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This Thursday is the feast of the Ascension commemorating Our Lord’s going up bodily into heaven 40 days after the Resurrection. It is a Holy Day of obligation. The evening Mass at the Dome will be sung at 6.30 pm.

There will be no daily Mass next week Monday through Friday (May 4th – 8th) due to ICKSP provincial days. The provincial days are a fraternal gathering of the clergy of our Institute from an entire country or region. This year we have the joy of meeting with our fellow priests working in Ireland.

For those who may have been inspired by our young couples tying the knot, please note that marriage in the church requires a preparation of six months. Please contact the clergy of the Dome well in advance to plan your wedding.

Adult Catechism Class – “Angels and Demons”:
One Friday per month, all are welcome regardless of prior knowledge, both Catholics and non-Catholics. The next class will be held on Friday, 20th February at 7.15pm, following the evening Mass.

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Adult Catechism Class – “The Catholic Moral Life”:
One Saturday per month, all are welcome regardless of prior knowledge, both Catholics and non-Catholics. the morning Mass. Next month’s class will be Saturday, 28th February at 11am.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, alongside the Church of England and the Church of Wales, has confirmed that support for victims and survivors of church-related abuse will continue through the Safe Spaces independent support service. This free, national service offers confidential and trauma-informed help to anyone affected, regardless of when the abuse occurred or their current relationship with the Church.

The extension ensures that Safe Spaces, delivered by the charity First Light, will remain available for a further 15 months while plans are developed for its long-term future. This continued commitment reflects the Churches’ responsibility to ensure that survivors can access professional, compassionate support when they need it most.

Read more here: https://www.cbcew.org.uk/support-for-victims-and-survivors-of-church-related-abuse-extended/

The feast of Epiphany takes place tomorrow. This an obligatory day in the calendar.

Holy Mass will be celebrated at 10am. Happy feast day in advance!

 

Prepare your hearts for the coming of the Infant King! Talks, Rosary & Silent Adoration, opportunity for Confessions. Starting after 10am Mass, ending around 3.30pm. Bring a packed lunch. All welcome.

Guilded by Providence and with the generous support of our benefactors, supporters and aided by your prayers, we are very thankful as we continue to make steady progress towards restoration.

Please do take a look at our Restoration page here to see the progress made so far with the restoration of the Shrine Church of Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena.

My dear brothers and sisters,

As I write, a third National Lockdown has begun with many restrictions reducing our daily lives to “essentials.” The Government now recognises public worship as one of those essentials. Not a few may ask why churches remain open when other activities are prohibited; and some will question why worship remains the only legally permitted public gathering. Yet, we know that worship is not only a fundamental freedom: it is our primary human vocation. In short, worship is what we were made for! [1] The Catholic faith teaches that this worship is supremely offered in the Sacrifice of the Mass in which God is glorified and humanity sanctified. [2]

It is your witness to this truth, which I have no doubt, has enabled public worship to be recognised as essential to society during this renewed lockdown. It is almost certainly the care with which all safety measures have been implemented in parishes which has now allowed the celebration of Mass and the Sacraments to continue. I wish, once again, to record my thanks to the clergy, the teams of parish volunteers and every member of the faithful who have together implemented and followed these safety requirements.

In all of this, we recognise the seriousness of our responsibility to help ensure the continuance of public worship and the safety of all. I ask you at the beginning of this New Year and a renewed state of lockdown, not to assume we have yet returned to “normal life” in our parishes; nor to give way to any sense of complacency, especially whilst a new variant of the virus is spreading rapidly. The continuance of public worship into Lent and Easter will, in large measure, depend on our vigilance and all our efforts to follow the measures which have already made our churches among the safest places in society.

In my letter to you in March of last year, I wrote of how these safety requirements can be lived in a spirit of charity. We continue to see how these demands call us to a refinement of charity. Requirements as strange – yet now so familiar – as social distancing, hand sanitising in church and wearing face coverings can serve as expressions of our love for our Lord and our love for the Mass, which continues to be publicly celebrated because of the careful fulfilment of such duties. If we ever feel fatigued in carrying out these requirements, let us renew them with love. At the end of the Christmas celebration, let us also do so with our gaze fixed on the Holy Eucharist, where the same Lord Jesus is now truly present whom wise men once fell down and worshipped; and whom Saint John the Baptist declared himself to be unfit even to kneel at His feet.[3].

As I picture you gathered in all the churches of the Diocese, may Saint Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a support and guide in time of trouble [4] – accompany us through these troubled times in fulfilling the greatness of our call to worship and our responsibility both to each other and to the whole of society.

Entrusting each of you to Saint Joseph’s prayers,

+ Mark, Bishop of Shrewsbury

1. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2096
2. Second Vatican Council Sacrosanctum Concilium n. 7
3. Cf. Mt. 2: 11, Mk. 1: 8 & Decree on the Most Holy Eucharist, Council of Trent Session 13
4. Cf. Patris Corde 8th December 2020

This is the patronal feast of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and a Plenary Indulgence available under usual conditions
(Confession, Communion & prayer for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff).

At the Shrine, this special feast day will be celebrated thus:

5.15pm: Second Vespers of the feast
followed by Benediction and renewal of the Consecration of the ICKSP to the Immaculate Conception

6.30pm: Sung Mass & Compline