Maundy Thursday: please now sign the petition 'Support our Priests'

 

This is the petition which is separate to the letter to the press which many have signed in support of our courageous and faithful priests: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-our-priests. Please do sign it if you haven't already.

[In case you didn't know, these priests signed a letter asking the Synod members to uphold Church teaching on marriage. And this was printed in the Catholic Herald: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2015/03/24/nearly-500-priests-in-england-and-wales-urge-synod-to-stand-firm-on-communion-for-the-remarried.]

And, if you still haven't signed the letter to the press, you may do so here: http://marklambert.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/in-support-of-our-priests-our-families.html.

Please do sign and then encourage others who'd be interested in signing too.

What a wonderful thing to do on Maundy Thursday, the day that Christ instituted the Priesthood!

In support of our faithful priests, our families, and our Church



You may have seen the recent letter from more than 450 faithful priests in support of the Church’s teaching on marriage.

We would like to invite you to sign the letter below, to be sent to the press in support of them, and to encourage others to sign it.

To sign, please leave your name and your diocese, with the coordinators: Mark Lambert (mark@landbtechnical.com) and/or Andrew Plasom-Scott (andrewplasom_scott@me.com).

The Letter:

Dear Sir,

We, the undersigned, wish to endorse and support the letter signed by over 450 priests in the recent edition of the Catholic Herald.

As laity, we all know from our own family experiences, or those of our friends and neighbours, the harrowing trauma of divorce and separation, and we sympathise with all those in such situations.

It is precisely for that reason that we believe that the Church must continue to proclaim the truth about marriage, given us by Christ in the Gospels, with clarity and charity in a world that struggles to understand it.

For the sake of those in irregular unions, for the sake of those abandoned and living in accordance with the teachings of the Church, and above all for the sake of the next generation, it is essential that the Church continues to make it quite clear that sacramental marriage is indissoluble until death.

We pray, and expect, that our hierarchy will represent us, and the Church’s unwavering teaching, at the Synod this autumn.

 

Yours faithfully,

40 DAYS FOR LIFE GLOUCESTER

Take a stand for life during Lent

 

From 18th February to 29th March, our community will take part in 40 Days for Life: a groundbreaking, coordinated international mobilization. We pray that, with God’s help, this will mark the beginning of the end of abortion in Gloucestershire and beyond.

 

Vigil Location: 

Outside Hope House
Western Entrance
Royal Gloucester Hospital
Great Western Road
Gloucester

If you are interested in supporting this life-saving campaign, please go to http://40daysforlife.com/local-campaigns/gloucester/ to sign up for vigil hours between 8am and 8pm, or contact the Campaign Director, James Tranter, directly by email 40daysforlifegloucester@gmail.com or phone 07796 511375.

 

If you can't make the Gloucester vigil, please keep this important cause in your prayers.

8th December is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Click here to hear a young friar chant
Tota pulchra es Maria
before a statue of Our Lady.

 

La Purísima Inmaculada Concepción
by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1678)

in the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

Tota pulchra es, Maria.
Tota pulchra es, Maria.
Et macula originalis non est in te.
Et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Ierusalem.
Tu laetitia Israel.
Tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tu advocata peccatorum.
O Maria.
O Maria.
Virgo prudentissima.
Mater clementissima.
Ora pro nobis.
Intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Jesum Christum.

Thou art all fair, O Mary.
Thou art all fair, O Mary.
And the original stain is not in thee.
And the original stain is not in thee.
Thou art the glory of Jerusalem.
Thou, the joy of Israel.
Thou art the honour of our people.
Thou art the advocate of sinners.
O Mary.
O Mary.
Virgin most prudent.
Mother most tender.
Pray for us.
Intercede for us with Jesus Christ our Lord.

Beautiful song to Our Lady on her feast day

Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

 

For something truly angelic to celebrate this beautiful feast of Our Lady,
please take the time to listen to this Russian/Armenian 11 year old,
Viktoria (Vika) Oganisyan, sing Ave Maria by Giulio Caccini (1551-1618).

 

Click here

 

May Our Blessed Mother bless you this day and always!

HAPPY EASTER!

 

Victimae paschali laudes
immolent Christiani.

Agnus redemit oves:
Christus innocens Patri
reconciliavit peccatores.

Mors et vita duello
conflixere mirando:
dux vitae mortuus,
regnat vivus.

Dic nobis Maria,
quid vidisti in via?

Sepulcrum Christi viventis,
et gloriam vidi resurgentis:

Angelicos testes,
sudarium, et vestes.

Surrexit Christus spes mea:
praecedet vos in Galilaeam.

 Scimus Christum surrexisse
a mortuis vere:
Tu nobis, victor Rex, miserere.
 Amen. Alleluia.

 

Et verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis! Happy Christmas!

 

In the Bleak Midwinter

 

 

 

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him, nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim, worship night and day,
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall down before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him? Give my heart... give my heart.