Tridentine Community News - Extraordinary Faith Episode 18 – London Part 4 of 4 to Debut on EWTN on Saturday, July 13

"I will go in unto the Altar of God
To God, Who giveth joy to my youth"
Tridentine Community News by Alex Begin (July 7, 2019):

July 7, 2019 – Fourth Sunday After Pentecost

Extraordinary Faith Episode 18 – London Part 4 of 4 to Debut on EWTN on Saturday, July 13

Keeping up with EWTN’s airing of several new episodes of Extraordinary Faith over the upcoming weeks, this column will continue to stay one step ahead of the network in letting you know what’s about to be shown. Episode 18 is the fourth of four episodes filmed in London, England. It debuts on EWTN this Saturday, July 13 at 4:30 AM U.S. Eastern time.

Though London is the epicenter for England’s burgeoning Latin Mass scene, rural England is picking up steam as well. We venture far outside metropolitan London in the first segment, to charming Holy Trinity Church in the eleventh century historic village of Hethe, near Oxford. This ornate but tiny church offers the Extraordinary Form to a devoted congregation. Former pastor Fr. Paul Lester gives us a tour and explains the parish’s long tradition of solemn liturgy.


A popular place of pilgrimage in London is the Tyburn Convent, home of the Tyburn Nuns. Named after the once-nearby Tyburn Tree, where Catholics were brutally martyred after the Protestant Reformation, the Tyburn Convent contains a museum and relics of the British Martyrs who died at Tyburn. Known for their animated explanations of the horrible sufferings and death of those martyrs, Mother Xavier and Mother Marie Joseph give us a tour of their museum and convent. We also see the altar in the museum where Extraordinary Form Masses are periodically held and which sports a rarely-seen artifact: a surrounding curtain which is closed at the moment of consecration to veil the sacred.


Last week’s column mentioned that there are two organizations in England which promote and organize Latin Masses. The Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, featured in the previous episode, is devoted solely to promoting the Extraordinary Form. The second group, the Association for Latin Liturgy, advocates both the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Mass in Latin. ALL Chairman Bernard Marriott explains the work of the ALL, including the books it publishes and its famous web site, which lists and grades Latin Masses in England A, B, or C – a valuable service given the plethora of options, especially in metropolitan London.


After the Reformation, most Catholic churches in England were destroyed or expropriated by the Anglicans. One church managed to escape that fate, albeit with years of inactivity and other years of private use as an embassy chapel: St. Etheldreda’s, the oldest operating Catholic church in England. Hidden among brokerage firms along a private street in London’s financial district, St. Etheldreda is home to a professional choir and regular Latin Masses in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. Historian and parishioner Anthony Weaver explains the long history of this survivor.


Tridentine Masses This Coming Week

• Tue. 07/09 7:00 PM: Low Mass at Holy Name of Mary, Windsor (Votive Mass of the Precious Blood)
• Sat. 07/13 8:30 AM: Low Mass at Miles Christi (Saturday of Our Lady)
• Sun. 07/14 9:45 AM: Solemn High Mass at OCLMA/Academy of the Sacred Heart (Fifth Sunday After Pentecost) – Guest celebrant: Fr. Stephen Wolfe, SJ. Reception after Mass.

[Comments? Please e-mail tridnews@detroitlatinmass.org. Previous columns are available at http://www.detroitlatinmass.org. This edition of Tridentine Community News, with minor editions, is from the St. Albertus (Detroit), Academy of the Sacred Heart (Bloomfield Hills), and St. Alphonsus and Holy Name of Mary Churches (Windsor) bulletin inserts for July 7, 2019. Hat tip to Alex Begin, author of the column.]