Summorum Pontificum

One must at least start by singing a resounding Te Deum for our Holy Father, the Roman Pontiff, and for his latest motu proprio. It's almost a miracle.

In fact, that's precisely what we intend doing on 14 September 2007, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Rood or Cross, when the motu proprio comes into force.

Come and join us at our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, at 12 noon.

Then later in the evening, around 6.30pm, come to the Brompton Oratory where there will be yet more celebration of the day.

It's the perfect day for it as, in times past, Exaltatio Crucis or the Feast of the Exaltation was celebrated with nearly the same solemnity as Easter and Whitsun. It was the day that the Emperor Heraclius recaptured the True Cross, snatched away by the pagan Persians and their king, Chosroes.

Heraclius decided to carry the Cross himself back into Jerusalem but when he got to the city gates he was frozen to the spot and could not move. All were amazed at this and eventually the Patriarch of Jerusalem advised the Emperor to remove his imperial vesture and enter the city in humble attire as did our Lord.

The Emperor saw the merit of the idea and divested himself of his gorgeous robes and, clad in simple vesture and in bare feet, he resumed the Cross and found that he was able to enter the city gates.

So began the tradition of entering the Holy City with visible signs of humility. Doubtless with this in mind, when the first Christian general re-entered the city after 700 years of Muslim occupation, he dismounted from his horse and entered on foot.

This was, of course, Field Marshal Lord Allenby of Megiddo, the commander of British troops in Palestine and the re-conqueror of Jerusalem.

So it is a fitting day to restore the ancient rites.

This Pope is trying to tell us something, I trow, and it's all good news!