Knave Altar

The Brompton Oratory Before Reform

From Geoffrey Kirk at IHC:

It has just been revealed that, on the night of July 14, a posse of twenty-five hastily recruited and commissioned Vicars General, at the behest of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, gained entry to the Brompton Oratory and forcibly installed a westward-facing altar.

The Cardinal’s representatives dismantled the existing High Altar – an action described by Catholic commentator and blogger Damian Thompson as ‘reminiscent of the worst excesses of the French Revolution’ – and replaced it with an altar table and matching ambo ‘tastefully handcrafted in limed oak’, donated for the purpose by Messrs Vanpoulles Ltd.

In what was described by the Sacristan as ‘a rampage fuelled by mindless ideology’ other altars were dismantled or defaced and a bonfire of liturgical music (Monteverdi, Mozart, Haydn, Durufle, Bruckner) was started in the nave, around which the Vicars General danced, singing worship songs by Paul Inwood and Bernadette Farrell.

A typical praise scene at the Oratory this week

At least they weren't dressed as clowns, or were they?

Your Old Friend,

LSP 

Ascension

Listen up, you lot. It's the Feast of the Ascension today so you'd better get to Mass. Here's a prayer, and none of your newfangled nonsense, either:

GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

It's also Cinco de Mayo and the commemoration of Mexico's great victory over the Frenchmen. I'd say that was cause enough for a double celebration.

God bless,

LSP