News

The first Dominican priory in London, at Holborn, was established in 1223. To mark this milestone we have planned three special events:

• Consecration of the Parish to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: On Friday 16 June, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart there will be a Rosary for the sanctification of priests prayed at 4:30pm as part of the ‘World Priest’ Global Rosary Relay. Then at 5pm there will be Adoration and Confessions as usual, followed by Mass at 6pm. At the conclusion of the Mass, Fr Lawrence will consecrate the parish to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Following this, there will be a talk and testimoniesfrom Fr Edouard Maro & Alicia Beauvisage on the power of consecration to the Sacred Heart. The evening concludes at 8pm with a livestreamed Rosary with the pastoral team of Dominican friars who serve the parish and Rosary Shrine. 

• On Saturday 15 July, join us for a special pilgrimage walk to Blackfriars! We begin with 10am Mass in our church, followed by a walk to Blackfriars in central London. We will have a lunch and drink break in Blackfriars pub, followed by prayer around the  vicinity of Apothecaries’ Hall (site of the 2nd Dominican priory in London). We will then go to St Bartholomew the Great (Smithfield) for a tour, a short talk by the Provincial Archivist, Fr Richard Finn OP, and then we will sing Vespers at 4pm in St Bartholomew the Great, which was the 3rd Dominican priory in London.

• We conclude our 800th anniversary celebrations with a Solemn Mass at 10am with the Dominican Family on Saturday 7 October, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. After Mass there will be a reception in the Priory, and that weekend there will be a special exhibition in the church of the historic vestments and banners from the convent of the Dominican Sisters of Stone, Staffordshire.

New Lunch Club Launched at St Dominic’s

A new initiative began this week in our parish hall at St Dominic’s that aims to help locals with the cost of living and provide an opportunity for socialising.

The first Community Lunch Club took place on Thursday in association with Highgate Newtown Community Partners and will take place on most Thursday lunchtimes. Anyone from the local community is welcome to join us.

Andrew Sanalitro of HNPC reports:

“What an excellent start for the first week of the new lunch club!  It was great to see 32 local people who live in the neighbourhood join us on a very cold day for our first session.

A homemade Shepherd’s Pie was the main course (meat and veg options), and we started with Tracy’s super fresh veg soup.

People can often be lonely and coming out to lunch may be the only opportunity they have for contact with other people, and to go out for a lunch they can afford (just £1.50 for three courses!)

I’m sure that the new lunch club will become a second home to many, a place where they can feel safe and meet new people.

It was also a way to make people aware of the beautiful building in their community that is Our Lady and St Dominic’s church: several people today said that they have never been inside and would like to take a look.”

St Dominic’s Parish is delighted to see such a strong start to this community initiative. We welcome any new people who would like to join us, and if any of you would like to support with donations, then this would help us to introduce a new club for under-5s and possibly a second weekly community lunch.

• Details of community lunches
• Make a donation

New Community Lunch Club

at St Dominic’s Parish Hall, Haverstock Hill

The Dominican friars at St Dominic’s Priory and the Rosary Shrine welcomes a new partnership with the HNCP to create a range of initiatives that will serve all of the local community, whether you’re Catholic or not!

We begin this March in the season of Lent with a Community Lunch Club.

We share the values of providing the best quality ingredients and prices that people can afford: £1.50 for 3 courses!

We welcome all, so come and join us, working as one community.

Starting Date: Thursday, 2nd March (10.30am to 2pm), then every Thursday unless otherwise announced.

Venue: St Dominic’s Parish Hall, Southampton Road, London NW5 4LB.

Please go to the Parish Hall next to Wordsworth Place, and not to the Priory.

In association with www.highgatenewtown.org.uk (Charity Number: 290712)

Could you help our next initiative?

We are also working to set up a new Under-5s Club at St Dominic’s – could you support this with a donation?

From 2 February 2023, the feast of Candlemas, the Rosary Shrine is launching a new prayer initiative so that you can participate in the prayers of this Shrine church:

1) Blue Marian votive lamps, which will burn for seven days, will be placed in new custom-made lamp stands in front of the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, the patroness of this church and Rosary Shrine. You can book a votive lamp either online (click here) or come in person on Sundays to the Repository. Please include your prayer intentions, and please make the recommended donation of £6 for the blue Marian votive lamps. Up to ten of these lamps will burn each week in honour of Our Lady, and they are a sign of our prayers being offered perpetually before her.

2) In addition, there are two white sanctuary lamps hanging by the High Altar and they burn throughout the week on either side of the Tabernacle. They are a sign of the presence of the Lord in the Tabernacle, and they honour the Eucharist. Prayer intentions can also be offered for these two sanctuary lamps, either online or at the Repository, and the recommended donation for the sanctuary lamp is £10.

To book a week-long votive lamp in the Rosary Shrine for your intentions, visit:
https://rosaryshrine.co.uk/donate/sponsor-lamps/

LADY CHAPEL PORCH

A glass door has been installed in the Lady Chapel porch that is accessed from Alan Cheales Way, next to the Rosary Garden gate. From Monday 6 June, the Lady Chapel door will be opened from around 7:30am – 3pm on weekdays, and from 9:30am on Saturday so that you can come into a sheltered and well-lit space to pray when the rest of the church is not open to the general public. CCTV cameras have been installed, as well as a Crucifix for devotional prayer, and a new Killian candle stand for votive candles.

MORNING MASSES (WEEKDAYS)

Starting on Monday 6 June 2022, there will be weekday morning Masses, as a temporary experiment for a three month period to gauge demand, etc. This would be in addition to the usual 6pm daily Mass. Mass will be offered simply at the Rosary Altar, with entry through the Lady Chapel porch at these times: Mon & Fri at 10am (unless displaced by a Funeral Mass); and Tue, Wed, Thu at 7:30am. The glass doors of the Lady Chapel porch (see above) will be opened for Mass and locked afterwards. 

An exciting development for the Rosary Shrine: Catholic broadcaster Radio Maria will be building a flagship London studio here.

Charles Wilson, President of Radio Maria, said,

We at Radio Maria England (RME) are delighted to be developing our London base at St Dominic’s priory and the Rosary Shrine, which is often described as “Mary’s House” in London. The presence of a broadcasting studio and offices here will not only enable the promotion of RME in London and nationally but be a physical location to grow our volunteer base in this beautiful historic shrine. I think Our Lady has called us here.

Fr Lawrence Lew OP, Prior and Parish Priest of St Dominic’s Priory said that:

We believe that this partnership between Radio Maria and the Rosary Shrine will be a wonderful way to advance the hopes of the men and women who built St Dominic’s. The Rosary Shrine church exists for the preaching of the Holy Rosary, which is a special gift of Our Lady for proclaiming the Gospel of Christ and God’s saving love for all peoples.

As the Order of Preachers, we Dominicans are delighted to support and work alongside Radio Maria in our common mission of preaching the faith for the salvation of souls, bringing the light of reason and faith to bear upon the lives of our contemporaries. I have no doubt that our parishioners and pilgrims and the local community at the Rosary Shrine will be enthusiastic about this work of evangelisation, and I know that the people of London and the wider UK will also benefit greatly from Radio Maria’s programmes and activities here at the Rosary Shrine.

About Radio Maria

Radio Maria England is a 24-hour station. It is part of a worldwide network of more than 80 radio stations on all continents.  We offer a voice of hope and encouragement. Radio Maria responds to Jesus’ invitation: ‘Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16,15). We try to embrace all the charisms that the Holy Spirit is bestowing upon the local and universal Church in our time. Interaction is essential to Radio Maria. We invite our listeners to share their concerns and joys, and we reach out to those who are among the poorest and the most marginalised. Creating a family spirit, also by involving volunteers and listeners, Radio Maria accompanies every person who hungers for God on their journey of faith. ‘Where there is even just one person, there Radio Maria must also be’, said Emanuele Ferrario, former President of the World Family of Radio Maria.

Current and Future Programmes

The programme of Radio Maria is based on three pillars: prayer, catechesis and human formation. Daily we broadcast Mass and spiritual content, as well as social programmes and worldwide news.  Currently, collaborations with the Dominicans in Cambridge have included morning prayers, daily Mass and religious teaching programmes including topics on the Divine Office, saints and sacred scripture.  With this new studio at the Rosary Shrine, Radio Maria is looking forward to developing collaborations which also furthers the mission of the Rosary Shrine.

As a charity Radio Maria works with a great number of volunteers in all areas. Our volunteers assist with promotion, broadcasting, creating and presenting programmes, and praying.

A Natural Home

The new studio in London will be fittingly based at a Marian Shrine, the diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary that is situated at St Dominic’s Priory in north west London, between Camden and Hampstead. The Rosary Shrine church itself is one of the largest churches in London, encompassing side chapels and altars for every Mystery of the Rosary. When the church was built by the Dominicans in 1883, it was the first church in the world to have this arrangement, with the intention that this great and splendid church would be ‘worthy to mark the gratitude of the Catholics of the United Kingdom for the many blessings and graces received through Our Lady’.

How to Listen to Radio Maria

The full schedule and more detailed programme information can be found on our website at RadioMariaEngland.uk. You can listen to Radio Maria England on our website at https://radiomariaengland.uk/how-to-listen-to-us/, on the Radio Maria World Family app for smartphones and tablets and on DAB/DAB+ radio in the Cambridge and London areas. Our broadcasts can also be heard on podcast providers such as Anchor, Spotify, Apple podcasts and other providers.

For more information please contact us at info@RadioMariaEngland.uk and follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/radiomariaengland and Instagram.

The Rosary Shrine will once again host the special Novena of Masses in preparation for Christmas, from 16 – 24 Dec with music each night sung by the Filipino choir, followed by refreshments in the Hall. Please see the poster shown here for the specific Mass times.