29 March 2020

Rededication

As England is rededicated to the Blessed Mother in this time of pestilence, may Our Lady of Walsingham pray for us!

From Fr Hunwicke's Mutual Enrichment

The Prayer which Cardinal Merry del Val composed and which Leo XIII commended (and indulgenced) in his Letter (1895) Ad Anglos, is very properly used as the basis of the prayers suggested for our use at the Rededication.

There is a certain naive but pleasing simplicity about the following prayer, composed probably by Fr Hope Patten, and for use on the site of the Priory High Altar. It is found in his 1928 (first) Pilgrims' Manual; possibly some of its wording may reflect the 'Prayer Book Controversies' of 1927-8.

I imagine that Walsingham, the shrines, the churches, the sites of the original Holy House and of the Priory, are shut down as I write this ... which, curiously, puts us all this morning into the same boat, of being able to be there in spirit only.

Pardon, O Lord God, the sacrilege of our forefathers, who, from greed, or fear, or any other motive, defiled Thy holy House. Here, in the holy pyx, Thy most sacred Body reposed; food at all times for the weary pilgrim, the whole and the sick. Lord Jesus Christ, we adore Thee present in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar throughout all the ages, on all the Altars of Christendom, where the blessed Eucharist has been, and is, reserved.

And to quote Erasmus: "O Khaire Iesou meter eulogemene, mone gunaikon theotokos kai parthenos ...
 ...   geras megiston aito, theosebe ten kardian pason t'hapax hamartion eleutheran. "

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