Harvington Hall Requiem

Harvington is an important Catholic landmark, a moated elizabethan and medieval manor house which was owned by a Catholic family, the Pakingtons, who kept the faith alive during the dark years of the 'reformation' by commissioning such craftsmen as St. Nicholas Owen to construct secret priest hides into the structure of the house itself.

We are blessed to have next to this restored house the church of St. Mary's, where Fr. David Higham (the parish priest) says a Tridentine Mass every Tuesday morning at 8am and every first Sunday at 3pm. Today we were delighted to assist at a sung requiem for the deceased members of the Latin Mass Society.

Now, those who avidly read the Mass of Ages will notice that I am the recent addition to their servers at this monthly mass, which I am very honoured to be able to now do. This time I was acolyte, and thank God, didn't mess up too much! Note in the above picture the figure of Cardinal Newman in the brand new stained glass window in the church's porch above the baptism font.

You will notice me on the right, and Fr. Higham in his fine gothic black chausable. The sanctuary is quite crampted due to the alter being removed from the wall, but the wonderful tabernacle and stained-glass windows are, I believe, features of the original church. Fr. Higham has just published a book on the history of Harvington Hall, which I hope to soon purchase.

The sermon was based around the theme of this month, the 'four last things': Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. Fr. Higham particularly emphased the contrast between liturgical texts from the old and new rites of mass, and that our concept of hell and judgement has diminished, particularly in the way we celebrate requiem masses.

The Neri Singers from Birmingham provided the wonderful accompaniment of Felice Anerio's Requiem, with a motet from Palestrina (De Profundis) and the communion motet was Mendelson's Beati Mortui. It was an incredibly moving mass, the first of which I have experienced. I will certainly keep my LMS card with my organ and blood donor cards in my wallet: to have my own requiem mass said according to the books of 1962!

Réquiem aetérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis. In memória aetérna erit justus: ab auditióne mala non timébit.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord; and let perpetual light shine upon them. The just shall be in everlasting remembrance: he shall not fear the evil hearing.

The next Tridentine Mass at St. Mary's, by Harvington Hall, will be a Sung Mass on 3rd December at 3pm for the first Sunday of Advent!