West Heath High Mass

The Mass last night at the parish church of St John Fisher was a great success. There were well in excess of 100 people in the congregation, and we all received a warm welcome from the many parishioners who celebrated the occasion.

The intention was for Joe Brookstone, who celebrated his birthday this day (I cannot say how old he is, but needless to say he would recall the splendour of the Tridentine Liturgy in his youth!)

Fr George advertised the Mass to his parishioners in their newletter last Sunday with the following:

Thursday, 9 July, is the feast day of Ss John Fisher and Thomas More in the Extraordinary Form or Traditional Rite calendar. Pope Benedict authorized more extensive use of the old rite of Latin Mass a couple of years ago, according to the Missal published in 1962. This was the missal first used in our church when it opened in 1964 and for which it was designed. Some parishioners have asked for a celebration of the Extraordinary Form Mass, and the Latin Mass Society has helped plan a Solemn High Mass for Thursday evening. Please come along for what promises to be wonderfully inspiring music and liturgy. If you have never attended such a Mass, now is the time to experience it. Please remember that Holy Communion is received under the form of bread alone, on the tongue and, if physically capable, kneeling at the altar rails. There are likely to be number of visitors from round Birmingham, so it would be good to show hospitality with a light buffet. Volunteers please sign up at the Piety Stall.

I only printed 30 mass booklets in the short time I had! These were well received nonetheless. The occasion was a great sign of how unified the Church can be, with a friendly parish who were pleased to welcome fellow Catholics from around the diocese. Our thanks go especially to Fr George who came up with the idea, the Neri Singers for their rendition of Missa de Angelis, MC Karl Dearn, and all the servers and parishioners who took part and fed us afterwards! We look forward to the next opportunity to share such a lovely evening with the West Heath crowd!