All Souls Day Requiem for deceased members

On All Souls Day the Chaplain General for Great Britain, Fr Simon Henry,ECLJ GOMLJ, offered Holy Mass in the Traditional Form for deceased members and friends of the Order.

The Grand Master, HE Jan Count Dobrzenský z Dobrzenicz, sent a message uniting his prayers with ours for the occasion: 

" My thoughts go out to all those friends, brothers, and sisters who have passed away. I will say a special little prayer In Memorium to all these Fine Knights, Dames, and members who shared in my 40 years plus of service to The Order of Saint Lazarus.  In this way I will join you at this Requiem Mass."

Remembered especially in the great prayer of the Mass for the Holy Souls Day was George Antcliff, husband of Consoeur Patricia Antcliff, who died just last week after a long illness. May he rest in peace.

At the conclusion of the Mass the Prayers of Absolution were said at the catafalque, 

representing symbolically all those for whom we pray.

"O God, Whose attribute it is always to have mercy and to spare, we humbly present our prayers to Thee for the souls of Thy servants. which Thou has called out of this world, beseeching Thee not to deliver it into the hands of the enemy, nor to forget it for ever, but to command Thy holy angels to receive them, and to bear it into paradise; that as they has believed and hoped in Thee they may be delivered from the pains of hell and inherit eternal life through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Chev. Anthony Dickinson KLJ provided the music for the occasion. The dignified and beautiful chant of the Mass for All Souls Day, including the Dies Irae.

DIES irae, dies illa,
   solvet saeculum in favilla,
   teste David cum Sibylla.

   Day of wrath and doom impending,
   David’s word with Sibyl’s blending,
   Heaven and earth in ashes ending.

   Quantus tremor est futurus,
   quando iudex est venturus,
   cuncta stricte discussurus!

   O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
   When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
   On whose sentence all dependeth.

   Tuba mirum spargens sonum
   per sepulcra regionum,
   coget omnes ante thronum.

   Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
   Through earth’s sepulchers it ringeth,
   All before the throne it bringeth.

   Mors stupebit et natura,
   cum resurget creatura,
   iudicanti responsura.

   Death is struck, and nature quaking,
   All creation is awaking,
   To its Judge an answer making.

   Liber scriptus proferetur,
   in quo totum continetur,
   unde mundus iudicetur.

   Lo, the book exactly worded,
   Wherein all hath been recorded,
   Thence shall judgment be awarded.

   Iudex ergo cum sedebit,
   quidquid latet apparebit:
   nil inultum remanebit.

   When the Judge His seat attaineth,
   And each hidden deed arraigneth,
   Nothing unavenged remaineth.

   Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
   quem patronum rogaturus?
   cum vix iustus sit securus.

   What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
   Who for me be interceding
   When the just are mercy needing?

   Rex tremendae maiestatis,
   qui salvandos salvas gratis,
   salva me, fons pietatis.

   King of majesty tremendous,
   Who dost free salvation send us,
   Fount of pity, then befriend us.

   Recordare Iesu pie,
   quod sum causa tuae viae:
   ne me perdas illa die.

   Think, kind Jesus, my salvation
   Caused Thy wondrous Incarnation,
   Leave me not to reprobation.

   Quarens me, sedisti lassus:
   redemisti crucem passus:
   tantus labor non sit cassus.

   Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
   On the Cross of suffering bought me,
   Shall such grace be vainly brought me?

   Iuste iudex ultionis,
   donum fac remissionis,
   ante diem rationis.

   Righteous Judge, for sin’s pollution
   Grant Thy gift of absolution,
   Ere that day of retribution.

   Ingemisco, tamquam reus:
   culpa rubet vultus meus:
   supplicanti parce Deus.

   Guilty now I pour my moaning,
   All my shame with anguish owning,
   Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning.

   Qui Mariam absolvisti,
   et latronem exaudisti,
   mihi quoque spem dedisti.

   Through the sinful woman shriven,
   Through the dying thief forgiven,
   Thou to me a hope hast given.

   Preces meae non sunt dignae:
   sed tu bonus fac benigne,
   ne perenni cremer igne.

   Worthless are my prayers and sighing,
   Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
   Rescue me from fires undying.

   Inter oves locum praesta,
   et ab haedis me sequestra,
   statuens in parte dextera.

   With Thy sheep a place provide me,
   From the goats afar divide me,
   To Thy right hand do Thou guide me.

   Confutatis maledictis,
   flammis acribus addictis.
   voca me cum benedictis.

   When the wicked are confounded,
   Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
   Call me with Thy Saints surrounded.

   Oro supplex et acclinis,
   cor contritum quasi cinis:
   gere curam mei finis.

   Low I kneel with heart’s submission,
   See, like ashes, my contrition,
   Help me in my last condition.

   Lacrimosa dies illa,
   qua resurget ex favilla.
   iudicandus homo reus:
   huic ergo parce Deus.

   Ah! That day of tears and mourning,
   From the dust of earth returning,
   Man for judgment must prepare him,
   Spare, O God, in mercy spare him.

   Pie Iesu Domine,
   dona eis requiem. Amen.

   Lord, all-pitying, Jesus blest,
   Grant them Thine eternal rest.  Amen.

Annual Requiem Mass

The 

Annual Requiem Mass

for deceased members and friends of the Order 

will  be celebrated by the Chaplain General 

on 

All Soul's Day, Wednesday 2nd November at 7pm. 

Missa Cantata in the Traditional Form

at the church of St Catherine Labouré

Stanifield Lane

Farington

Leyland

Lancashire

PR25 4QG

We were privileged to have Archbishop Malcolm McMahon with us last year to celebrate this Mass. This year will be a less high profile event but all members and friends are cordially invited to attend or unite themselves with our prayer intentions on that day.

If you have a specific request for someone to be included in the intention of the Mass, 

please contact the Chaplain General.

Chapter General in Rome

Members of the Order from around the world gathered in Rome last week 

for the three-yearly General Chapter.

HE Jan Count Dobrzenský z Dobrzenicz giving his "state of the Order" address.

An increase in members and the continuing call for "quality Christians" as the criteria for those joining.

The Chapter General was held in the Auditorium Antonianum.

Following the Vigil Service, held at the 

Basilica dei Santi Silvestro e Martino ai Monti

members gathered for cocktails in the gardens of the nearby Palazzo Brancaccio.

Members of the Spanish Grand Priory.

Grand Masters - past and present with members at the Palazzo Brancaccio.

A chance to catch up with old friends.

 The Grand Master's Welcome Dinner followed in the Tapestry Hall of the Pallazzo Branccaccio.

Chev. Thierry Pauquet de Villejust, Grand Prior of the USA.

Some members of the Grand Priory of Great Britain.

The following day members gathered at the Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls for Holy Mass and the Investiture.

Mass was celebrated by His Eminence Dominic Cardinal Duka, 

Grand Chaplain of the Order.

 

Mass was celebrated with some lovely chant - of the Introit, Gloria  and Sanctus etc.

With chaplains and members from many different countries, the Church's universal language was a boon for all present. 

Following Mass Heads of Jurisdictions prepare for the Investiture.

In all, 49 new members were received

 into the Order.

HE Giovanni Ferrara,Grand Prior of Italy, was presented with the highest commendation of the Order - that of of Knight Grand Cross of Merit and the Grand Collar of the order, for outstanding achievements in the field of Christian charity and charity.

 The Grand Master welcomes a new bishop into the Order.

 Cocktails around the fountain in the Pallazzo Brancaccio.

 

The  "Coffee House" with paintings by the Roman painter Francesco Gai

was the setting for serving cocktails before the dinner.

 The Investiture Dinner was held in the splendid setting of the Gala Salon.

  

  

 

Love, hope and leprosy

  

This film was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Wellcome Trust, who approached SUROL in Sri Lanka to assist them in exploring leprosy. SUROL was happy to help, just as we in the Grand Priory of Great Britain continue to support their work.

(There i a transcript below.)

Premawathe Ukuna and Maha Puthiasay are one of several couples at the Hendala Leprosy Hospital, Sri Lanka. Ross Velton visited to find out what life is like as part of a forgotten generation.

In this 15-minute documentary, Ross Velton discovers how a forgotten generation of people with leprosy have found sanctuary in a 300-year-old Sri Lankan hospital.

Abandoned by their families and stigmatised by society, they became artists and musicians, they fell in love with one another, and they tried to build the community they couldn't find in the outside world. Now, their stories are inspiring others to carry on the fight to end the stigma of leprosy.

In this 15-minute documentary, Ross Velton discovers how a forgotten generation of people with leprosy have found sanctuary in a 300-year-old Sri Lankan hospital.

Abandoned by their families and stigmatised by society, they became artists and musicians, they fell in love with one another, and they tried to build the community they couldn't find in the outside world. Now, their stories are inspiring others to carry on the fight to end the stigma of leprosy.


TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO

Lodewijk Wagenaar: You are a non-person who is not beloved by God. This must be a different thing from the illnesses we know.
Man: [translation] This disease is a curse from God. I’ll take them to hospital carefully, without going near them. I won’t eat with them.
[Music]
Abdul Hassaan: Heavy sun, no?
I got a rash, these fingers got paralysed. The vision also went down very low. Then only this leg was spoiled. They found this is leprosy. I came home. My sisters are there. For this disease they are very frightened. They want to give the meals and all. They won’t come close to me. From the far they will give. They don’t see properly me.
Then only after I came here, it was about nine to ten years. Five miles even I can walk. I have four children, two daughters and two boys. At home nobody come here. Till my death I will be here.
[Music]
Lakmal Rathnayake: Today’s Vesak festival day. Vesak is Lord Buddha’s birth and death and his enchantment. It is a very important day to Buddhists and other people in Sri Lanka. Tonight we are going to do a musical instrumental programme with our leprosy patients. When we informed them we are going to organise this kind of festival they started to practise, actually.
Edward Alwis: [translation] I learned music myself, by playing alone. I came to the hospital on the fourth of April 1943. When this photo was taken I was 16 years old. When I came here I was 14. It was emotionally painful. My mother and father were crying. Everyone was crying because I had to come here. In those days there were no ambulances so they locked me on a bullock cart and brought me to this place. If we ran away, the police would catch us and bring us back. I’m the oldest resident patient in this place now.
A prince from the Dutch government got leprosy. The patients have seen him on a white horse at midnight. His soul is protecting us.
Lodewijk Wagenaar: Around 1693 I guess, the Dutch government of Ceylon, as Sri Lanka then was called, decided to set up the first asylum for lepers. Leprosy was a well-known thing and people were very much afraid of this wrath of God. The only thing they could do was to seclude those sick persons from society. They found a place near the Kelani river that’s called Hendala nowadays. Then from early 18th century they were sent to this hospital.
Nilanthi Fernando: This is the cart which we used to carry the dead bodies to the cemetery. Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by bacteria. It transmits through our nasal passage and it goes to the skin and nerves. First you start with the numbness and then you don’t feel any pain in your hands or feet. So then you are prone to get injuries, and it leads to infection and you have to have that amputation to heal the wound. Then you get muscle weakness, and with that muscle weakness you get that claw hand, claw fingers. It is not easy to catch. About 90 per cent of the community have immunity.
Arvind Mathur: If I remember correctly I think it is still 116 countries which report leprosy. The numbers are not too large. Globally also we’re talking about 235,000-odd numbers that are there for leprosy, but they’re not too little either. In Sri Lanka, leprosy was eliminated as a public health problem in 1995 but it does not mean that there are no new cases.
Nilanthi Fernando: Around 2,000 cases are reported annually. 1982, we used multidrug treatment that is mainly antibiotics we are using to treat the patient. But if they develop a deformity, so then we can’t cure that deformity, but the leprosy can cure.
Arvind Mathur: Any leper who has got deformity is what we want to avoid, because the deformities are the result of non-treatment or delayed treatment.
Abdul Hassaan: Now no disease, anything. I was in a jolly job, no. I worked in movies. I’m talking with, what do you call, the public. They come for the shows. Women, girls, bosses, from MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers. I know all the bosses there. They will come and help me, but I never informed to the company or anything. I very privately am here.
[Music]
Marina Joy Sabanathan: These are the worst-affected, neglected, discarded people in this world. So really I wanted to work with them to help them in whatever way possible. I can remember reading in the Bible that people throw stones at the people who are lepers and they are thrown into a valley called leprosy valley.
I haven’t met you before, I’m Dr Sabanathan. I was here before, I worked about 40 years ago in this hospital. So a female ward is my ward. Also ward 18 and 19. For about three years I worked here, so I thought I’ll come back and see it.
At that time there were about 900 patients or more, they were kept here like walking around, purposeless.
[translation] Okay, I remember you even if you can’t remember me.
They were doing a lot of work in the place. They grew their own vegetables, they were selling their produce to the market and people did buy them. There were carpenters, most of them were very skilled. Even I had the carpenters to make some furniture which we used in our own house.
We are heading towards the male ward, which was ward number 19 at that time. I wonder what it is now.
Man: [translation] Do you know Mr Bright?
Marina Joy Sabanathan: [translation] Who?
Man: [translation] Mr Bright?
Marina Joy Sabanathan: [translation] Oh you’re the one who came when you were a small boy. The troublesome boy.
Man: [translation] [laughs] Yeah, the troublesome boy.
Marina Joy Sabanathan: I thought I had only 16 patients here. It turns out there’s 15 in another ward. Unfortunately I didn’t bring enough gifts for them.
Just now I met a young man who was a little boy at the time when I was here. He said, “Why am I like this? Why are we cursed to be like this?” So he said he could have been like anyone else wandering around. Now they are in their late 70s, 80s, in their age and most of them have lost their relations. Though they are well, they have no place to go to call their own. There’s not much we can do for them except give them physiotherapy and look after their general health.
Nilanthi Fernando: Now the Health Ministry has responsibility to look after those patients.
Caption: Maha is getting ready to visit his girlfriend, Premawathe.
Premawathe Ukuna: [translation] We didn’t get married. We became friends and have been living together ever since.
Maha Puthiasay: [translation] She was married previously and that marriage wasn’t nullified. So she can’t marry a second time.
Premawathe Ukuna: [translation] My husband was a farmer. We lived very happily. Then the doctor took my husband into a room and told him about my leprosy. Then my husband no longer came to eat or visit home. Since then we’re living happily, taking care of each other.
Maha Puthiasay: [translation] Nurse, you know how she looks after me.
[Music]
Woman: Very rarely, people come and give alms or anything, even if the people there undertake to do something, give something, they are afraid to come and do.
Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero: When you look at some diseased person, some unfortunate people. So Buddha said think of those people that you, in previous lives in the past, these kind of experiences. So love them, Buddha said.
Woman: [translation] Please help me. God, why am I suffering?
Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero: People should be treated as real humans.
Arvind Mathur: Leprosy patients themselves can become champions and ambassadors to other patients, and encourage them and motivate them to go for treatment and complete the treatment.
Krishnan Kanagarajah: [translation] I was taken to the General Hospital where I was treated for 12 months. At this time my wife left me.
Arvind Mathur: There is a continuous effort to address the stigma and I think it is less than I have seen in other countries.
[Singing]
Joshua Sivanganam: Theatre can heal people. The leprosy affected people, they can say their story. One father said, “My wife and children sent out me from the home because of leprosy.” Then we act this story in front of them. After that, people have got a good and positive idea and knowledge and awareness about the leprosy.
People in play: [translation] We’ll get it treated at the early stages!
[Music and singing]
Lakmal Rathnayake: You can expect to see a lot of people, public people, come to here.
[Singing]
As a pharmacist I don’t need to do this programme. We are doing them to keep them happy.
[Music]
The nurses and the clerks and the other staff.
[Music and singing]
All the people are doing that to get a smile from the patients. That’s our vision.
[Music and singing]


This article first appeared on Mosaic and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence.