News

On Saturday 25^th March the Rosary Shrine hosted its first day conference in Blackfriars Hall. Four talks were given on the insights into the mysteries we contemplate in the Rosary which are found in the works of the great Dominican theologian St Thomas Aquinas.

Three of the talks are available to download at the links below:

• Joyful Mysteries: Fr Bernhard Blankenhorn OP, ‘He dwelt among us, full of grace and truth’: Christ’s graced humanity as “channel” of grace and exemplar
• Luminous Mysteries: Sr Ann Catherine Swailes OP, ‘Et in mundo conversatus, sparso verbi semine’: Christ’s ministry and the lessons of his lifestyle
• Sorrowful Mysteries: Fr Simon Gaine OP, ‘Christ was handed over to death on account our sins, and rose for the sake of our justification’: the ways in which Christ’s death and resurrection save us

In Easter Week, there will be Mass at 10am only on Easter Monday (17^th April), and there will be no 7:30am Mass from Tuesday 18^th to Saturday 22^nd April, but the 10am and 6pm Masses will be celebrated as usual on those days. Mass times return to normal from Sunday 23^rd April.

Bishop Nicholas Hudson, who is responsible for the parishes in our part of the Diocese, made a visitation of St Dominic’s on the weekend of the 18^th and 19^th February. During his visit, Bishop Nicholas met with representatives of various groups of parishioners such as the Parish Pastoral Council, the Shrine Fundraising Committee, and Catechists, who helped him to get a sense of the life of the parish. He thanked them, and all those who help in any way, for their contribution to the work of the parish, and their support of the parish clergy.

Bishop Nicholas also preached at all the Masses. He spoke about the importance of forgiveness, giving the example of St Josephine Bakhita, whose feast we recently kept, and her forgiveness of those who enslaved her. He also spoke of the work of Bakhita House, set up by the Diocese to help victims of human trafficking.

On the Sunday afternoon, the Bishop visited Maitland Park Care Home and spoke to the Catholic residents about their important mission of prayer for the Church, and in particular the parish. During the week, he also visited our two parish Primary Schools, St Dominic’s and the Rosary School.

Following the inauguration of the Rosary Shrine at St. Dominic’s, a prayer vigil was held that same evening in thanksgiving for the elevation of the Church to shrine status, to ask the the mission of the Shrine to promote the rosary as a way of prayer would be blessed, and for the renewal of the Church in this country.

The vigil began with a reconciliation service during which the Blessed Sacrament was exposed on the throne above the High Altar. The evening was hosted by the Dominican Youth Movement who had taken great pains to ensure that the dimly lit Church was ablaze with candles. A choir made up of members of the Dominican Youth Movement, participants of the Spode music week, and the schola of Blackfriars Oxford added to the beauty and prayerfulness of the occasion with their renditions of a range of polyphonic pieces, a duet, as well as instrumental pieces on the organ, flute and cello. Throughout this service priests were available to hear confessions, and there were a number of readings from Scripture and reflections led by lay Dominicans and members of the Dominican Youth Movement.

The reconciliation service concluded with compline, and was followed by a Eucharistic rosary procession which underlined the extent to which the rosary is built into the very architecture of St. Dominic’s Priory Church. The newly erected Shrine has fourteen side chapels, each dedicated to a mystery of the rosary. The high altar completes the set, dedicated as it is to the fifth glorious mystery: the crowning of Our Lady as queen of heaven. The Blessed Sacrament was carried in a candlelit procession around the Church, stopping at each altar to meditate on each mystery in turn and to offer prayers for various intentions. The vigil concluded at just gone midnight with Benediction at the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary in the Lady chapel. While most people went home at this point, a handful of hardy souls stayed on to pray through the night until dawn for the work of the pro-life movement in this country.

Thanks to Sr Mary Catherine, of the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, for the photographs of the Vigil.

On Saturday 22nd October, our church was packed as people travelled from far and wide to witness the inauguration of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary at St Dominic’s. Parishioners were joined by friends of the Dominican Order from around the country, as well as clergy from across the diocese, Dominican friars and sisters, and others who had heard about the new shrine and were keen to be part of this historic occasion.

We were pleased to welcome the Apostolic Nuncio, His Excellency Archbishop Antonio Mennini, and the Mayor of Camden, Cllr Nadia Shah, to the inaugural Mass, celebrated by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols. The Archbishop of Birmingham, Most Rev Bernard Longley, an old friend of the Priory, was also present, as was Rt Rev Nicholas Hudson, the Auxiliary Bishop for our part of London.

Thanks to days of hard work by many parishioners, the church was looking more beautiful than ever, adorned with eye-catching floral arrangements of red and white roses. At the beginning of the Mass, banners embroidered over 100 years ago by Dominican sisters and depicting each of the mysteries of the Rosary were borne in procession. These were then hung round the church on the side chapels devoted to each of the Rosary mysteries.

Cardinal Nichols preached on the importance of the Rosary as ‘a most precious prayer’, a way of prayer combining contemplation with meditation on the life of Christ, and which offers a light in the ‘valleys of darkness’ through which we must often travel. The full text can be read here.

During the Mass, the Cardinal’s decree inaugurating the shrine was solemnly proclaimed. As he granted the official status of a Shrine to St Dominic’s, Cardinal Nichols invited the faithful to come to the new Shrine on pilgrimage and discover the riches of the Church’s tradition of prayer embodied in the Rosary. At the end of the Mass, the Cardinal venerated the image of Our Lady of the Rosary which adorns her altar in the Lady Chapel.

As well as welcoming pilgrims and visitors to the new Shrine, there will be a series of Shrine events in the coming year, including:

• The first annual Rosary Shrine lecture, to be given by Scott Hahn
• Monteverdi’s Vespers, performed by Camerata of Curiosities and His Majesty’s Sagbutts and Cornetts
• St Thomas Aquinas as Guide to the Rosary Mysteries: a one-day conference
• Four illustrated talks on the Rosary Mysteries in art
• A youth retreat weekend
• A pilgrimage to Italy’s Rosary Shrine at Pompeii

Below is a selection of photos of the day:

Please note all photographs are copyright © 2016 Kayte Brimacombe.

On Saturday morning, a group of parishioners walked from St Dominic’s to the site of the mediaeval Dominican priory, which gives the name – Blackfriars – to the area of London where it once stood. Covering a distance of over 5 miles, they endured the vagaries of English October weather (heavy showers, cloudy skies and the occasional burst of sunshine) raising money for the Rosary Shrine appeal. The final total raised is yet to be established, but over £500 has already been handed in. Congratulations and thank you to all who took part or sponsored a walker.

Latest news on the restoration of our church

Thanks to the generosity of donors, we have been able to push ahead with the first phase of restoration works, leading up to the shrine’s inauguration on 22 October.

Fresh gilding on the chapel screens

The newly applied gold leaf on the ironwork of the sidechapels has given a bright new look to the church, and allowed the names of the original benefactors to stand out clearly once more. It has also made much more apparent the variety of patterns that were used in the ironwork, with each chapel having its own unique decoration.

Cleaned stonework in the Assumption chapel

This chapel was in a poor condition prior to the cleaning, and the stonework and brickwork are now much brighter. Some further work remains to be done: cleaning the floor tiles and repairing broken stonework on the altar step.

The Sacristy

The tatty old kitchen units which were long overdue for removal have been ripped out and the room stripped right back to the walls. In doing so, we discovered a rather nice little niche hidden behind one of the units, so we shall make this a feature of the restored room. We have also created a new storage space at one side of the room, so that bulkier items can be kept out of the way. The finished room will be a much more usable and pleasant space, and will be ready in time to receive the Cardinal and visiting clergy at the shrine’s inauguration on 22 October this year.

If you would like to support the restoration work, you can donate securely online.

From 1st to 7th July, the Dominican parishes in London and Leicester joined together for a pilgrimage to Italy.

In this 800th Jubilee Year of the Dominican Order, we visited the shrine of St Dominic in Bologna and the shrine of St Catherine in Siena.

Staying in the city of Florence we also able to visit the famous Dominican priories of Santa Maria Novella and San Marco.  San Marco is famous for its frescoes by Blessed Fra Angelico and was the home of the fifteenth-century Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola.

We were blessed with hot and sunny weather, and were able to enjoy wonderful ice cream and traditional Italian fare.

The Dominican Friars in England and Scotland are pleased to announce the appointments made by the 2016 Provincial Chapter. The Chapter is a democratically elected decision-making body which is convened once every four years to set the strategies and determine the personnel needs for our Province.

Congratulations to Fr Thomas, who completed his 10km sponsored run in less than an hour this morning.

The total pledged in sponsorship for the Rosary Shrine appeal stands at over £2,000, and it’s not too late to sponsor him: just follow this link.