News

January at the Rosary Shrine

Every blessing for the new year! Come join us this month of January in two special celebrations:

This statue of the Holy Child Jesus is a replica of the statue enshrine in Cebu in the Philippines and given to the Filipino people by Magellan.

Sat 18th Jan = Santo Niño celebrations by the Filipino community at 6pm Mass; a celebration of the Child Jesus, and the coming of the Christian faith to the Philippines. There will be food in the Hall after Mass.

Sat 25th Jan = monthly Eucharistic Rosary Procession with healing prayers, at 7pm. Come join us in prayer around the Blessed Sacrament, and with Our Lady of the Rosary, as we pray for new beginnings, blessings in the new year, and for conversion of hearts, unity, and peace.

December & Christmas at the Rosary Shrine

Our Christmas and New Year schedule is available in the church from this weekend. Here it is below for your reference:

In addition please note the following events this December 2019:

Thu 12 Dec – Annual Guadalupe Mass at 6pm, celebrated by Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP
Sat 14 Dec – candlelit Rorate Mass (Dominican rite) in honour of Our Lady at 6 a.m., followed by coffee and hot chocolate in the Hall.
Sat 14 Dec – monthly organ recital at 7pm
Sat 21 Dec – monthly Eucharistic Rosary Procession at 7pm, praying for expectant and new mothers, and unborn children
16 – 23 Dec – Simbang Gabi Masses followed by reception in the Hall every night. For times and details, see this post.

November at the Rosary Shrine

November is the month of the Holy Souls in Purgatory, a month of remembrance and prayer for all our beloved dead. The following is a list of events planned for this month:

9th Nov – Annual Sung Requiem in the Dominican rite celebrated for the Catholic Medical Association (UK), at 11:30am.
9th Nov – monthly organ recital, at 7pm.
17th Nov – annual parish Requiem at 12 noon.
22nd Nov – St Cecilia’s day concert of celestial music performed by Baroque lutenist Andrew Maginley and soprano Regina Martin, in the Lady Chapel at 7:30pm. Tickets at £20 available from Eventbrite or on the door.
23rd Nov – Day with Mary, beginning with Mass at 10am.
30th Nov – Eucharistic Rosary procession with ‘De profundis’ prayers for the dead, and prayers for healing.

The parish ‘Book of the Dead’ inscribed with lists of names for whom we pray in this month of November. The candle burns at St Thomas’s altar as a sign of our perpetual prayers for the faithful departed.

October at the Rosary Shrine

October is the month of the Holy Rosary, which is celebrated with joy here in Our Lady’s Rosary Shrine in London. A feature of this our October celebrations is a weekly candlelit Rosary procession. This year we have events for your diaries that are both old and new, so please do mark your diaries and start planning a special pilgrimage in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Candlelit processions every Saturday in October, at 7pm.

Sat 5th: Candlelit Rosary Procession with statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima (7pm).
Sat 5th – Sun 6th: Annual St Dominic’s Art Exhibition and Sale in the Parish Hall.
Sun 6th: Rosary Sunday – Solemn Mass celebrated by Bishop Michael Campbell OSA, Bishop Emeritus of Lancaster at 12 noon. Blessed roses will be distributed after every Mass.
Sat 12th: Candlelit Rosary Procession with statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Fatima (7pm) followed by a music recital on our historic ‘Father Willis’ organ.
Sun 13th: Solemn Mass commemorating Newman Canonisation (12 noon)
Sat 19th: Living Rosary Procession with statue of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag (7pm).
Sat 26th: Rosary Vigil – Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Eucharistic Rosary procession, with music composed and conducted by Pawel Bebenek (7pm). This event will be preceded by music workshops with Pawel Bebenek, starting at 11am, in the parish hall. Details forthcoming.

Eucharistic Rosary procession around the Rosary Shrine

Praying the Rosary in the Rosary chapels during the Eucharistic Rosary procession. Here, we pray the 5th Sorrowful Mystery.

In addition, the Rosary Shrine is delighted to announce that from Rosary Sunday onwards (6th October), there will be a Sung Mass (Missa Cantata) in the Dominican rite at 4pm every Sunday, at the Altar of Our Lady of the Rosary. All are welcome to this weekly Sunday Mass, and we will be looking for singers and servers. If you’re interested please contact Fr Lawrence Lew, OP.

Festal Masses in August

The summer months are full of saint’s days, including the universal feast of St Dominic, although in our parish we mark his feast day with special solemnity on 24 May. This August we have three special Masses scheduled in the Rosary Shrine, to which all are very welcome:

*5th-century mosaic from Ravenna of St Lawrence, who was martyred on a gridiron*.

Thursday 8 August: the feast of our holy father, St Dominic. In addition to Masses at 7:30pm and 6pm, there will be a Mass at 11:30am celebrated with the Missionaries of Charity.
Saturday 10 August: the feast of St Lawrence, deacon and martyr. There will be a ‘Missa Cantata’ (Sung Mass) in the Dominican rite at 4pm, at the Altar of Our Lady of the Rosary, followed by the praying of the Rosary.
Thursday 22 August: the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (or Queenship of Mary). There will be a ‘Missa Cantata’ (Sung Mass) in the Dominican rite, at 7:30pm, at the High Altar, followed by a Eucharistic Rosary Procession. The ‘Schola Sainte-Cecile’ from Paris will be singing this Mass. More details here.

*Stained glass detail depicting the death of St Dominic (6 August 1221), from the stained glass window above his Altar in our church.*

EWTN’s Rosary Shrine special feature

Following the Fatima centenary in 2017, an apparition in which Our Lady of the Rosary urged the praying of the Rosary, Eternal Word Television Network commissioned a special feature about the devotion of the Holy Rosary, which is intimately connected to St Dominic and his Order.

An hour-long documentary presented by sacred art expert Dr Jem Sullivan was filmed in the unique Rosary Shrine church in London, home to the English Dominicans since the 1860s. Dr Sullivan is based in Washington DC, where she is a doyen of the National Gallery of Art, author of a book on ‘Visio Divina’, and she has presented other special features on sacred art, on the “way of beauty”, for EWTN.

The completed project has just been released today, 25 March 2019, on the feast of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel first uttered those words: “Hail, full of grace!” In this documentary, which is now available on YouTube, and which will be broadcast worldwide on EWTN, Dr Sullivan leads the viewer into a deeper appreciation of the Rosary.

Using interviews with various Dominican friars, Archbishop Malcolm McMahon OP, Sir James MacMillan CBE, and pilgrims and parishioners in London, Dr Sullivan uncovers the history of the Rosary devotion and its place in Dominican spirituality, and its vital role today in advancing the new evangelisation.

Dr Sullivan guides us through the Rosary Shrine church in London – the first and only church in the world with distinct Rosary Chapels for every Mystery of the Rosary, each with a sculpted altarpiece – and so she leads us on a procession through these chapels, inviting the viewer into a contemplation of the Faith through art and beauty. This beautiful Shrine, built by visionary Catholics in 1883, stands as a gift to the Church in our times. The documentary introduces people to the Rosary Shrine, invites all peoples on a pilgrimage of Faith, and so calls them to take up the Rosary once more with fresh devotion and love for God.

We invite you to view the documentary, share it widely with your friends and family, and to come on pilgrimage to the Rosary Shrine. If you’d like to contact us and arrange a pilgrimage, or to contribute to our on-going restoration and renewal program, please contact secretary@haverstockhill.org.uk

Christmas & New Year Mass Schedule

Below are the Mass times for the Christmas and New Year period. Flyers with the same information are also available at the back of the church if you prefer a hard copy of this information for your own reference or for a friend. This Christmas, why not invite a neighbour or a friend to join you at Mass in the Rosary Shrine?

Guadalupe Mass 2018

The Rosary Shrine is home to a “relic image” of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that is, a replica of the miraculous tilma of St Juan Diego, obtained from the Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City and touched to the original tilma; this was installed by the Apostolic Nuncio at a Solemn Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in 2017.

Since then, every month, on the first Saturday, there is a Pro-Life Mass celebrated in the Rosary Shrine, followed by devotions and prayers to our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of the Unborn Child, and Protectress of the Pro-Life Movement.

This year, on 12th December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Rosary Shrine welcomes the Norbertine Abbot Hugh Allan, who will celebrate the annual Guadalupe Mass and preach. The Mass begins at 7:30pm, and will be sung by the Filipino choir. Among the musical pieces they will sing are some Marian songs from the uniquely Hispano-Filipino folk music that forms part of the ‘Rosario Cantada’ tradition.

We warmly invite you to this Mass in honour of the Empress of the Americas, Patroness of the Philippine Islands, and the Star of the New Evangelization! Viva la virgen de Guadalupe!

Luminous Mysteries Garden

On Rosary Sunday this year, we launched an exciting project for which we are currently fundraising. As the Diocesan Shrine for the Holy Rosary, we are often asked about the Mysteries of Light, which were only introduced to the traditional fifteen-decade Dominican Rosary in 2002 by Pope St John Paul II. Consequently, our church only has chapels for the original Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries.

Our hope is to provide a beautiful and accessible space for the praying of these new Luminous Mysteries; a garden space for quiet contemplation to be situated in the now-derelict grounds behind the Lady Chapel.

To find out more about this project, see the planned design of the garden, and to make a donation, please visit the Luminous Mysteries Garden webpage.

Changes to Weekday Schedule

As announced in the Parish Newsletter last Sunday, please be advised that from next Monday 10th September 2018, there will only be two weekday Masses: at 7:30am and at 6.00pm, Mondays to Fridays. We regret that the weekday 10am Mass will be discontinued.

If you require a mid-morning Mass during the week, St Mary’s in Hampstead offers Mass at 9am; St Margaret’s in Kentish Town at 10am; and Our Lady of Hal’s in Camden Town at 12 noon.

In addition, weekday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament resumes, but it will take place daily (Mon-Fri) from 5.00pm until just before the 6pm Mass.

The Saturday Masses remain unchanged at 7:30am, 10:00am (followed by Adoration and Rosary), and 6pm (Vigil Mass).

Sunday Masses also remain unchanged at 8:30am, 10.00am, 12 noon, and 6:00pm.

Thank you for your understanding, and we hope you will join us in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, asking the Lord to send more labourers into His harvest!

St Dominic’s – The Rosary Shrine