CHARITY CAROL CONCERT

CHARITY CANDLELIGHT CAROL SERVICE 

TOMORROW

SATURDAY 18th DECEMBER 

at 7.30pm

with the

OCTAVIUS SINGERS

Mince pies and mulled wine afterwards.

Always a lovely evening.

Dress warmly due to extra church ventilation 

to keep us all as safe as possible.

There will be a collection to raise funds for those suffering from leprosy in Sri Lanka.

Time to begin your Christmas.

Mass for deceased members and friends of the Order for All Souls Day

Mass will be celebrated this evening, the Vigil of All Souls Day,

at 7pm at St Catherine's Church in Leyland.

We will pray for All the Holy Souls,

with special remembrance of the deceased members and friends of the Order.

May they rest in peace

and rise in glory.

Update in these Covid times

The Covid threat is thankfully lessening here in the UK and that being so, the Grand Prior has been considering the possibility of an Investiture in the autumn, postponed from last year's late October date. However, although we do have eager postulants petitioning for investiture in the Order, a suitable date that would suit everyone and in liaison with hotels and venues, at this relatively late stage could not be found. It is also clear that some members are perhaps still not comfortable with travel and coming to events just yet. With all that in mind, and in the hope that the Covid situation will be much clearer in a few months, it is hoped that we might have an Investiture in the late Spring or Summer of 2022. With plenty of advance warning for everyone to keep the date in their diary.

All that being so, the good news is that the Grand Priory of Great Britain has still managed to donate £10,000 to SUROL in Sri Lanka. We thank God for our generous benefactors.

Deceased members and friends of the Order will be remembered at Mass on All Souls day by the Chaplain at St Catherine's Church in Farington, to which everyone is, of course invited to attend.

Let us continue to pray for one another and look forward to meeting again soon.

Atavis et Armis!

Language School in France

Anyone interested in a language school in July,

please click on the link below for more details.

St Peter's International College has links to the Order of St Lazarus in that 

Prince Charles-Phillipe is one of it's patrons.

Offerimus Tibi Domine: Summer Language School

Saint Peter's International College, France (stpetersfr.com)

Feast of the Precious Blood of Jesus

Here in Great Britain our Grand Prior has encouraged us to keep the Feast of the Precious Blood (Thursday 1st July in the older calendar)  as a special day of prayer to support those affected by leprosy.

 

The Mass texts can be found HERE  (scroll down about three quarters of the page to find them). 

The Precious Blood of Jesus is always described in the Scriptures as cleansing (Rev 7: 13-14). While this ultimately refers to the cleansing of the soul from sin, we remember that we believe in a resurrection of the body to life everlasting; that we may be made whole - body and soul - by the sacrifice of Our Lord and Saviour.

The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood. The feast of the Precious Blood of our Lord was instituted in 1849 by Pius IX, but the devotion is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood. 

"The Precious Blood which we worship is the Blood which the Savior shed for us on Calvary and reassumed at His glorious Resurrection; it is the Blood which courses through the veins of His risen, glorified, living body at the right hand of God the Father in heaven; it is the Blood made present on our altars by the words of Consecration; it is the Blood which merited sanctifying grace for us and through it washes and beautifies our soul and inaugurates the beginning of eternal life in it."

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, RIP

On behalf of the Grand Priory of Great Britain

H.E. Chev. Anthony Dickinson  KLJ CMLJ 

offers the prayers and condolences of all our members 

at the announcement of the death of 

His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Requiescat in pace.

The Chaplain General will offer Mass for the repose of his soul on

Saturday 17th April at 12 noon

(Mass in the Traditional Form)

at

St Catherine's Church

Farington

Leyland

Countess Leopoldine Dobrzensky von Dobrzenicz, Princess of Lobkowicz, RIP

The Grand Priory of Great Britain has sent expressions of condolence and prayers on hearing the news of the death of Countess Leopoldine Dobrzensky von Dobrzenicz, Princess of Lobkowicz, mother of our Grand Master. 

She died peacefully with her daughter by her side on Thursday evening, March 18, 2021 at Haliburton Hospital in her 95th year. She was laid to rest, fortified by the Church, following a Requiem Mass.

The Chaplain General will offer Mass for the repose of her soul at St Catherine's Church, Leyland, this coming Sunday at 10am, with our Grand Prior HE Anthony Dickinson, and any other members who can travel at this time, in attendance.

Our prayers go up for her family.

Care in time of the Covid 19 lockdown

Despite the difficulties of the Covid 19 lockdown here in the UK and elsewhere, the Grand Priory was still able to send £10,000 to SUROL recently, enabling fifty people affected by leprosy to receive continuing care in these tragic times.

We very much hope that the circumstances will allow us to meet later in the year and perhaps we can all use this time to reflect on ways that we might be more active in our involvement with the work of the Order - now we realize just how much we miss it. It is only by our continuing efforts that we will be able to offer such support as we have to SUROL in the future.

May the Lord keep us all safe and well with the prayers of St Lazarus and Our Blessed Lady.

Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Painting: Master of Perea (fl. c. 1490-1510) Saint Lazarus With His Sisters Martha And Mary', 16th Century,  Location: Museo Lazaro Galdiano-Coleccion, Madrid, Spain.

On 26th January the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments  issued a decree signed by Pope Francis proclaiming 29th July as the feast of Ss Martha, Mary and Lazarus together. Previously this has just been the feast of St Martha. The full text of the decree can be read below.

They already share this feast day in the Benedictine calendar:

Heavenly Father, 

your son was received as an honored and welcome guest in the home of Bethany. 

Keep us close to the Master in our prayer and work that, blameless in his sight, 

he may welcome us into our eternal home, 

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.    

  

                                                                                                                    Benedictine Missal supplement.

*******

The Lord’s raising of Lazarus from the dead is an anticipation of resurrection and a sign of eternal life for the rest of us who are baptized into the Mystical Body of Christ. Resurrection from the dead becomes, with this passage from the Gospels, a powerful “game-changer” in the life of every human being. The death and subsequent raising of Lazarus evokes in each of us the knowledge that we do not make ourselves, that God is the only Creator of who we are and what we are about. This gesture of the Lord’s invites each of us to a deeper faith in the Messiah.

So, why is honoring all three characters crucial in our Christian life? Each person: Mary, Martha and Lazarus are as one in the friendship with Jesus. If friendship, then fidelity, and perseverance, gratitude and hospitality.

*******

CONGREGATIO DE CULTU DIVINO ET DISCIPLINA SACRAMENTORUM

Prot. N. 35/21

DECREE

on the Celebration of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus

in the General Roman Calendar

In the household of Bethany the Lord Jesus experienced the family spirit and friendship of Martha, Mary and Lazarus, and for this reason the Gospel of John states that he loved them. Martha generously offered him hospitality, Mary listened attentively to his words and Lazarus promptly emerged from the tomb at the command of the One who humiliated death.

The traditional uncertainty of the Latin Church about the identity of Mary - the Magdalene to whom Christ appeared after his resurrection, the sister of Martha, the sinner whose sins the Lord had forgiven - which resulted in the inclusion of Martha alone on 29 July in the Roman Calendar, has been resolved in recent studies and times, as attested by the current Roman Martyrology, which also commemorates Mary and Lazarus on that day. Moreover, in some particular calendars the three siblings are already celebrated together.

Therefore, the Supreme Pontiff Pope FRANCIS, considering the important evangelical witness they offered in welcoming the Lord Jesus into their home, in listening to him attentively, in believing that he is the resurrection and the life, and accepting the proposal of this Dicastery, has decreed that 29 July be designated in the General Roman Calendar as the Memorial of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus.

The Memorial must therefore appear under this title in all Calendars and Liturgical Books for the celebration of Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours; the variations and additions to be adopted in the liturgical texts, attached to the present decree, must be translated, approved and, after confirmation by this Dicastery, published by the Episcopal Conferences.

Anything to the contrary notwithstanding.

From the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 26 January 2021, Memorial of Saints Timothy and Titus, Bishops.

Robert Card. Sarah

Prefect

World Leprosy Day

Sunday 31st January is designated as World Leprosy Day (each year the last Sunday in January). At his installation our Grand Prior HE Anthony Dickinson requested chaplains to offer Mass on this day for the intentions of the Grand Master, HE Jan Count Dobrzenský z Dobrzenicz . Our Chaplain General in Great Britain, Fr Simon Henry will be do so at the 10am Mass that day in his parish of St Catherine Labouré.

Mass is also offered each year on the old Feast of the Precious Blood for all those suffering from leprosy and for all those whom our charitable activities are intended to help. Prompted by the thought of leprosy as a disease of the blood recalling that the Precious Blood of Our Lord shed for us is the healing salve to all our infirmities - spiritual and physical.

The Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, by its history and its structure, has always been and remains, in reality, an equestrian order.

Because of it's checkered history, at times almost dying out, the Order of St Lazarus sometimes faces questions on the question of in what way is it recognized by the Catholic Church.

The historical and spiritual identity of the Order is obviously equestrian in nature and we are happy to report that in December 2020 Cardinal Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, has  given us this confirmation by a letter sent to the Grand Master. 

The Cardinal specifies that he 

"considers that the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem, by its history and its structure, has always been and remains, in reality, an equestrian order" 

and 

"wishes the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem to continue with great fruitfulness the work of sanctification of his members and of the noble service in favour of the poorest who characterise it in all the local Churches where it is present ”

.

The historical identity of the Order under our 50th Grand Master HE Jan Count Dobrzenský z Dobrzeniczand and it's vocation within local Churches are thus confirmed by the Holy See and this is a great joy for us.

In conclusion, we can henceforth affirm that the Holy See confirms our historical identity as an equestrian order and encourages us to continue our action within the Catholic Church through the recognition of the local Churches.

Because of the historical vagaries of the Order, we have not had direct governance under the Holy See like the better known Equestrian Orders. Since October 16, 2016, the Apostolic See decided not to expand the number of its own equestrian orders; so new recognition in that manner would not be possible for any group. 

Therefore, encouraged by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, we continue the work oft gaining recognition at diocesan and Conference of Bishops level, as has happened already in many places.

We look forward to renewing our efforts under this encouragement as, God willing, we are able to return to meeting together to push forward our efforts fundraising for those in need.