Our Lady's Mirror

Summer 1934

During the week in which the Feast of the Assumption was kept, the Slipper Chapel at Houghton- in-the-Dale was re-dedicated and the Holy Sacrifice was offered for the first time, in all probability, since the destruction of the Shrine in 1538. This chapel is in Roman Catholic hands and has been fitted up as the centre of their devotion to Our Lady of Walsingham. On the Sunday in the octave of the feast, August 19th, the Romans made a great pilgrimage, led by the Cardinal of Westminster, to Houghton. We are told between 7,000 and 12,000 people assisted at Benediction given at a temporary altar set up in the fields near the chapel of S Catherine; and so devotion to Mary under her much beloved title of Walsingham, is being revived in her dowry. We were told by a prominent Roman Catholic that this pilgrimage could not have taken place unless we had revived the cult, and above all rebuilt the Shrine. In whatever direction the love of Our Lady is increased in this country, and above all in the place of her choice, we, the members of the SOLW, can rejoice, and especially in the knowledge that we have been instrumental in this growing revival. Since the Spring Number appeared there has been much coming and going at the Sanctuary. There have been twelve organised pilgrimages, besides many other pilgrims who have come privately. The Altar of the Holy Cross has been completed. Above and below it is a gradine faced with old tiles depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament, and in the centre stands the tabernacle given to the Sanctuary by Bishop O'Rorke, surmounted by a gold dome. On either side are two pilasters decorated in gold and blue, supporting shields of the Holy Cross. Between these pilasters hangs a piece of tapestry from the First Paris Exhibition, and above it worked in gold, a beautiful "IHS", with rays. The tabernacle, which can be used as a throne, is surmounted by a canopy of scarlet silk. Beneath and within the altar, which originally came from S Monica's Home, Brook Street, Holborn, and was the gift of Canon Powell, are preserved the expositories containing the various relics which have been given to the Shrine. On Sunday September 23rd, the Bishop of Bradford, in his cathedral church of S Peter, made Mr Edwin Hurst, who has been acting Pilgrimage Secretary here this summer, deacon, and raised the Reverend Derrick Lingwood to the priesthood. On the following Wednesday Fr Lingwood said his first mass. We suppose that this is the first "First Mass" said in Walsingham, in all probability, for nearly four hundred years., and as Fr Derrick is a native of the village and also Bursar of the Shrine, it is of great interest and significance. article: 'Church Robbery in Yugoslavia', reprinted from The Times There are no illustrations in this issue: a picture of Fr Patten's bookplate is shown above gifts: several new stones from ancient shrines for the walls of the Holy House; a sign board for the courtyard of the Sanctuary

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