HOLY CROSS CHOIR, LEICESTER LINKS
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HOLY CROSS CHOIR, LEICESTER LINKS |
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Links: these now include some old Parish Newsletters.
Our Director is David Cowen and the current music list can be found by clicking here and following the link at the bottom of that page.
The Parish Newsletter, also below, gives information on parish activities and events.
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Refugees and Asylum Seekers - Leicester City of Sanctuary. The Red Cross remain desperate for food and personal goods and we would ask you to be as generous as you can. No clothing or alcohol please, but see the list inside or, for more information, please e mail b-.hawcroft@ntlworld.com.
MONEY MATTERS: Last Weekend’s collections: No information at the time of going to press, but should be available next week. Very many thanks for your continuing generosity. From the Editor. This time of year is especially quiet for news, so it is a good opportunity to say something about last Tuesday’s ‘Today’ programme on Radio 4. The BBC usually recruit guest editors over Christmas and new year, and Tuesday’s was Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. It featured a lengthy interview with the Cardinal in Rome, talking about his time as Rector of the English College (this was at about 8:15, so you should be able to find it easily if you are listening to it on the internet). It was followed by talks about rugby (the Cardinal was a keen player) and what makes music sound sacred. There was also scheduled an interview with Fr Reginald Foster, the ebullient American Franciscan who has been preparing the Church’s official documents in Latin for the last forty years. This must have been broadcast some time before 8am and, judging by the trailer, will be well worth finding. In a related vein, I’m sometimes asked why the texts of the Alleluia and Communion verses sung at the 11am Sunday Mass often differ from those used at other Masses. When the new Missal and Lectionary were published in 1969 it was discovered, remarkably, that many of the texts chosen for the Proper parts of the Mass did not have Gregorian chants to go with them. To get round this, there was published the Ordo Cantus Missae, which is a list of chants to be sung at solemn Masses, many of which have texts which differ from those in the Missal and Lectionary. The Dominican Order has yet to publish a new Gradual (the book the choir sings from) so, to get the right chants, David Cowen has to check the new Roman Gradual and then find the chants in the old Dominican Gradual (but they’re not always there, in which case we have to ‘make do’ with the new Roman Gradual). And to think that one of the aims of the changes in the 1960s was the simplification of the Liturgy...
Red Cross Appeal for Refugees & Asylum Seekers. The Red Cross has a list of items needed to support these destitute and vulnerable people: Dried items: rice, pasta, cous-cous, maize mealie-meal, sugar, salt, porridge, cooking oil, flour (self-raising), spices, palenta, mashed potato (Smash), tea, coffee, powdered milk, water, fruit juice, semolina; Tins: baked beans, soup, fruit, rice pudding, sauces, vegetables; Pre-prepared food: cereal bars, chocolate, biscuits, nuts, crisps, pot noodles; Baby items: nappies (sizes 2-4), baby wipes, food, milk, lotion, talc, clothing, equipment; Toiletries: toothpaste, tooth brush, soap, moisturiser, shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper.Please leave these items at any Mass. We thank you for your continued support. Copies of ‘The Black Friars’, the newsletter of the English Dominican Province (Christmas issue), are still available by the church doors. Please pick up a copy to keep abreast of everything that’s going on in the Province. Please join us in the Parish Hall after the 9:30am and 11:00am Sunday Masses for tea, coffee, fruit-juice etc. The Hall is in Wellington Street. There is the opportunity for a chat with members of the Dominican Community and with parishioners. We particularly welcome newly-arrived students and other visitors to our Parish.
IT is such an unforgettable story, after Christmas, this visit to the young baby, by mysterious men from the East. Many of our ‘wise men’ today have been suspicious and have suggested that Matthew just made it all up to impress us. In fact many say the whole of religion is very suspect, all just ‘too good to be true’; we have to grow up, and put away such childish dreams, and face the brutality of reality; life is just some weird chemical accident. Deep in each of us there will be some inclination that will make us think that; or free us, to think not. We must carefully weigh this all up. Is there something generous and imaginative and noble in us, that expects generosity and imagination and nobility to be — in a God, who ‘makes’ us? Or, is there in us determination and grit and wariness — not to be taken in? For myself, I trust, and hope, and love, to be able to follow a story like this. It all looks just like a family memory. It ties in with what goes on to happen — escape into Egypt, and the hidden life in Nazareth, and of course later, Jesus’ ministry all over the country; His execution; His resurrection; the world-wide preaching of Him that has brought Him to us this Sunday. It all fits. Even marvellous things like the appearance of the star, can, and should, make us wonder. I myself was quite startled recently by a science programme, about an unusual, blazing conjunction of planets at that time; and a morning eclipse of the sun that would have made it appear, again, suddenly, over the little town of Bethlehem, just as Matthew says it did. Let’s listen, and pray, and sing all the lovely carols, then. Fr Duncan, OP
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