Sung Mass in Milton Manor

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to attend a Sung Mass at Milton Manor House just south of Oxford. This house was bought by the Barrett family in 1763 and remodelled to include a chapel. Being in recusant times, it is quite hidden inside but complete with a choir loft and beautiful stained glass windows. It was a votive Mass for Our Lady (Salve Sancte Parens) with a Gregorian Chant Schola, but not a full complement of servers. I had not been to such a Mass, but it made perfect sense with the size of the chapel, and the risk of suffocation had incense been used! For more go here.

Bishop Richard Challoner consecrated the chapel in 1771, and many of his Mass endowments are still kept, and indeed used. Fr John Saward wore his vestments at this Mass (above) and read from the same altar cards that Bishop Challoner would have. It is magnificent that such a place is preserved and used for its original intention. We are much indebted to Mr & Mrs Mocklet-Barrett for their kind hospitality, and to their ancestors who helped keep the Catholic faith alive in this part of the country.

Prayer for the Beatification of Richard Challoner:

O God who made your servant Richard a true and faithful pastor of your little flock in England, raise him, we beseech you, to the altars of thy Church, that we who have been taught by his word and example may invoke his name in heaven, for the return of our country to belief in the Gospel, and to the unity of all Christians in the one Church of Jesus Christ. We ask this through the same Christ our Lord.