Indulgent about Indulgences . . .

I don’t have my Enchiridion with me at present, but I seem to remember that there are Indulgences for attending an Ordination, receiving a new priest’s First Blessing, and attending the First Mass of a newly-ordained priest . . .

So, with luck, the Holy Souls will have done well from me this weekend : not through any merit of mine, but through the opportunities provided by my generous friends of the Order of Preachers.

Yesterday I actually received three First Blessings, because I finally met up with Fr David Rocks, whose ordination I unfortunately had to miss at the beginning of the month, and who then went off to see his family in Ireland; so I (and a couple of other friends) received his First Blessing before the other excitements of the day began : and as we did so kneeling in the middle of S. Giles’, in front of a large coachload of ‘language students’ having a day out in Oxford, we may hope that we also offered some witness to the sanctity of the Sacred Priesthood.

The Ordination you already know that I attended – and seemed to be surrounded by bloggers and friends from facebook ! – and I then received First Blessings from both Fr Robert and Fr Thomas.

Today I managed to attend both of their First Masses, as Fr Thomas sang his at 12:00 noon at S. Dominic’s in London, and Fr Robert celebrated the conventual Mass at 18:15 in Oxford : so a ‘full house’ not only of joyful celebrations this weekend but, as I have said, opportunities for Indulgences as well.

I did advert to my intention to gain these Indulgences in my prayers on both days; and I hope that I shall have achieved more than a little benefit for the Holy Souls. I know that remembering to form an intention to gain Indulgences is something I don't always manage : I think I am going to add such a thing to my morning prayers, and you may wish to do the same, given the enormous benefits you can obtain for the Souls in Purgatory without having to do anything other than intend to gain them.

Meanwhile, I hope and pray that those Souls who benefit from such Indulgences as I have gained this weekend will, when they arrive in Heaven, keep all our newly-ordained Brethren - who provided the opportunity for those indulgences to be gained - firmly in their prayers, and under their patronage.

(I should, incidentally, also note that fr Lawrence Lew, ordained Deacon yesterday, was also at both Masses, acting as Deacon. I wasn’t exactly surprised when he sang the Gospel this morning; indeed, I wasn’t exactly surprised when he did so this evening, except that it turned out that he had to do that ‘on the fly’, as when he opened the Lectionary he discovered that it was a different translation from that which he had sung earlier . . ! You won’t, of course, be even vaguely surprised to discover that it was, nevertheless, quite beautiful.)

My final comment is to say that you will note that I have referred to all of the new priests above as Fr, rather than my more usual fr. Tradition having been honoured, they can relax : I shan’t do it again !