Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Darlington Mission

1 December 2024 – First Sunday of Advent

Mass today is offered for May Hill – R.I.P.

Group Pastor – Fr. Thomas Mason – thomas.mason@ordinariate.org.uk  – 01833 631457 – 07876 308657

Assistant Priest – Fr. Ian Westby    Deacon – the Rev’d Carl Watson

Web: https://www.ordinariate-darlington.co.uk

Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/OrdDarlFacebook

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OrdDarlington  

Services this week:

Monday 2, 6.15pm, Barnard Castle (Latin) – Advent feria

Tuesday 3, 10am, Gainford – S. Francis Xavier

Wednesday 4, 10am, Gainford – S. OSMUND

Thursday 5, 10am, Barnard Castle – Advent feria

Friday 6, 12noon, Gainford (Ordinariate) – Ember Friday (preceded by Sext at 11.45am)

Confessions (at Barnard Castle): Monday 5.30-6pm, Thursday 5.30-6pm, Saturday 10-11am

Advent Catechesis. As we journey towards Christmas, following Mass on Fridays we will have catechesis reflecting on Our Lady – a central figure in the incarnation, and therefore in this season. Across the weeks we will look at the four ‘Marian dogmas’ – points which the Church teaches us about Our Lady, and through her about Christ and about ourselves.

Prayer List:

Of your charity please pray for all the sick, especially: Morag, Ethel, George Gwilliam, Andrew Gwilliam, Fay Jackson, Sharon & Dennis Walburn, Elaine Robertson, Barbara Ugoletti, Andrea Matthews, Bridget Wright, Graham Pegley, Calvert Hardy, Keith McAllister, Elizabeth Rawling, Cecil Chin.

As also for all the faithful departed, particularly the recently departed, as well as those whose years-mind falls at this time including Leslie Burgess, Vicky Hammond, Lily Cowling. Requiescant in pace.

Asperges Me. As we enter church we usually dip our fingers in holy water and bless ourselves, this is a miniature version of a ceremony of sprinkling the faithful with holy water before Sunday Mass. As our final step in the implementation of the Ordinariate’s Divine Worship Mass, from today Sunday Masses will be preceded by this ceremony – usually known as the Asperges from its opening in Latin. The words and music are printed in the Mass books, and will quickly become familiar.

New Mass Books. Over the past couple of years we have added quite a few new pieces of music to our pattern of sung Masses; while I’m sure that you have all enjoyed shuffling through various pieces of paper, trying to guess which version we will be singing, we have now reached a point of stability. This has allowed us to produce new, more long term, Mass books which include the sung texts of the Mass. Many thanks go especially to Jos and Catherine for their work in compiling these.

Assisted Suicide Bill. It was deeply saddening to see Parliament vote in favour of the second reading of the assisted suicide bill. This is not, however, the end of the matter – the bill now goes to a committee, before returning to the full House of Commons and then the House of Lords; nevertheless, it was truly a dark day for our country. For those who live in Bishop Auckland or Darlington constituencies I note that the local M.P.s, Sam Rushworth and Lola McAvoy, voted against this terrible legislation; whereas for those who live in Richmond and Northallerton, Rishi Sunak voted in favour.

Saint Luke, the third evangelist

As we begin a new year in the life of the Church, we look forward with expectation to the coming of Christ at Christmas. We also begin to read from a different Gospel – having spent the last year mostly hearing from S. Mark on Sundays, we now move to S. Luke  the third of the ‘synoptic’ Gospels. S. Luke is actually part of a double act, as he also wrote the Acts of the Apostles and these two together in many ways form a single two-volume text reflecting on the life of Christ and then how his followers responded – as these two books are major and significant in themselves, we’ll look at them separately.

1. Luke is not mentioned in the Gospels, and the author does not claim to have been an eye-witness of the life of Christ; however, in Acts he often speaks in the first person, indicating that he was directly involved in the events described. It is unclear whether he was of a Jewish or Gentile background, but was certainly highly educated and based in the Hellenistic (Greek) world. He is identified as a physician, which is why so many hospitals and medical institutions are placed under his patronage. He was born in Antioch, a major city in early Christianity, and became a Christian very early in the life of the Church; working as an evangelist, often alongside S. Paul.

Although it is linked with the three preceding Gospels as synoptic (a term which means ‘seen together’ and refers to the commonality between them), this Gospel also includes significant material which the others do not have. Perhaps most strikingly, and relevant for our celebrations at the end of the month, it is unique in its inclusion of details about Christ’s birth and childhood. It is from S. Luke that we hear about the annunciation to Our Lady, her visit to S. Elizabeth, Christ’s birth and the visit of the shepherds &c. It is always worth noting the source for these accounts – obviously S. Luke could not have seen them, indeed the only eye-witness who could have given the information was Our Lady. Given that they are not recorded in the other Gospels, it seems highly likely that what we have is the result of conversations directly between Our Lady and S. Luke.

We also find the three great hymns, known as the Gospel canticles, in this Gospel, these have consistently been used by the Church particularly in the Liturgy of the Hours. Zechariah praised God for the birth of John the Baptist in the Benedictus Dominus – in this he refers to the ‘day-spring from on high’, and so the Church sings this daily at Mattins. Most famously, Our Lady sang the Magnificat (My soul doth magnify the Lord) when she met with S. Elizabeth, both of them pregnant at the time – we meet this every evening at Evensong. When Christ was presented in the Temple, the priest Simeon recognised him, as the Messiah, and praised God in the Nunc Dimittis (Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace) which the Church uses at Evensong or to close the day with Compline.

The Gospel has been seen as marking the meeting of the Hebrew world and the broader Greek civilisation of the first century. One of its major themes is the broadening out of God’s message from his chosen people to the whole of humanity. As we journey through this Gospel during the coming year, may our hearts always be open to the fulness of the message which it brings. In particularly we would do well to listen to the voice of Our Lady as she relates how God worked to bring Christ into the world, with her we should ‘keep all these things, pondering them in [our] hearts’. – Fr. Thomas.