Tuesday, 30 March 2021

Chrism Mass 2021

Today Bishop Paul will celebrate the Chrism Mass with priests of the Diocese. Sadly due to restrictions this is not a Mass we can attend but we can take time to remember all our priests as they renew their priestly vows after what has been a challenging year for us all. Copy of the service sheet Throughout they have offered Mass, at first in empty churches, which must have felt strange, and as government restrictions allowed some have been able to attend and celebrate with them. Undertaking their priestly ministries and administering the sacraments all of which involve contact of some sort with those receiving the sacrament must have been as difficult for them as for us.  

As a reminder of the Bishop Paul's first Holy Week and Chrism Mass we share a video of Holy Week from 2019.  How much has changed, look out for the Deacon who reads the Gospel, a Deacon no more, but a priest of the Diocese, thanks be to God. 

Holy Week 2019


A prayer for priestly vocations

Lord God, provider of all our needs, we, your faithful people of the Diocese of Lancaster, ask you to send labourers into your harvest, to give us holy and zealous priests after your own heart. Grant courage to those you are calling to the priesthood to respond to your call, and continue to guide those who are discerning their vocation. We ask this through Christ Our Lord. Amen 
We call upon you, St John Vianney, to watch over our priests, that they might always be faithful to their sacred calling. We also seek your intercession, with the Lord of the harvest to stir up in the hearts of the men of our Diocese the desire to answer the Lord’s call to the priesthood. Amen