News

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!

Assumption Day Homily

Deacon Toby Lees OP, who is resident in St Dominic’s during the summer months, preached the following homily at the Conventual Mass on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (15 August):

“You’re very blessed to worship in this Shrine. I say that not because you get to look and listen to me . . . you can make up your own mind about that . . . but rather because not only does the beauty of this Shrine lift our hearts and souls to contemplation of the things of God, but because the very walls preach to us. As I sat in the Chapel of the Assumption last night praying for some inspiration for this homily, I felt that what I contemplated before me was a homily in stone.
One of the first things that might strike you if you were to walk round the chapels of the glorious mysteries in their proper order is how similar this Chapel of the Assumption is to that of the Ascension only two chapels further down.
However, there are differences and they are important ones.
The most crucial difference is that when we look at Jesus in the Ascension he rises unassisted whereas Mary is surrounded by angels bearing her on up to heaven. We speak of Jesus ascending, but Mary being assumed. Mary does not ascend to heaven by virtue of her own power: she is the most perfect of creatures, yet she is not divine.
Jesus is the way, He paves the way for our eternal happiness in heaven, but Mary is the perfect disciple. She of all created men and women shows us most perfectly what to follow the way of Christ looks like.
And what Mary shows us is a life that points to Christ, a life that looks to the strength of the Lord, a life open to the will of God, a life that trusts that God seeks to work great things through us.
We see this in the Gospel this evening. Elizabeth showers Mary with praises and calls her blessed. And what we see from Mary is true humility and true magnamity. She does not deny what Elizabeth says to her, for she is truly blessed among women, not does she seek to run from the greatness which God is calling her to. No she acknowledges all this but in doing so she turns it into a beautiful hymn of praise to God and to all that He works in His creation.
We see in the Magnificat that the greatness of Mary can never be separated from the greatness of God: she cannot carry out her work alone, but nor does God intend to do His work of redemption apart from her or in spite of her.
Mary’s life might be characterised as one complete and continous ‘yes’ to God, and this is what we’re called to, there is no other sure path to heaven.
If we turn back to the chapel of the Assumption, if you’re not familiar with it you’ll note that underneath the altar the apostles are gathered round an empty tomb. Mary’s yes shows us the glory of life beyond the tomb, the eternal life that we’re called to, but each time we say no to God we choose the tomb over the glory opened up for us.
Saying ‘yes’ to God with our whole lives is rarely easy, but it is always worth it. We know that we cannot make that yes alone and we know that at times the magnitude of what is asked of us can seem impossibly daunting. But this is when we turn to Mary, we ask for the intercession of one who knows the cost of the yes, but also its beauty.
And in our most frequent prayer to Mary we have not only a great prayer, but also a great lesson. We pray ‘Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. And this teaches us that there are only really two moments of ultimate significance in our lives. This moment right here, right now, and the moment of our death . . . and what’s more we know that there will come a day, a time, when these two moments will become one, and if at that moment the yes which we say with our presence at Mass this evening is still on our lips, then we will have some share in the glory of Mary which we celebrate this evening.”

Linking Up With Lourdes

When our church was being planned in 1873, shortly after the apparitions in Lourdes were approved, the intention was that this church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and St Dominic, would become a surrogate Lourdes for Londoners, especially the sick, who could not get to France without considerable expense and difficulty. Being located near the Royal Free Hospital, this seemed an ideal location for a “Lourdes of London”, and so our church was designed with separate chapels for each of the mysteries of the Rosary, the first in world to be distinguished in this way and completed in 1883; the Rosary Basilica in Lourdes also has separate Rosary chapels but it dates to 1889.

The link with Lourdes continues with annual pilgrimages from St Dominic’s parish to Lourdes. This year, the 160th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady to St Bernadette, a group of 26 travelled to Lourdes and made their pilgrimage there from 25-29 June. A large candle was lit in the new ‘Chapels of Light’ in Lourdes, burning for the intentions of the friends, benefactors, pilgrims, and parishioners who come to our church, London’s Rosary Shrine.

The Grotto of Massabielle in 1858 at the time of the Apparitions (above) and as it is now (below):

The Torchlit Rosary Processions in Lourdes are a beautiful way to honour Our Lady. Here in our Rosary Shrine, we have torchlit Rosary Processions every Saturday during the month of October, straight after the 6pm Mass.

Below, an excursion to Bartres, near Lourdes, where St Bernadette spent time as a shepherdess:

Blessing with the relic of St Bernadette at Bartres:

Reading of prayer intentions, followed by the Blessing of the Rosary Shrine candle (above), and the candle burning in the Chapel of Light in Lourdes (below):

Father Thomas lights a candle in Lourdes for mothers who have lost a child (below):

Celebrating the birthday of two of our group in Lourdes:

We thank Our Lady for a beautiful pilgrimage to her Shrine in Lourdes, and we ask the Immaculate Virgin to pour out her blessings on her Rosary Shine in London, and on all who come and pray here. The next Rosary Shrine pilgrimage is currently being planned for June 2019, and it will take us to the Shrines of St Francis and St Padre Pio in Italy – watch this space!

24 May – Translation of St Dominic

Each year on the 24th of May, the Dominican Order marks “little St Dominic’s day” which is the feast commemorating the moving of St Dominic’s relics into its Shrine in Bologna. As a mark of the friendship between our holy fathers St Dominic and St Francis, there is a venerable custom of inviting a Franciscan friar to preach at the Mass of St Dominic. This year, we will welcome Fr Jacob Marie Hausman CFR, a priest of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal based in Canning Town, London. Sung Mass is at 6pm followed by a reception in the Priory.

St Dominic’s – The Rosary Shrine