Corpus Christi 2023 Photopost (Part 4): Special London Edition

This fourth part of our annual Corpus Christi photopost series shows only one city, London, which celebrates the great feast in a truly exemplary fashion that our bishops in the United States would do well to imitate as part of the Eucharistic revival. The Central London Eucharistic procession, which was instituted ten years ago, is the culmination of the London Eucharistic Octave, a week of Adoration, sung Masses in various western Rites, and the Quarant’ore devotion at the church of Corpus Christi Maiden Lane in Covent Garden, which His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, established as the diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament five years ago. The octave has grown in scope and popularity, and now attracts many hundreds of faithful to crowded Masses, culminating in a procession attended by some 2,000 people.

In the mean time, there will be a fifth post in this series, so if you would like to add your own photos of recent feasts such as the Sacred Heart, St John the Baptist or Ss Peter and Paul, send them in to photopost@newliturgicalmovement.org, and remember to include the name and location of the church. Keep up the good work of evanglizing through beauty!

Pontifical Mass at Corpus Christi Maiden Lane

Celebrated by His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Abp of Westminster.  

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Corpus Christi Procession in London, June 11

All are warmly invited to attend the annual Corpus Christi Procession in London, England, which takes place on Sunday, June 11th. It commences at the church of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick St, Soho, at 3pm, and will finish with Benediction at St James’s Church, Spanish Place, 22 George St just before 6pm. Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, the Eparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family, will lead prayers at a station outside the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral on Duke Street for an end to the sufferings of the Ukrainian people.

Pictures of Rosary Sunday in London

This past Sunday, the Dominican church in London, which is jointly dedicated to the Order’s founder and Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated the external solemnity of the feast of the Most Holy Rosary with His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster. (The Dominicans first established a presence in England in 1221, and so celebrate the eighth centenary of their English province this year.) Our long-time contributor and photographer extraordinaire, Fr Lawrence Lew OP, who is also the church’s rector and prior of the community that serves it, kindly shared with us these photos of the Mass, and some other recent goings-on. Many of these photos were sent in by members of the congregation at the Rosary Shrine.

The shrine has 14 side-chapels, each one dedicated to a mystery of the Rosary. The Joyful mysteries and the first two Sorrowful ones run down the church’s left side-aisle, from near the main sanctuary toward the back; the latter three Sorrowful and first four Glorious go from the back up the right side-aisle. The fifth Glorious Mystery, the Coronation of the Virgin, is commemorated in the main apse around the high altar, which has recently been restored and re-gilded. The church also has a separate Lady Chapel with a Rosary Altar in the right transept, at which the Virgin Mary is also honored with the title “Seat of Wisdom”, in reference to the Dominican vocation to scholarship and teaching.

Decorations of the main sanctuary. 

A nice tribute to the medieval heritage of the Dominican Order; lecterns decorated with eagles in this fashion were so common in the Middle Ages that the rubrics of medieval liturgical books often refer to them simply as an “aquila.”

This statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag, one of the main devotional statues of the Philippines, is carried in the procession after the Mass. It was a gift from the Basilica of Manaoag, and it is believed to be the only authorized replica statue outside the Philippines. The friars are also holding a candlelit procession through the church every Saturday evening at 7pm this month; pictures of the first procession are seen below.

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Eucharistic Octave in London, Sept. 11-19

This Saturday, the church of Corpus Christi in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, in tandem with several other churches, will begin a special series of celebrations in honor of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, lasting until Sunday the 19th. The week will begin with a Pontifical Votive Mass of the Blessed Sacrament celebrated by His Eminence Vincent Cardinal Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, at noon on Saturday, September 11th, at Corpus Christi, and culminate in a procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of central London on Sunday, September 19th, starting at 3.30pm.

From our fourth Corpus Christi photopost of 2018, some images of the Eucharistic procession held in Covent Garden that year.

Each evening during this week of prayer and adoration, Holy Mass will be celebrated in a different form at 6.30 pm at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane: on Monday September 13th, in the Usus Antiquior of the Roman Rite, on Tuesday, in the Ordinariate Use; on Wednesday in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite; on Thursday, the Divine Liturgy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church; on Friday, there will be a Solemn Requiem Mass with Absolutions for all those who have died of Covid-19.

On Sunday, September 19th, a procession through Soho, Mayfair and Marylebone will commence at 3.30 pm, starting at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, and end with Pontifical Benediction at the church of St James, Spanish Place. En route there will be Stations at the Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street, and at the Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street. The Procession will be jointly led by the Rt. Revd. Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, Eparch of the Ukrainian Eparchy of the Holy Family and by the Rt. Revd. Mgr. Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The rector of Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane, Fr Alan Robinson, said, “Many of us were looking forward to going to Budapest this September, for the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress; an event transferred from last September due to the COVID situation. Large numbers travelling from England to Hungary hasn’t really proved possible at the present time, and so we thought we could do something here in London. We wish to add our support to the Congress in Budapest, and to give witness to our love for the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. It’s a great opportunity for us all to experience different expressions of Catholic liturgy here in this land. With the liturgies and the procession of the Most Blessed Sacrament, there is a wonderful opportunity for us to take part in Eucharistic evangelisation with those we encounter. There are many Catholics who have not yet returned to the Church since lockdown; during this octave we pray especially for them. And we help Our Blessed Lord to reach out to them, and to all those who do not yet know Him. Please pray for the strengthening of the Eucharistic Heart of the Church in this land and in our own hearts too.”

Fr. Christopher Colven, rector of St James’s Church, Spanish Place, said, “Living in central London one grows used to demonstrators taking over the streets and disrupting the traffic. On this occasion it will be good to see Catholics doing just those things in honour of Jesus Christ the King and Centre of all hearts as in his Eucharistic Presence he moves among those he has redeemed.”

Parishes, religious orders and Catholic organizations are invited to publicize this important event on social media and come in great numbers! Further details of the programme can be found here: www.catholiclondon.org. A PDF poster for the ‘Eucharistic Octave’ can be found here: bit.ly/2XSTUck For further information please contact Peter Sefton-Williams at: peter@seftonwilliams.com

Dominican Mass and Eucharistic Process in London

Last week, on the feast of the Immaculate Heart, our long-time contributor Fr Lawrence Lew celebrated a sung Mass in the Dominican Rite at the shrine of the Holy Rosary in London. This was part of the annual pilgrimage of the Schola Sainte-Cécile, who sang the Dominican chant propers and the Missa Exsultate Deo by the 17th-century French composer François Cosset. The shrine has 15 side-chapels, each one dedicated to a mystery of the Rosary. After the Mass, a Eucharistic procession was held, stopping at each of the last five chapels, where the Glorious Mysteries were prayed; while the procession went from one chapel to the next, the Schola sang a sequence for the feast of that mystery. (These were Victimae Paschali for the Resurrection and Veni, Sancte Spiritus for Pentecost; the sequences for the Ascension, Assumption and Coronation were taken from the medieval Parisian tradition.) The final Benediction was held at the main altar of the church, which as you can see below is huge, and has a huge choir in front of it. The church was quite packed for the Mass, and most of the congregation stayed for the procession. Thanks to Fr Lawrence and Mr Wojtek Szymczak for these photos; we also have a video from the Schola Sainte-Cécile’s Facebook page below.

At the singing of the Gospel.

Preaching pulpits are still being used in England!

Incensation at the Offertory

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Reminder: Dr Kwasniewski’s Lectures in England, October 26–30

Friday, October 26th – SS Gregory & Augustine, Oxford
6:00 pm – Votive High Mass for St Gregory the Great
7:30 pm – Refreshments
8:00 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “Pillar and Ground of the Roman Rite: The Roman Canon as Doctrinal and Moral Norm”
9:00 pm – Signing of Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile (Angelico, 2018)

Saturday, October 27th – Annual LMS Aylesford Pilgrimage: Relic Chapel, Aylesford Priory
12:45 pm – Confessions (Fr Neil Brett)
1:30 pm – Missa Cantata (Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Fr Matthew Goddard FSSP
de Rivera, Missa a cuatro voces
Kwasniewski, “Benedicta et venerabilis” UK PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Ego mater” WORLD PREMIERE
 (All sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
3:00 pm – Talk by Dr Kwasniewski: “The Spirit and Spirituality of Gregorian Chant”
3:45 pm – Enrolment in the Brown Scapular
4:15 pm – Vespers (Little Office of Our Lady) and Benediction

Sunday, October 28th – Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate, Kent
12:00 pm – High Mass for the Feast of Christ the King
Kwasniewski, Missa Rex in Æternum  WORLD PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Christus vincit” UK PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Jesu dulcis memoria” UK PREMIERE
 (All sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
2:30 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “On Living Tradition: The Basic Good of Catholic Culture and the Spiritual Discipline of Fine Art” 

Sunday, October 28th – Church of St Anne Line, South Woodford, London
6:00 pm – High Mass for the Feast of Christ the King
7:30 pm – Talk by Dr Kwasniewski in Parish Hall (7 Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London, E18 2JR): “Tradition as Ultimate Norm: Clearing up Confusion about Essentials and Incidentals”

Tuesday, October 30th – Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London
6:00 pm – Vespers with Palestrina’s Magnificat quinti toni
 (Sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
6:30 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “Liturgical Reform, Ars Celebrandi, and the Crisis on Marriage and Family”
7:30 pm – Signing of Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile (Angelico, 2018)

Dr Kwasniewski’s Upcoming Lectures in England

On this first day of October, I am happy to be able to publish the schedule of my upcoming lecture tour in England, kindly sponsored by the Latin Mass Society of England & Wales. The tour serves in part as a launch for my new book from Angelico Press, coming out in mid-October: Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile.

I shall be giving five lectures from October 26th to October 30th at five different locations: Oxford, Aylesford Priory, Ramsgate, and two in London. All details are listed below, as well as in the attached posters from the LMS.

In addition, two new choral compositions will receive their world premieres by the ensemble Cantus Magnus, under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn: a motet “Ego Mater Pulchrae Dilectionis” (SATB) on October 27th and the Missa Rex in Æternum (ATB) on October 28th; these will be joined by three UK premieres of other motets.

My thanks in a special way to the Latin Mass Society of England & Wales and to Cantus Magnus for the invitation and preparations. I certainly look forward to meeting the attendees at each of the events.

SS Gregory & Augustine, Oxford

Friday, October 26th – SS Gregory & Augustine, Oxford

6:00 pm – Votive High Mass for St Gregory the Great
7:30 pm – Refreshments
8:00 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “Pillar and Ground of the Roman Rite: The Roman Canon as Doctrinal and Moral Norm”
8:30 pm – Signing of Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile (Angelico, 2018)

Aylesford Priory

Saturday, October 27th – Annual LMS Aylesford Pilgrimage: Relic Chapel, Aylesford Priory

12:45 pm – Confessions (Fr Neil Brett)
1:30 pm – Missa Cantata (Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Fr Matthew Goddard FSSP
de Rivera, Missa a cuatro voces
Kwasniewski, “Benedicta et venerabilis” UK PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Ego mater” WORLD PREMIERE
 (All sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
3:00 pm – Talk by Dr Kwasniewski: “The Spirit and Spirituality of Gregorian Chant”
3:45 pm – Enrolment in the Brown Scapular
4:15 pm – Vespers (Little Office of Our Lady) and Benediction

Shrine of St Augustine (designed by Pugin)

Sunday, October 28th – Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate, Kent

12:00 pm – High Mass for the Feast of Christ the King
Kwasniewski, Missa Rex in Æternum  WORLD PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Christus vincit” UK PREMIERE
Kwasniewski, “Jesu dulcis memoria” UK PREMIERE
 (All sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
2:30 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “On Living Tradition: The Basic Good of Catholic Culture and the Spiritual Discipline of Fine Art” 

Sunday, October 28th – Church of St Anne Line, South Woodford, London

6:00 pm – High Mass for the Feast of Christ the King
7:30 pm – Talk by Dr Kwasniewski in Parish Hall (7 Grove Crescent, South Woodford, London, E18 2JR): “Tradition as Ultimate Norm: Clearing up Confusion about Essentials and Incidentals”

Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory

Tuesday, October 30th – Church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London

6:00 pm – Vespers with Palestrina’s Magnificat quinti toni
 (Sung by Cantus Magnus under the direction of Matthew Schellhorn)
6:30 pm – Lecture by Dr Kwasniewski: “Liturgical Reform, Ars Celebrandi, and the Crisis on Marriage and Family”
7:30 pm – Signing of Tradition and Sanity: Conversations & Dialogues of a Postconciliar Exile (Angelico, 2018)

For Oxford:

For all events:

EF Candlemas in London

The church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, located on Warwick St in London, England, will have the traditional Candlemas blessing of candles and procession, followed by Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form, with William Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, and motets by Byrd and Orlando Lassus. The celebrant and preacher will be by Fr Benedict Nivakoff, prior of the Benedictine Monks of Norcia; the ceremony will begin at 6:30 pm,

Good News from Juventutem London - A Weekly Sung Mass Starting Tomorrow

The London Chapter of Juventutem has recently announced a new, regularly scheduled weekly sung Mass on their blog. The first of these will be celebrated tomorrow.

“By kind permission of the Rector, we are delighted to announce that as of the 21st October, we will be having a weekly Sung Mass in the Extraordinary Form at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, just off Piccadilly.

Mass begins at 7, with confessions beforehand, from 6.30, and we’ll even have a stab at saying the Rosary beforehand too, since it’s October. We will then retire to some nearby hostelry to partake of some small libation. Do come along and bring your friends. All are most welcome, both the young and the young at heart. Obviously we encourage those aged 18-35 to partake in the conviviality, but we wouldn’t dream of excluding people from the Mass! Please note that this does not replace our monthly High Masses, but is a welcome addition! Further details may be found on our Facebook.”

On October 31st will be held the third annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of  Our Lady of Willesden, which Juventutem London is organizing for the first time, together with the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales. Details of the events in the poster below. Click here for more information about the shrine.