CALENDAR OF SERVICES FOR SEPTEMBER 2019
Sunday, 22nd September: Solemn Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist (transferred): LC red:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Tuesday, 24th September: Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham: Twenty Fifth Week of the Year
Wednesday, 25th September: St. Sergius of Radonezh (1315-92), Patron Saint of Russia: My memory is a broken thing but I know that, in college days, we visited Trinity-Sergius Monastery at Sergievo Posad (called Zagorsk in Soviet days) near Moscow. Between the wars the Monastery was closed but restoration happened in 1945 to gain patriotic support for Stalin. Here indeed is the spiritual heart of Holy Russia. Abbot Sergius founded his community in the forest – wilderness at a time of national peril. Tartar invasion had torn to shreds the existing Civic and monastic fabric of Russia. In 1380 Sergius sent Prince Dmitri Donskoy into battle against the Tartar Khan, Mamai. Victory at Kulikovo Polye became a turning point. It was ‘Stalingrad’ of the fourteenth century. Liberated Russia received renewal from Trinity – Sergius Monastery. Soon 35 daughter houses were planted, from which bishops were recruited to gather the flock, so recently wounded and scattered. The beauty of holiness, as reflected in the lives of Sergius and his community, finds expression also in a famous painting, the Trinity Icon, written for this Abbey by the monk Andrei Rublev.
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 26th September: St. Cosmas and St. Damian suffered martyrdom at Cyrrhus near Antioch during persecution under Imperial Rome. On the ground of this simple fact, there arose a skyscraper of legend. Cosmos and Damian were twins from Arabia, who practised medicine in Syria. Long before Aneurin Bevan they invented the NHS. For they are called ‘anargyroi’, moneyless ones, their service being free at the point of delivery. Cosmas and Damian are commemorated in the Canon of the Roman Mass.
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Sunday, 29th September: Solemnity of St. Michael and All Angels: LC white:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s Hay
CALENDAR OF SERVICES FOR OCTOBER 2019
Sunday readings from Revised Common Lectionary, Year C (Year of Luke)
Weekday readings from Lectionary for Ordinary Time (Year One)
Liturgical colour green
Tuesday, 1st October: Trinity Sixth Week of Year
Wednesday, 2nd October: Holy Guardian Angels:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 3rd October: St. Thomas Cantelupe (1218-82) belonged to the Norman ruling class. His studies took him to Oxford and Paris. He was ordained at Lyons. Returning to England he was elected Chancellor of Oxford University. Thomas entered politics, supporting the barons against King Henry III. Until the defeat of Simon de Montfort, he held office as Chancellor of England. One hundred years previously this position of power had been occupied by Thomas Becket. This was not the only point of similarity between Cantelupe and Becket. With support from the new King, Edward I, Thomas Cantelupe was chosen as Bishop of Hereford. He turned out to be an ideal reforming bishop. He visited his parishes, confirmed children and rebuked the over-mighty. He renounced personal comfort and luxury. But previous neglect of Hereford diocese led Thomas into a heavy programme of litigation, including disputes with John Pecham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Pecham excommunicated Cantelupe. Thomas travelled to the papal court to appeal against this sentence and died after meeting the Pope at Orvieto.
10.00am Hay Market Day Mass in Chapel of St. John Baptist, Lion Street
NB: Throughout October, if the chapel is still under repair, services are transferred from St. John’s to St. Mary’s.
7.30pm The Bishop of Burnley (one of the ‘flying-bishops’ who serve traditionalists in the Church of England) celebrates Mass and Confirmation in Llandaff Cathedral.
Sunday, 6th October: Twenty Seventh Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity XVI:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
6.00pm District Mass in Little St. Mary’s, Capel-y-ffin
Wednesday, 9th October: Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman, who spent roughly half his long life in Oxford and half in Birmingham. In 1828 he was appointed Vicar of St Mary’s, the University church, where he became a leader of the Oxford Movement. He made twenty-four contributions to the Tracts for the Times, the series which inspired Catholic revival in the Church of England. But some years of inner struggle were followed by his reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1845. After ordination in Rome he joined an Oratorian Community in Birmingham. There he remained, apart from four years spent as Rector of the new Catholic university in Dublin. In controversy with Charles Kingsley Newman wrote his spiritual autobiography, called ‘Apologia pro Vita Sua’. He also wrote ‘Grammar of Assent’, which explained the meaning of the act of faith. His poem ‘Dream of Gerontius’, set to music by Elgar, described the journey of the soul to God in the hour of death. For a long time, in his new allegiance, Newman was under a cloud, for he drew his teaching from the Fathers of the early Church rather than the medieval schoolmen. Also, he did not consider opportune definition of papal infallibility in 1870. But, in the end, he received recognition when Pope Leo XIII made him cardinal. After his death in 1890 his influence grew steadily in spite of several reactionary popes, so that the Second Vatican Council has been called Newman’s council.
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 10th October: St. Paulinus of York was sent to England in 601 by Pope St. Gregory to support the mission of St. Augustine. The mission to Northern England, Northumbria with its regions of Bernicia and Deira, was accomplished by successive partnerships of ruler with missionary bishop: King Edwin with Paulinus sent from Rome, and King Oswald with Aidan sent from Iona. Paulinus travelled north in company with Ethelburga of Kent, when she married Edwin. Eventually, Edwin was baptised with his infant daughter at York. Mass conversions and riverside baptisms followed. Churches were built in Lincoln as well as York. In 633 Edwin was defeated and killed by Penda, King of Mercia, in the Battle of Hatfield Chase. Both Bishop Paulinus and Queen Ethelburga returned south. There Paulinus died in 644, after spending the last decade of his life as Bishop of Rochester.
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Sunday, 13th October: Twenty Eighth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity XVII: Thanksgiving for Harvest: Today St. John Henry Newman is being canonised in Rome:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Wednesday, 16th October: Our Lady of the Rosary (transferred): October Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 17th October: St. Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch in Syria between 69 and 107 AD. He spoke of himself as ‘the wheat of Christ to be ground by the teeth of wild beasts.’ He did indeed die by being thrown to the lions in the Roman Colosseum. This bloodthirsty form of entertainment has now been refined into the premier football league. During persecution under Emperor Trajan Ignatius was taken by armed guard from Antioch to execution in Rome. In the course of this journey he wrote seven letters to churches along the way. In these letters Ignatius taught the true humanity and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, together with the bodily reality of his Death and Resurrection. Ignatius showed the depth of his own unity with his Saviour by taking to himself the name, ‘Theophoros’, bearer of God, and by his matching desire for martyrdom. Ignatius lay great store by ordained ministry as a living connection with the Apostles and their message of salvation. For him the integrity of the local church was related to its bishop. Also, in the case of the present bench of Welsh bishops the Ignatian vision of episcopacy has been overtaken by ‘fresh expressions’ and one thousand committees. Ignatius also praises the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion: ‘the bread that is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the flesh which has suffered for our sins.’
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel.
7.00pm JOINT HARVEST FESTIVAL IN LLANIGON: HARVEST SUPPER FOLLOWS IN CHURCH.
Friday, 18th October: Feast of St. Luke the Evangelist
Sunday, 20th October: Twenty Ninth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity XVIII:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
6.00pm Evenson in Little St. Mary’s, Capel-y-ffin
Monday, 21st October: Aberfan Disaster 1966
Wednesday, 23rd October:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 24th October:
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
Friday, 25th October: Feast of the Six Welsh Martyrs
Sunday, 27th October: Thirtieth Sunday and Week of Year: Trinity XIX: Clocks went back last night, giving you an extra hour in bed:
9.30am Parish Mass in Llanigon
11.00am Parish Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Monday, 28th October: Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles
Wednesday, 30th October:
10.00am Mass in St. Mary’s, Hay
Thursday, 31st October
Bo-Jo on a broomstick!
10.00am Mass in St. John’s Chapel
EVENSONG IS SAID OR SUNG IN ST. MARY’S, HAY, EVERYDAY AT SIX O’CLOCK.
