"gaudia Paschalia" winging it way!

For Rev. Fr John and Mrs. Hunwicke.

Photos of our Christchurch chapel.

Oratory of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour,
141 Rutland Street,
St Alban's, Christchurch,
as it had been.

Brother Nicodemus Mary,F.SS.R.
moved into action last week.

 

Brother enjoys decorating the sanctuary.
The chapel had been a hall belonging to the Closed Brethren.
Over the years many generous friends
have worked to make it suitable for the Holy Sacrifice.

Soon after we arrived, friends made this opening in the hall's ceiling
and found a suitable window to give added emphasis and light
to the altar which is directly below.

The image of Our Mother of Perpetual Succour
was carefully protected during operations.

 The work is not finished.
 But last Saturday night the altar was replaced for the
Mass of Low Sunday.

 

 More coats of paint are needed and
further developments will be reported.

Our tabernacle was brought to Christchurch
as part of our luggage last month.
It is French and quite old.

 Its doors are beautifully carved.

 This is how things stood for Low Sunday.
May God bless the devoted monk and his holy work.

Easter Morning, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Easter Sunday Mass 

Christchurch, New Zealand

Easter Morning.

After the Vigil the night before, there is a special atmosphere 

when returning to the same sacred space on Easter morning.

 Holy Mass of Easter Sunday, Resurrexi...

I arose, and am still with Thee, alleluia...

Announcing the Resurrection.

Rev. Brother Magdala Maria, F.SS.R.

Et resurrecxit tertia die secundum Scripturas...

Confiteor unum baptisma in remissionem peccatorum. 

 Devout faithful.

 The altar and decorations were beautiful.

Easter Vigil, Christchurch, New Zealand

The Easter Vigil

The Blessing of the Baptismal Font

Behold the Lamb of God.

Good Friday, Christchurch, New Zealand

Moments during the Solemn Afternoon Liturgy.

 

 The Prostration

 Chanting the Passion of Our Lord

 The Solemn Intercessions

 Adoration of the Cross

Behold the wood of the Cross, 

on which hung the Saviour of the world.

Veneration of the Cross

Graces Almost Beyond Belief

As many of you surely know, this Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday.  The promises made to St Faustina concerning this devotion are truly amazing.

The Graces available on this day are simply stupendous; it’s like a plenary indulgence, without the requirement of complete detachment from all sin.  This opportunity given to us by Christ Himself should not be missed.

Listen to this in order to prepare yourself and to take full advantage of what our Good Lord offers to you:

Maundy Thursday. Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus...

The Mass of Maundy Thursday

Christchurch, New Zealand.

 Epistle: 

Fratres, convenientibus vobis in unum...

Brethren, when you come together therefore into one place...

 Mandatum novum do vobis...

A new commandment I give unto you...

 ...alter alterius lavare pedes...

...to wash one another's feet...

 Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est...

Where are charity and love, God is there...

Timeamus et amemus Deum vivum...

Let us fear and love the living God... 

Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

And let us love one another with sincere hearts.

 ... et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.

..and may Christ, our God, be in the midst of us.

Domine, exaudi orationem meam.

Et clamor meus ad te veniat.

O Lord hear my prayer.

And let my cry come unto Thee.

Ubi est refectio mea

Christchurch, New Zealand

Holy Thursday

Ubi est refectio mea

Say to the master of the house:

The Master saith:

Where is My refectory where I may eat the Pasch

with my disciples.

Et invererunt...

And they found as He had told them:

and they prepared the pasch.

The example of religious life.

Christchurch, New Zealand. 

The Sacred Triduum this year is taking place

in the small chapel of a University Hall of residence.

It is a difficult location.

This causes us to pull out all stops to try to make it a success.

The Monastery Garage

Preparations for the Sacred Triduum. 

The Brothers are renovating an old altar

which they will transport by trailer to the little chapel 

tomorrow morning, Holy Thursday. 

Brother Clemens painting the old altar.

 There are also matching altar rails thanks to white paint.

 Brother has prepared the mensa or altar-top 

and is about to lower the altar stone into its place. 

 Brother Nicodemus Mary is painting with gold obtained

for him by our friend, 

the local artist and statue repairer, 

Mr. Damian Walker. 

 Deacon Brother Magdala Maria is 

directing Brother Xavier Maria who is inside the altar

lining up the new wooden support.

One of the great consolations of the religious life

is to see Brethren who pray together and

also work together in great peace and mutual co-operation;

"just getting the job done"

working to late at night

to do something worthwhile for Our Lord and for souls.

May God bless their work

and the Holy Triduum.

We adore Thee, O Christ!

I thought that perhaps some of our readers might like to hear this recording of our singing here at Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary.  This rendition of Adoramus Te Christe, by G. P. da Palestrina, was sung during Mass this Palm Sunday, 24th March.

Adoramus te, Christe,
et benedicimus tibi,
quia per sanctam crucem tuam
redemisti mundum.

We adore Thee, O Christ,
And we bless Thee,
Who by Thy Holy Cross
hath redeemed the world.

The English-speaking seminary of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP).

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton, NE, USA

Palm Sunday in Christchurch, New Zealand

Today, 

Palm Sunday,

we officially began our apostolate in

the Diocese of  Christchurch, New Zealand.

Palm Sunday

Church of St Therese

Riccarton, Christchurch.

click on photos to see them in larger format! :)

The Blessing of Palms in front of the church. 

Hosanna filio David.

Hosanna to the Son of David. 

Hosanna in excelsis.

Hosanna in the highest. 

 Procession with Palms.

 Brother Clemens strikes the Church doors, 

the gates of the city of Jerusalem,

that they be opened to receive the King of Glory.

 Attollite, portae, capita vestra,

et attollite vos, fores antiquae,*

ut ingrediatur Rex gloriae!

Lift up O gates, your lintels,

and be ye lifted up, O ancient double doors:

and the King of Glory shall enter in! 

Ingrediente Domino in sanctam civitatem,

Hebraeorum pueri 

resurrectionem Vitae pronuntiantes,*

cum ramis palmarum:

"Hosanna in excelsis."

 As our Lord entered the holy city,

the Hebrew children,

heralding the resurrection of Life,

with palm branches cried out:

"Hosanna in the highest!" 

Jesus autem iterum clamans voce magna,

emisit spiritum.

And Jesus again crying with a loud voice,

yielded up the spirit.

Since AD 313 -the Red Shoes of the Fisherman

I am happy to share an image that was sent to me, 

since it seems that people don't understand that 

the Papal red shoes go back through all the Popes 

to just after the Church of the Catacombs. 

It is wrong for people to target 

His Holiness Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI 

as if they were his personal choice
from vanity or contempt for the poor.

All the Popes since AD 313 have worn
the red papal shoes of the Fisherman. 

The Holy Father of 2013 has chosen to lay them aside. 

That is his decision which we respect 

but Pope Francis' decision should not be used
to reflect badly 

upon His Holiness our beloved Emeritus Pope.

First Sunday Mass as Pope

The Pope offered Mass this morning in the parish of St Anne, Vatican City.

The Pope stepped out of a plain black car and 

immediately began shaking hands and blessing babies.

The small church was packed and many were unable to find seats.

At the end of the Mass, Francis did the unexpected.

He walked to the podium again, 

and talked about a priest from Uruguay 

whom he had spotted among the faithful attending the Mass. 

The priest, Don Gonsalvo 

stood up while Francis was talking about his work 

with street children and drug-addicts for whom he built a school.

  (Source: The Telegraph)

The Papa.

This morning, Pope Francis stopped by the Vatican-owned residence where he routinely stays during visits to Rome and where he stayed before the start of the conclave to pick up his luggage and pay the bill.

The Rev. Pawel Rytel-Andrianek, who teaches at the nearby Pontifical Holy Cross University and is staying at the residence, said he didn't just come to get his luggage, noting that anyone could have come to get his suitcases.

"He wanted to come here because he wanted to thank the personnel, people who work in this house," he said. Francis met with the staff in the dining room. "He greeted them one by one, no rush, the whole staff, one by one," Rytel-Andrianek said, noting that the pope knew everyone by name.

A closer look at Pope Francis

Vatican Insider 

takes a closer look at the man 

who has just been elected to the Papal Throne.

A not-so-hidden candidate was there. This is the only way to explain the (speed) at which the Conclave was concluded yesterday, with the new Pope being elected almost within the same time frame as Ratzinger was in the 2005 Conclave, only this time he was not present.

 He was the one who gave the shortest speech out of all his fellow cardinals during last week’s General Congregations, keeping within the allotted five minutes. He gave a heartfelt speech about a Church capable of mirroring God's merciful side.

Pope Francis

The election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first Jesuit and Latin American Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, the first Pope to take the name of Francis, came as a surprise to many. It had seemed that the Cardinals were seeking a young Pope and yet they elected a 76-year-old one. It had seemed they were going to choose a “governor” for the Roman Curia but they chose one of the cardinals who is most removed from the careerism, games and networking of the Roman Curia.

 The election of Francis marks a turning point. It had never happened in the recent history of the Church that there was the election of the second-placed at the previous conclave, nor that a Pontiff, appearing for the first time at the balcony of Saint Peter's Basilica, before blessing the faithful, asked the faithful for a prayer and a blessing for him.

 In recent years, Bergoglio has always acknowledged the risk for the Church of becoming self-referential: "If the Church stays wrapped up in itself, it will age. And if I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out onto the streets and a sick withdrawn Church, I would definitely choose the first one."

 Of course, his election is in line with the direction cardinals indicated they wanted the Church to go in, in the recent General Congregations: reform of the Curia, greater collegiality, preventing the recent scandals from recurring. But, although it is easy to predict steps in this direction, the priority for all voters was to elect a man of God, a witness most of all. His choice of appearing at the balcony accompanied by the Vicar of Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, and the insistence, with which he emphasized the bond of the Bishop with the Diocese of the eternal city, is an important sign; the sign of a pontificate that, above all, underlines the link with the local church, the bond of the pastor with his people.

 It is not easy to make predictions about the future choices of the new Pope, about whom he will choose to bring to the Secretariat of State, about how he intends to address the issue of financial transparency and the problems of the IOR, on which decisions he will take after reading the Vatileaks dossier pages with sorrow. But starting from the name and the humble style with which he presented himself to the faithful, to the Church and to the world yesterday evening, it is possible to understand that this institution with 2,000 years of history on his shoulders has once again been able to renew itself and amaze.

 A Jesuit who chooses a Franciscan name, who chooses to name himself after the great Italian Saint, the great reformer of the radical side of the Gospel, is a sign of hope and a call for change for the whole Church.

Source: Vatican Insider

Lightning Visit

Pope Francis makes a lightning visit

to

St Mary Major's

Official Statement

Official Statement on elevation of 

His Holiness Pope Francis

to the See of Rome

The most small institute of the Congregation of the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer rejoice in the election of our Holy Father Pope Francis.
We recognise in him the person of our highest Superior whom, by vow, we have willingly bound ourselves to obey. We pledge him our humble and filial charity.
This morning the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was offered to God in thanksgiving for his election.  

God bless our Pope!

Edifying photograph of great beauty:
Pope Francis as a Cardinal, 
washing the feet of twelve AIDS victims.

May The Lord preserve him and give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth : 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. 

The Most Small Institute.