Masses in May

The month of May, Our Lady's month, is nearly here, and there are many Latin Masses being celebrated in the diocese. Below is a list of the most notable dates. Please note that this does not include all the parish Latin Masses that take place regularly each month: these can be seen in the sidebar on the right.

Wednesday 1st May - 6pm Mass at St Gregory's, Cheltenham for the feast of St Joseph the Worker.

Wednesday 1st May - 6.30pm Missa Cantata followed by a social for 18-30s at Holy Cross, Bedminster.

Saturday 4th May - 11am Solemn High Mass at Downside Abbey, for the feast of the Holy Martyrs of England and Wales.

Sunday 5th May - 5.30pm Missa Cantata at St Dominic's Dursley, followed by refreshments in the church hall.

Tuesday 7th May - 12.30pm Requiem Mass at the Eyre Chantry chapel, Perrymead Cemetery, Bath.

Thursday 9th May - 12 noon Low Mass for the feast of the Ascension at Our Lady and St Alphege, Bath.

Thursday 9th May - 7.30pm Missa Cantata for the feast of the Ascension at SS Joseph and Teresa, Wells.

Sunday 19th May - Pentecost:

12 noon at Our Lady and St Alphege, Bath

12.30pm at Holy Cross, Bedminster

12.30pm at Our Lady of Glastonbury

Thursday 30th May - Corpus Christi

8 am at St Dominic's, Dursley

10 am at Our Lady and St Kenelm, Stow-on-the-Wold

11 am at Prinknash Abbey, Cranham, Glos

12 noon at Our Lady and St Alphege, Bath

7.30pm Solemn High Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes, Weston-super-Mare

LMS training conference - report

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE LATIN MASS SOCIETY

Students ‘blown away’ by spirituality and symbolism of Traditional  Latin Mass as Bishop opens Latin Mass Society’s latest training conference

Students attending the Latin Mass Society’s ninth training conference in the Extraordinary Form for priests and servers, have said they were ‘blown away’ by the depth and richness of the Traditional Latin Mass. About 60 people attended for all or part of the week-long course, which took place at Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire during Low Week.

Above: Bishop Malcolm McMahon celebrates Pontifical High Mass to open the 

LMS training conference

Rt Rev Malcolm McMahon, Bishop of Nottingham, opened the conference with a Pontifical Mass of the Annunciation. Afterwards, Bishop McMahon addressed all the participants, putting forward some suggestions of ways to heal the rift that exists between enthusiasts for the older form of the Mass and some of those who oppose its widespread use.  This led to a lively discussion.

As in recent LMS conferences, tuition was given to both priests and servers in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass. There were also optional Latin classes.

There was a Sung Mass (either chant or polyphonic) each day, as well as Lauds, Vespers, Benediction and Compline.  Together with private Masses, these services gave ample opportunity for participants to put into practice much of what they had learned.  The musical settings were provided by the Rudgate Singers, with Christian Spence as organist.

LMS Chairman, Dr Joseph Shaw, said: 'The LMS training conferences continue to show their value in giving priests and servers hands-on experience and expert tuition, including the more complex liturgical roles; this year's conference attracted priests from Scotland, Poland, and South Africa, from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. We also welcomed two seminarians: a Dominican, and a transitory Deacon studying at Oscott for the Diocese of East Anglia. The Leicester conference was also a very convivial occasion and a rare opportunity for like-minded priests, servers, and singers to spend time together.'

Above: A priest goes through a dry (practice) Mass at the conference

One of the tutors teaching servers said: ‘Two of the young married men who were in my group and hailed from Glasgow confessed to being "blown away" by the content of some of my talks on the spirituality and symbolism of the simple Low Mass.  The eldest participant was similarly impressed with reading The Mass in Slow Motion by Mgr Knox at his own pace to place the Mass back in context for him.

‘I am unused to suddenly having my photograph taken whilst standing in front of some of my Power Point projections as I work, but this week has been something else. Another young man who had only ever encountered the old Mass once whilst on holiday last summer with his family was similarly moved by his experience of seeing the Mass close up. I was extremely privileged this morning to attend a "private" Mass served near perfectly by this lad.’