.
However, now that the Pope has decided to start tweeting (although perhaps not personally), I think that I will start again. My new hash-tag is @parochusbarnie
I think that I will tweet comments about the saint of the day or something from the ferial Mass of the day.
I may even start blogging again!

Moveable altar

I refer to the latest post by Father Finnigan here where he discusses the removal of a front temporary altar.
When I first came to Barnard Castle in November 2001, the sanctuary of St Mary's had been 'modernised' a few years previously: the altar rails had been taken from their proper place and fixed to the lowest step of the gradus, the floor was raised  by a platform covered in a green carpet and projected out towards the nave; otherwise no changes took place. Except of course that a front altar was put in place (I understand that the altar was made from the recycled pulpit and confessional - the confessional was one of those with a curtain shielding the priest and penitent where everybody could hear what you confessed and the penance which you were given!)

(This is the Christmas altar in 2010)

After celebrating the TLM for some time with the front altar in place, I casually mentioned to my all-round handyman, Joe Wilson, that it would be nice if we had wheels on the front altar and could roll it out of the way. He devised a system of levers and wheels which lowers the wheels and lifts the altar so that one man  is able to move the altar easily.
Then we took the rails and put them back in their proper place, so that the space on the sanctuary is what it used to be, and on occasion, for traditional weddings, we can bring them forward to create even more space for ceremonies.

And Hey Presto! We have a traditional sanctuary, looking much as it has done from 1928 until some time in the 90's.  In the photo, you can see the front altar to the left-hand side of the sanctuary behind the rails.

The mechanism for moving the altar is not patented, and I am sure that Joe would be pleased if someone decided to copy his handiwork!

Founders' Day Requiem

On Saturday we at St Mary's remembered the Founders of the Bowes Museum and of our church, John and Josephine Bowes.
The Good Lord moved His jet-stream just far enough north to give us a warm, sunny and windless day - just perfect!
The Requiem Mass too was just perfect - when is it not? - but the singing was out of this world. As usual the singers were headed by the Rudgate Singers but they were joined by the Ordinariate Choir from Darlington who sang Pearsall's setting for a Requiem Mass. We believe that this is the first time that this music has been sung in its proper liturgical setting, and it was glorious. Strong, confident, a powerful expression of the hope of eternal life. I understand that the musical score called for trumpets and euphonium, which we did not have, but the music hardly needed them!
The ceremony ended with a procession to the Tomb of John and Josephine, which is behind the apse of the church - prayers were said and the Absolution given.
Afterwards everyone was invited into the garden for coffee, tea and something to eat.
The whole occasion was totally uplifting.

Difficult Problems?

Prayer to Saint Joseph for a Difficult Problem

O Glorious St. Joseph, thou who hast power to render possible even things which are considered impossible, come to our aid in our present trouble and distress.
Take this important and difficult affair under thy particular protection, that it may end happily. (MENTION YOUR REQUEST)
O dear St. Joseph, all our confidence is in thee. Let it not be said that we would invoke thee in vain; and since thou art so powerful with Jesus and Mary, show that thy goodness equals thy power.  Amen.
St. Joseph, friend of the Sacred Heart, pray for us.

(With acknowledgements to Father Z's blog)

Barney Life No 39: The Castle Players

This week The Castle Players perform their annual play by William Shakespeare. This year the play they are doing is "As You Like It".  As everyone knows, the weather has been atrocious: the lawn behind the Bowes Museum is sodden and now rutted and gouged by the big lorries which delivered the huge Grandstands to their places and all the other vehicles bringing tents and other equipment to the Outdoor Theatre.  But the Show Must Go On!  The Players are proud of the fact that in all the years they have been performing they have never cancelled a performance because of the weather.

The performance area is open grassland dominated by a magnificent ancient fir tree, with a circle of trees as a backdrop.  It also was sodden, and much sport was had with a sheet of green plastic which was placed on the ground if the play called for someone to fall on the ground.  Such as the moment when the leading lady was about to faint - we could all see that she was fainting and held up by two stalwarts at an acute angle until a third gentleman placed the green plastic below her, and then the two stalwarts just dropped her - THUMP -onto the ground!  The Players as usual gave wonderful performances, the action was nonstop in two halves and always interesting; many were the guffaws and giggles amongst the audience.
Since shepherds and shepherdesses were a big part of the plot, two sheep (Lincolnshire Longwools) had major parts in the action, at  least they were in a pen at one side of the arena.  One, called Bert, had an occasional speaking part, baaing at  the sound of his mistress's voice, leading to much amusement among the audience! Bert gave an interview about himself, and this is what he had to say:

Myself and my brothers Johnny and James are delighted to be taking to the stage with The Castle Players in As You Like It and readily accepted the parts (afier negotiating our contracts, of course - namely how much food would be involved). I am a sheep of some repute, having gained fame (definitely NOT notoriety) throughout the area for my particular skills as an escape artist and petty food thief I have decided to put my considerable talents to better use however, and am very excited about becoming the world’s first sheep actor I am currently a foster father to an orphan foal on the farm, and hope to inspire her to continue in my footsteps. I have taken a method approach to this part, which has mainly involved eating, breathing, and living being a sheep. I have found this easy, which I imagine is largely due to my incredible acting talents rather than anything else. As soon as this show finishes we are all off to Hollywood to start work on a new film so unfortunately will be unable to perform at Stratford next week. Bert

Indeed, The Castle Players have been invited to Stratford-upon-Avon, the home of Mr Shakespeare himself and The Royal Shakespeare Company; they will perform the second half of As You Like It at The Dell on Saturday July 22nd - a huge honour for them and very justified!