ODAY WAS THE LAUNCH OF THE Maternal Heart Building Fund Raffle. The aim is to restore the church of the only FSSP parish in Australia. There is much work to be done as the roof has been leaking for many years and only recently have conditions changed to make it possible to start carrying out the work required.
The church itself was the hospital chapel of the Little Company of Mary until 1988 when a Franciscan priest and a fledgling choir obtained use of the church for a Tridentine Rite Latin Mass every Sunday. From there the community has grown and become something of a hub for many apostolates.
I attended Mass at Maternal heart from about 1998 to 2007 and in that time I met my husband, married and had four children. It is a rather unique sort of community, which I didn’t really appreciate until we left. Many of my assumptions about Latin Mass Communities stem from a rosy nostalgia for Mass at Lewisham.
I will have to write more about that another day, as right now I have come home late from the pot luck dinner to launch the raffle, and Saturday is fast coming to a close here, although it is still Saturday morning on the computer which hosts this web page – that is a funny thought.
Click here for more about the Maternal Heart Community. Make sure you scroll down and listen to the recording of the Corsican Tantum Ergo – I heard them singing this after Communion. The celebrating priest afterwards said he happily kept the ablutions going a little longer to enjoy the music.
Click here to buy raffle tickets or make a donation. Hopefully they will soon post more images to show the extent of the repairs required. Some are quite urgent. Last time I attended Mass there some pews were cordoned off for fear of parts of the ceiling falling down.
