Feast Of Our Lady Of The Rosary At Blackfen...

Oh wow... I'm still buzzing after the Solemn High Mass we had for the Feast Day. It was awesome!

I had been asked to collect two of the sacred ministers and our preacher from North Greenwich Station - the Jubilee Line really is so much easier if you're trying to get across South London - and so I had to battle against rush hour traffic... knowledge of a few back routes helped me to avoid snarl-ups on the A2, and I managed to get everyone to the church in plenty of time.

That left me plenty of time to set up my camera (I brought the monopod as well) and to settle down to pray a Rosary in church before anyone came in. Gradually, things started to get busy for Patricius, who was MC for the evening's ceremonies: in addition to putting the ministers through their paces, some extra clergy arrived unannounced (and not all at once), which necessitated last-minute rearrangements of the seating plan as the clergy had to be arranged in order of seniority... Jonathan helped with that, but it was a bit of a scrum at one point...

Fr. Charles Briggs, Parish Priest of Chislehurst, was present in choir. Although he doesn't have a blog himself, he features frequently on the blogs of Fathers Finigan and Brown... and of course here as well. Although he wasn't in any of the main photos, he did make it onto one...

The choir was superb - Cantores Missae - directed by Charles Finch. They sang Victoria's Missa Ave Maris Stella, as well as some beautiful pieces I'd never heard before.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to record anything - it would have incurred an extra fee, as this is a professional choir and they have to make a living out of it. However, Charles Finch gave me permission to use some of the music from their latest CD to accompany the photos that I've taken. I shall put a YouTube "video" slideshow up as soon as I can put one together.

When I saw the vestments in the Sacristy, I didn't think much of them. I'm not too keen on flowers as decoration (as opposed to real flowers) but seen in situ I thought they didn't look too bad. It did look a little like upholstery material...

I had great fun taking the photos. It was a challenge to catch certain moments - like the synchronised biretta movements...

Fra. Lawrence Lew preached up a storm - he really made the point that Europe is ashamed of its Christian roots, and that the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary can help us to recall those roots. I managed to snaffle the copy of his sermon, and it'll find its way onto the blog shortly... I really liked Fra. Lawrence. It was wonderful to meet him in person after having read so much of his on the Dominican students' blog, Godzdogz, and having seen his beautiful photos on Flickr. I hope my driving didn't scare him too much...

I missed the Pax between the celebrant and deacon, but caught the one between the deacon and subdeacon...

And a few more of my favourite moments...

Dominic Mary was at the Mass as well, in fine form, and he popped into the parish club for a quick bitter lemon afterwards... I was delighted to meet Fr. Nicholas Schofield again - blogger emeritus, as he described himself - as well as Fr. Richard Whinder. It was somewhat disconcerting to realise, while swapping reminiscences en route from the station, that I first met Fr. Richard while he was completing his degree, well before he went off to seminary... and now he's a Parish Priest. I feel really old...

As I said, there will be a YouTube production coming soon. In the meantime, do have a look at a selection of the photos over on my Flickr page.