News

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 [email protected] 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.

On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (7th October) in this 450th anniversary year of the institution of that feast, Fr Lawrence Lew OP will celebrate the 6pm Mass in the church.

After Mass, you are warmly invited into the Priory Cloister for a reception and book launch of Fr Lawrence’s first book, ‘Mysteries Made Visible: Praying the Rosary with Sacred Art‘. The book features photographs taken by Fr Lawrence from churches around the world depicting  the 20 Mysteries of the Rosary, and each Mystery is accompanied by a short Scripture quotation and reflection written by Fr Lawrence. The book carries a Foreword from the Master of the Order, and several  endorsements from well-known promoters of the Rosary including Fr Donald Calloway MIC, author of Champions of the Rosary, and Bishop Robert Barron.

Some comments on the book from people who have pre-ordered copies from the Catholic Truth Society:
“I started reading it this afternoon whilst on the train… and was totally captivated so much so that I have read it cover to cover! … I honestly couldn’t put it down! What an amazing, richly informative/catechetical, deeply devotional, theological, scriptural, artistic, and historical masterpiece!! I have no doubt that this will lead those who read and reflect upon it into a much deeper appreciation of the mysteries of the Rosary and devotion to Our Blessed Mother.”

And another wrote from Glasgow: “I have just received (from CTS) a copy of your latest book, Mysteries Made Visible, and am writing to congratulate you on such a beautiful publication. I found that reading it was inspiring and gave me a greater love and appreciation of the Rosary. The artwork is excellent and the accompanying text helps me understand the mysteries better.”

Copies are available from the CTS online (£12.95 usually, or £15% off with this code ‘ROSARY15’ if you purchase before 15 October), or from the Rosary Shrine for £10. Click here to look inside the book.