We had a Requiem Mass tonight at Blackfen to commemorate the 850th anniversary of the death of Pope Adrian IV, otherwise known as Nicholas Breakspear. (I'm not 100% certain of the spelling of his name: as with Shakespeare, I've seen a few variants... )
I do like black vestments for a Requiem Mass. I also like the unbleached candles. So I took a few photos, though I didn't bother to make a video from this lot, as I was sitting too far over to one side to catch everything: the pews had been shifted across in order to make way for the catafalque, but, if I moved further back, half the sanctuary was out of the picture.
Absolutions at the catafalque were just a little too close for me to get good photos...
Monsignor Read consented to pose for a photo, as I particularly wanted a photo with the purple pom-pom on the biretta... one that hadn't been photoshopped, that is... sadly, the purple didn't show up that well in the sacristy's subdued lighting... I thought I'd be able to get a better shot of him in his cassock (complete with the purple bit around the middle... I don't know what it's called) once he went in to the hall... sadly, I didn't realise that he'd take that off too... So, I had to content myself with this photo of Fr. William Young (left), Monsignor Gordon Read (centre) and Fr. Charles Briggs (he assisted in choir at the Mass.)
It is so important to pray for our dead relatives and friends, and also the Holy Souls who have no-one left to pray for them. I always remember reading St. Bernadette's anxiety that, once she was dead, no-one would pray for her because they were too busy saying she was a saint, and meanwhile she would be cooking in Purgatory... and if someone like St. Bernadette, given assurances of happiness in heaven by Our Lady, could consider herself a candidate for Purgatory, then the rest of us really need to ensure that we get prayed for once we die...
9 comments:
It's a Brentwood invasion! I've just been given an old cassock belonging to Mgr. Read (black one, of course). It's got the shoulder cape attached to it. I'd only be wearing it with a cotta over the top so makes no difference.
Also I THINK the 'purple thing' is also known as a cincture.
I don't think it's a cincture... I heard Fr. Tim call it something else, but I can't remember what!
The 'purple thing' is called a fascia can be worn by all clergy. The colour denotes the rank.
Ahhhhh... thank you, Fr. Wadsworth - yes, that's what I heard Fr. Tim call it - his is black!
An old cassock from Mgr Read. Am actually rather jealous of that. If it has a shoulder cape it's obviously a house rather than Mass cassock. Is the cape detachable?
The cincture and fascia are the same thing. What is often called a cincture (a rope type belt which the priest wears at Mass) is actually a girdle.
Yes, I can see why it would be a house cassock. It's incredibly heavy and warm. Great for winter time but I'd probably faint on the altar steps if I wore it in summer.
The cape isn't detachable. I wish it was as it wouldn't be that warm then.
Can I have permission to use one of your Mass photo's, from this post, on a new site concerning the Martyrs of Lincolnshire?
Pope Adrian IV was curate or rector of Tydd in Lincolnshire.
OPN - feel free to use the photos for non - profit purposes, with my best wishes... I'd appreciate a link to the blog in return!
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