From the Chaplain

The Last Supper by Fra Angelico (Dominican artist).

From the Chaplain

The year at Blackfriars Priory School has started very well, including in our spiritual life.  We had the great opportunity this year to combine our Ash Wednesday liturgy with our opening School Mass.  This does not always happen because, as you know, the date of Easter Sunday, and therefore the beginning of Lent, moves around each year.  What you might not have heard, though, is how the date for Easter Sunday is decided each year.  Easter Sunday falls on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Autumn Equinox.  The Jewish Passover Feast in Jesus’s time occurred on this day (although in the Northern Hemisphere it follows the Spring Equinox).  In the Passover, a lamb was sacrificed to recall the Exodus of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt.  Jesus fulfills what was prefigured in this feast of the Old Testament.  He is the true ‘Lamb of God’ who was sacrificed once-and-for-all for us, and leads us out of the slavery of sin to the Promised Land.

 

The place where we recall this sacrifice of Jesus preeminently is in the sacrifice of the Mass, when we celebrate the Eucharist.  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Eucharist is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life’ (no. 1324).  It is here that God makes himself present in the body, blood, soul and divinity of his Son under the appearance of bread and wine.  Every Sunday Mass, and every Mass, is like a ‘little Easter’ where we celebrate Jesus’s passion, death and resurrection, and our redemption.

 

Here at Blackfriars, we are privileged to celebrate whole-School Masses each term, as well as Primary School and House Masses throughout the year.  We also have a Mass each morning during the week (Monday to Friday) at 8.00 am, in our beautiful and historic Chapel of St Albert the Great.  This Mass is open to anyone who would like to attend.  While we do not yet share full communion with many Christian denominations, all are welcome to attend to listen to the Word of God and join in our praise and worship of God through Jesus Christ.  Entrance to the Chapel can be made from Highbury Street, or through the side-entrance (the 'narthex') on the school grounds.  It is always (well, almost always!) finished in plenty of time for the beginning of the school day.  We would love to see you there; it is a great way to start off the day.

 

Fr Matthew Boland OP

CHAPLAIN