The Church of Our Lady of Virtues,Fuente de Piedra, The

PilgrimageThe Newsletter of the

Parish of St. George with St. JamesAguadulce,

Sevilla, Spain.

A Parish of the Holy Catholic Church, Western

Rite.

In the Family of Catholic Churches.

September, 2011Services in the Chapel of St. George with St. James unless otherwise indicated:

Solemn Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Virtues, Fuente de Piedra 1015 (Sundays)Weekday Mass (Tues, Thu, Sat) 0930 AguadulceWeekday Mass (Mon, Wed, Fri) 0930 Fuente de Piedra

Chapel of Our Lady of Walsingham Evensong with Benediction 1830 (Sundays) Aguadulce

Requiem Mass (Monthly) As announced Aguadulce Saints’ Days, Holy Days and “Fiestas” As announced

The worshipping Community of this parish meets in the Chapel, St. George’s Presbytery, Calle Almeria 13, Aguadulce, Seville Province, and in the Chapel of

Our Lady of Walsingham, Calle Principe de Asturias 15, Fuente de Piedra, Malaga Province and on Sundays in the Church of Nuestra Señora da las Virtudes,

Fuente de Piedra. Malaga Province.

Above and below are pictures of our new Sunday home! The Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de las Virtudes (Our Lady of Virtues) in Fuente de Piedra,. The pictures show the Altar as used by the Spanish parish (left) and set up for the English Mass on Sunday mornings (centre and right). The sign above welcomes you into the town as you approach from Humilladero.

We are greatly indebted to His Grace, Bishop Jesus Esteban Catala Ibañez, Bishop of Malaga, Fr. Kiko, Parish Priest of Fuente de Piedra and the officers of the Parish of Our Lady of Virtues for allowing us the use of their church on Sunday mornings. We have been very happy in our homes in Fuente over the last three years and see this as a very generous concession to us by the parish and diocese. We can still frequent our usual haunts for coffee after Mass and are getting to be more widely known in the area. The acoustics are excellent and the accompaniment to our singing sounds wonderful and our singing the better for it! We have had to bring forward the time of the commencement of the Sunday Mass due to the Spanish Mass taking place at 1230 in winter. We have the Sunday morning to ourselves in Summer as their main Mass reverts to Saturday evening but we feel that for us, it is better to keep a continual pattern for the sake of good order and regularity. However, please note the change of times of the weekday Masses to 0930 for the reasons mentioned in the supplement to last month's Newsletter.

August, therefore, for us has been a very exciting month, spoilt only by the news of rioting, violence, thieving and insurrection in UK cities, in particular my home city, Manchester. The levels of violence, damage, injury to police officers and the terrorising of normal peace-loving people was far in excess of any possible excuses – and we got them; young people have nothing to do; we are victimised because of our colour; we come from a deprived area, etc. etc. How refreshing was it when irate mothers brought their recalcitrant offsprings to police stations because they were so annoyed to see them on their television screens or in their newspapers looting and rioting. A 42inch plasma television screen suddenly appearing in a child's bedroom should alert parents or at least give them a clue that the little thief has been up to no good! Nor was it restricted to any ethnic group. The horror of three young Asian men being mown down intentionally by a car and killed showed that the victims were of all races and how wonderful was the father of one of those young Asian men who called for peace and racial harmony when it would have been understandable for him to have called for vengeance. How right, also, was the Prime Minister when he stated something which needed saying – that modern Society has gone too far constantly seeking out it rights as opposed to its responsibilities. Human Responsibilities should begin to take priority over Human Rights; if they do then the latter will follow on from the former by natural course.

September is a month of low attendances for us as many of our parish return to the UK in August and/or September due to the heat here in inland Andalucia. At the time of writing, our mid-day temperatures are averaging well over the 40c figure and whilst that sounds fantastic to our readers in the damp, wet and miserable UK, it is very hot for most people here. For me, however, it is wonderful! They have thinned my blood so much since my heart-attack that I find it hot but not excessive. My blood is now so thin, I could pass for a member of the Russian royal family! However, in our new Sunday home we have picked up several holiday makers who, I hope, will visit us regularly when here (hence the importance of maintaining a regular starting time). Most own property in the area so frequent returns are hopefully going to mean regular attendance at Mass. When everyone is back toward the end of September we hope to have some parish activities including barbecues and a resurrection of the “Come dine with me” activities we enjoyed last year (Barry Best's “world-famous” Cheese and Onion Pies are a must!). This will boost parish funds as we feel it only right that a percentage of our offerings on the plate should be shared with the Parish of Our Lady of Virtues for the use of their electricity and facilities, whilst we still have our own expenses to meet. Whilst on the subject of funds, may I re-iterate that neither I or Fr. Derek, nor any of our parish officers take any

remuneration for our work except expenses against receipt for items purchased. We also do not make any claim for mileage. Neither Fr. Derek or I receive a stipend just as the Apostles took no remuneration for their work other than shelter, food or gifts for the common good. We all support ourselves through our pensions or private sources and donate our services for the greater good of Christ's living body, the Church. This applies not only to us, but to all our bishops, priests and parish officers in the Diocese of Europe.

Whilst we have our Diocese in mind, it would be useful to remind ourselves that the Patroness of our Diocese is Our Lady of Walsingham. Her feast day falls this year on a Saturday (24th. September), but we will keep the Solemnity on the following day, Sunday the 25th. with a Solemn Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Virtues, Fuente de Piedra, with the commemoration of the Sunday, Trinity 14. Our hymns will be Marian and our thoughts and prayers of pilgrimage and support for the Shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham itself. Over this year Joe and I have visited a good number of shrines, but Walsingham never fails to uplift, impress and spiritually refresh. It is Ecumenism in the real sense – not finding the lowest common denominator and ignoring all else, but Christians coming together to honour the Theotikos in surroundings conducive to that purpose and to the subjection and banishment of sectarian differences. The Anglican and Roman Catholic shrines work closely together and support each other. The Anglican shrine is in the centre of the village and, due to its resurrection by Fr. Hope Patten in 1922, in the prime location. The Roman Catholic shrine is one mile out of the village at a Slipper Chapel around which a magnificent shrine centre has been established. Having visited the shrines at Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela this year, why is Walsingham so special to us? I suppose, this beautiful Norfolk village, the epitome of Englishness, is special to us for just those reasons. It is in Norfolk and very English! It makes the “Lourdesque” processions through the village even more amazing because it is so 'Englishly' reserved. What is the purpose of any shrine? They are places of pilgrimage, and much more, but nothing less. In days gone by, Christians found solace and, sometimes, absolution in making pilgrimages. The idea was to visit the Holy Lands for that purpose, but when the Holy Lands fell into Muslim hands, other centres became important – firstly, for us in the western Church, Rome. However, getting to Rome (Alitalia had not yet been established!), was difficult and dangerous so other centres became important alternatives. Santiago de Compostela was one of the oldest and most frequented in early times but Walsingham, yes, this small Norfolk village, was close on its heels. People came from all over Britain, western Europe, Scandinavia and northern/central France as it was easier and safer to reach Walsingham than Rome or Santiago. It was not regarded as a “cop out” as everyone knew that, despite the “success” of the Crusades, the violence and mercenary attitudes of the soldiers of the Crusades had totally fractured relations between Christians of the western (Roman) Church and those of the Eastern (Constantinople/Orthodox) Church. When, in the fourth Crusade, it became obvious that they were not going to reach Jerusalem and the Holy Lands, the crusaders of the Western Church sacked, looted and destroyed the holy places of the Eastern Church to make their journeys worthwhile!

Therefore, centres such as Walsingham became important in the experience of Christians to enable pilgrimage, penitence and absolution in their spiritual lives. So, what is the truth of Walsingham? It was during the reign of King Edward IV (1461 -1483) that the story of Walsingham was first written down and a copy is preserved in the Pepysian Library in Cambridge. However, the story of Walsingham begins many years earlier in the middle of the 11th. Century. Richeldis, the widow of the Lord of the Manor of Walsingham Parva, had a vision in which Our Lady appeared to her and took her in spirit to Nazareth and showed her the place where the Archangel Gabriel had appeared to her at the Annunciation. Richeldis was instructed to take special note of the dimensions of the Holy House and to build a replica of it in Walsingham. Richeldis had the vision three times and then determined to carry out the wishes of Our Lady, but where in Walsingham was she to build it? One night, during which there was a heavy fall of dew, it was observed that in a certain meadow two spaces of equal size had remained dry. Richeldis took this as a sign that the House was to be built there and chose the site close beside a pair of twin wells. However, the building of the House was fraught with disaster and the labourers eventually came to Richeldis and told her that forces which they did not understand were preventing the building of the House on that spot. All that night, Richeldis spent in prayer and meditation and the next morning, a miracle had taken place. The House was found completed and erected on the other dry spot some two-hundred feet from the site chosen by Richeldis and it was believed that Our Lady with the assistance of the holy Angels had removed the House to the spot which was chosen by Mary herself. Make of that what you will, but make no decision until you have visited the Shrine itself. The House was encased in a larger church and became England's greatest place of pilgrimage, overtaking Canterbury (St. Thomas) and Durham (St. Cuthbert) as the most important place of pilgrimage in the land – the fact that it was established as a replica of the Holy House in Nazareth and thereby mirrored the

Holy Lands, as it were transported to Norfolk, made it of even greater importance. Walsingham remained the most important place of pilgrimage in England until Henry VIII, influenced by his “Iago”, Thomas Cromwell, dissolved the shrine and its abbey for the wealth it had accrued and, of course, with the rise of Protestantism, Walsingham's Shrine never recovered. That is until 1922 (although by this time Pilgrimages had been going to the Slipper Chapel as a Roman Catholic devotion for 35years).

With the Catholic Revival in the Church of England, there came to the parish of Walsingham a priest, highly appreciative of the the role of principle place of pilgrimage his parish had achieved, a certain Fr. Alfred Hope Patten (Hope was a Christian Name and not part of a double-barrel surname). Concious of the past but looking to the future, it became his Mission to restore the Shrine itself and the devotion to Our Lady in the minds of Catholic Anglicans. We are the beneficiaries of Fr. Alfred Hope Patten and the Anglo-Catholic revival which he espoused. He began by erecting a mini-shrine in the parish church of Walsingham which began to attract visitors and pilgrims from all over England. As the fervour increased, Fr. Hope Patten determined to re-establish the Shrine itself and in 1927, the numbers had swelled to the extent that the Hospice of Our Lady, Star of the Sea (a place of accommodation and not, as in modern usage, a refuge for the terminally sick),was established. In 1931 the parish church had been eclipsed by the number of pilgrims coming to Walsingham and it was time to erect a proper and fitting shrine once more. A site as near to the original as possible was chosen and the dimensions of the Holy House and the church which encased it were followed to the letter. During the laying of the foundations of the Holy House, a hidden well was discovered and this has never run out or dried up since that day and provides Holy Water for pilgrims coming to the shrine, with sprinkling and many miracles attributed to its efficacy.

During his visit to the UK, Pope John-Paul II named Walsingham as England's National Shrine (something we Anglo-Catholics had long since regarded) but also allocated 24th. September as the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham – which date we are pleased to co-celebrate with our Roman brothers and sisters. Nor is Walsingham restricted to Western Catholics. In the (Anglican) Shrine there is an Orthodox altar reserved for our Eastern Orthodox brethren thus making Walsingham truly a pan-Catholic centre of worship and appreciation of the Mother of God. The Shrine is not known as “England's Nazareth” without just cause. Nothing compares with this beautiful Norfolk village for serenity, spirituality and the love and appreciation of Our Blessed Lady. It is unique. This is the story of Walsingham, and, in my opinion, is “The Lord's doing and marvellous in our eyes” (Ps.118 vs 23). We are proud to have Our Lady of Walsingham as our Diocese's Patroness.

So, what else do we have to look forward to this coming month. Well, Our Lady has other feast days to celebrate this month; her Nativity (08SEP), the Most Holy Name of Mary (12SEP), The Seven Sorrows (15SEP), and on the same day as appointed for OLW, Our Lady of Ransom (24SEP). The Guild of Our Lady of Ransom were largely responsible for the renovation of the Slipper Chapel a mile outside Walsingham around which the modern Roman Catholic Shrine has emerged which fact probably led Pope John-Paul to allocate that day to Our Lady of Walsingham as well. Our Requiem for September will be on 13 th. SEP, St. Matthew on the 21st., St. Michael on the 29th and the day before, St. Wenceslas (28SEP). The last is one of the Patron Saints of the Czechs and, through my association with so many Czechs and their airline, is always kept here as a day of appreciation of Czech and Slavic Christianity and prayerful support for the Czech and Slovak Republics and my many friends there and from there.

Don't forget: You can't follow God on Facebook; you can't tweet Him on Twitter:

Try prayer!

You can't follow us on Facebook; you can't tweet us on Twitter;Try the Telephone!

Please send any written contributions to Fr. David, (financial ones will help, too!) Cheques should be made payable to “The Parish of St. George with St. James” and sent to:

Fr. David Worsley, Parish Priest, St. George’s Presbytery, Calle Almeria 13, 41550 Aguadulce. Sevilla. Spain.

Tel / Fax: (0034) 954 816 668 [land line] or (0034) 627 168 614 [mobile]Fr. Derek Cantellow, Assistant Priest,

Calle Principe de Asturias, 15. 29520 Fuente de Piedra. Malaga. SpainTel: (0034) 952 736 160 or 616 019 747 [mobile]

And, of course the dreaded E-mail thingy: georgeandjimmy@aol.com But which saves us considerable expense!

For further information on the Holy Catholic Church – Western Rite, please contact Fr. David at the above address and contact numbers. The Diocese's Web-site is www.holycatholicchurch-wr.webs.com But please note this is not at present

under the control of the Diocese itself. The parish has use of the Royal British Legion's Web-site and our pages can be retrieved by entering: www.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/mollina/ecclesiastical