In the last post we saw images of St Mary’s, Ryde on the Isle of Wight. The daughter-church to St Mary’s is St Michael the Archangel (below), located in the pretty seaside town of Bembridge. The church was built in 1965, and the first Mass celebrated there was on 20th June of that year. Just six months later, the solemn conclusion of the Second Vatican Council took place in Rome, and the newly-built church had to be adapted to the new form of the Mass.
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St Michael the Archangel, Bembridge |
Today, both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form of the Mass are celebrated in the church. Despite its modern appearance, the sanctuary has been made a fitting and beautiful setting for the Latin Mass, as can be seen from the photographs below.
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Fr Glaysher celebrates Low Mass at St Michael's on the First Friday in July.
LMS rep Peter Clark is serving. |
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The sanctuary is beautifully adorned. |
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A set of Rococo light fittings adds splendour to the church. |
Fr Glaysher celebrates an Extraordinary Form Mass in this
church every first Friday at 9.30am. There is also a Holy Hour on First Fridays
in St Mary’s, Ryde. We reproduce below a text that appears on the parish
website about First Fridays, a devotion which is observed with great care in
this part of the world.
The First Friday of each month was designated by our Saviour Himself as a day to be consecrated to honouring His Sacred Heart. The object of this devotion is to make our Saviour Jesus Christ ardently and perfectly loved, and to make reparation for the outrages offered to Him in the past, as well as for those which he daily receives in the Blessed Eucharist. Jesus Christ merits our love at all times, but alas! So many in the world today simply do not recognise His redeeming love for mankind. We should remember that He is truly present in every Catholic church. We should then adore Jesus Christ in this Sacrament, make a fervent act of love to Jesus in the tabernacle, thank Him for having instituted this Mystery of love, express our sorrow at seeing Him so abandoned, and resolve to visit Him as soon as possible and love Him unceasingly. Attendance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is assuredly the best means of honouring and loving the adorable Heart of Jesus.
First Friday devotions in honour of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus:
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament
Act of Consecration to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Act of Reparation
The Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
The Sacrament of Penance (Confession)
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The Sacred Heart of Jesus Surrounded by Angels, c. 1775 by Jose de Paez. |
The Promises of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
"I will give them all the graces necessary in
their state of life."
"I will establish peace in their homes."
"I will comfort them in their afflictions."
"I will be their secure refuge during life, and
above all in death."
"I will bestow a large blessing upon all their
undertakings."
"Sinners shall find in My Heart the source and
the infinite ocean of mercy."
"Tepid souls shall grow fervent."
"Fervent souls shall quickly mount to high
perfection."
"I will bless every place where a picture of My
Heart shall be set up and honoured."
"I will give to priests the gift of touching the
most hardened hearts."
"Those who shall promote this devotion shall have
their names written in My Heart, never to be blotted out."
"I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My
Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the
First Friday in nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they
shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine
heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."
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Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament |
The Church also teaches us that
the most efficacious prayer is prayer in the Presence of Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. Prayer in the Divine Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
releases the power, blessings and graces of God upon mankind.
Each time you go to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, you
touch His Heart with your faith. Each Holy Hour you make in the Presence of
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament releases His power and graces upon you, your
family, your parish, your diocese and the world.
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Our Lord appears to St Margaret Mary Alacoque |
Here in St. Mary's in Ryde we
are pleased to have a Holy Hour on every First Friday, at the start of which,
we meditate on Christ's Passion while publicly reciting the Sorrowful Mysteries
of the Most Holy Rosary followed by the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Our own
Sacred Heart Chapel contains stained glass windows of saints famous for their
love and adoration of Our Blessed Lord, including St. Margaret Mary
Alocoque, the French nun, who had a vision of Our Lord exposing his Sacred
Heart on 15th June, 1675. Our Lord said to her: "Behold this Heart, which
loves men so much. Yet in return I receive ingratitude, irreverence, sacrilege
and a coldness and contempt which they exhibit for me in this Sacrament of
love."
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The Garden of Gethsemane by Andrea Mantegna, c. 1470. |
It was through St. Margaret Mary that Christ instituted the
"Holy Hour" of devotion and prayer to the Sacred Heart in reparation
for the three apostles who fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our Lord
told her to, "encourage people to make reparation for the ingratitude of
men. Spend an hour in prayer to appease divine justice, to implore mercy for
sinners, to honour Me, to console Me for my bitter sufferings when abandoned by
my apostles when they could not watch and pray for one hour with me".
It was Pope Pius IX who added
the feast of the Sacred Heart to the Roman Calendar in 1856 in order to
"stimulate the faithful to honour with greater devotion and zeal the love
of Jesus Christ under the symbol of the Sacred Heart". Consequently the
practice of honouring the Sacred Heart with pictures, shrines and statues in homes
was encouraged by the Church. From Victorian times priests would visit family
homes to solemnly enthrone a representation of the Sacred Heart and urge each
family to pray together and seek mercy and forgiveness for sins, as Christ
himself requested in his appearance to St. Margaret Mary.
In the 1930s Pope
Pius XI affirmed devotion to the Sacred Heart to be, "the epitome of religion and the norm of the more
perfect life which more readily leads souls to acknowledge Christ the Lord, and
which more effectively, inclines hearts to love Him more ardently and imitate
Him more closely." In the 1950s Pope Pius
XII describes the Sacred Heart of Jesus as, "the divine remedy which will save men from the devil and all forces
of evil."
Reproduced with kind permission of Fr Glaysher and Peter
Clarke.