Requiem Mass in Kilcullen

A Sung Requiem Mass was celebrated in the Church of the Sacred Heart and Saint Brigid, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare, on Saturday 18th March.

Pilgrimage to Borris, County Carlow

Members and friends of the Catholic Heritage Association joined together this afternoon for a Pilgrimage to Borris, County Carlow, and a Traditional Latin Mass in the beautiful Church of the Sacred Heart, at the foot of Mount Leinster, in the valley of the River Barrow eight miles upstream from Graiguenamanagh and next to Borris House, seat of the McMorrough Kavanaghs, the ancient Gaelic Kings of Leinster.  The Mass celebrated was that of the day, the feast of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs; Victor I, Pope and Martyr; and Innocent I, Pope and Confessor.

Reports of previous Traditional Latin Masses organised by the Association to Borris can be found here: 2012, 2013, 2014.

Unfortunately, Buildings of Ireland has only a short account of the Church here.

The Parish website can be found here and the link to the webcam of the Church can be found here.

The Hallowing of Time

The Catholic Church, both in its wisdom and in its understanding of humanity, has many means of sanctifying time. Today, set between Candlemas, which brought Christmastide to a close, and Septuagesima, which opens the long period of preparation for Easter, is an excellent moment to consider the lesser cycles that sanctify time which are blessed by the Church.

Liturgically, we have Ember Days, seasonal periods of prayer and fasting, or Rogations, the twice-yearly occasions for rogating or imploring the mercy and goodness of God.

We also have the dedication of days and months to particular devotions. One traditional method, for example, dedicates Monday to the Holy Ghost, Tuesday to the Holy Angels, Wednesday to St. Joseph, Thursday to the Blessed Sacrament, Friday to the Sacred Passion, Saturday to Our Lady and Sunday to the Most Holy Trinity. The cycle of Votive Masses in the Missal varies from this formula slightly, dedicating Monday to the Most Holy Trinity and including the Holy Ghost on Thursday, while including the Holy Apostles in the dedication of Wednesday.

Of the days dedicated, the most familiar and the most commonly practised, even in our own day, is the dedication of Saturday to Our Lady. The visions of Simon Stock and the children of Fatima would seem to be confirmation from Heaven of this venerable tradition. However, the origin of the dedication of Saturday seems to originate in the Court of Charles the Great (742-814) with the monk Alcuin of York, who composed two Masses in honour of Our Lady for Saturdays. By the 11th Century, the devotion was well established in the Universal Church when St. Peter Damien famously promoted the devotion and Pope Urban II prescribed prayers to Our Lady on Saturdays for the success of the first Crusade.

The dedication of months is also very traditional and frequently enriched with Indulgences. One traditional method devotes January to the Holy Name of Jesus, March to St. Joseph, May to Our Lady, June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, July to His Precious Blood, September to the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, October to the Holy Rosary, November to the Holy Souls, and December to the Holy Infancy. Most of these are derived from liturgical feasts ocurring during the month.

The tradition of special devotions to Our Lady during the month of May can certainly be traced to the High Middle Ages, the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso X of Castille being frequently cited. The dedication of the entire month to Our Lady may have taken until the 17th Century to be widespread. However, to Pope Clement VIII we owe the custom of the Crowning of Images of Our Lady, now strongly associated with May.

The origin of the dedication of June to the Sacred Heart is less clouded in the mists of history. We owe it to Angéle de Saint Croix, a Parisienne schoolgirl of the 1830s, who was inspired to propose it to the Superioress, not because the feast of the Sacred Heart falls in June, since it is a movable feast dependent upon the timing of Easter, but because Angéle felt that, if Our Lady had a whole month of May, the Sacred Heart should have a whole month of June.

The Superioress recommended her to make the suggestion to the Archbishop when he visited the school the following week. This she did and the Archbishop responded immediately, dedicating the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the Archdiocese for the joint intentions of the conversion of sinners and the return of France to the practice of the faith. The devotion soon spread and became universal throughout the Church.

In such ways, the Church recommends to the Faithful to dedicate each moment of time to God and to His Angels and Saints, to sanctify time and, by doing so, to sanctify ourselves.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Goresbridge 2014

This was our first pilgrimage to the beautiful village of Goresbridge, although we have had Masses in most of the surrounding Parishes. Perched on the borders of Carlow and Kilkenny, Goresbridge, as you can imagine, was named for the Gore family who, according to Dr. Comerford’s Collections, received a grant from Charles II of lands that had been confiscated from Catholics. The Gores were replaced at the beginning of the 19th Century by the Clifdens as the big people in the place.

Dr. Comerford also tells us that Fr. John Murphy led the men of Wexford to cross the Barrow at Goresbridge (also known as Newbridge) on 23rd June, 1798, where they met with and defeated a body of mounted and foot troops. They got as far as Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny but finding no local support retreated back across the Barrow at Goresbridge on 26th.

 As is usual, the Church of Ireland building stands prominent and proudly, while the Catholic Church on 'Chapel Lane' is more modest of aspect. The Church of the Holy Trinity is a small simple country Church with galleries in the transepts. It has the unusual arrangement of having the organ pipes in a gallery over the Altar.

 The Church also contains fine stained glass windows, with central plaques depicting an emblem of the Holy Trinity, Christ the King, the Sacred Heart, St. Joseph, St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Laserian and St. Oliver Plunkett.

Dr. Comerford gives 1822 at the date of the present Church, built by Fr. Lewis Moore, R.I.P. Frs. Michael Brennan, P.P., d. 1851, and Matthew O’Connell, who had served in America, are buried in the Church. Requiescant in Pace.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Borris 2014

Reports of previous Masses in Borris, Co. Carlow, are here (2013) and here (2012) and a feature on the Church of the Sacred Heart here.

Latin Mass Pilgrimage to Stradbally 2014