The Grand Priory will once again be joining the parish of the church of St James's Spanish Place for the solemn blessing of Epiphany Water and Chalk. The service will take place at 5:30pm on Epiphany Eve, the 5th January 2025.

Water blessed in this way is a powerful sacramental with which to bless ourselves, our homes, and our families at the start of the New Year.

Phials of Holy Water, pieces of chalk, and blessing cards will be distributed at the end of the service.

If you wish to bring your own water or salt to be blessed, you must bring it in a clean and appropriate container - water in plastic drinking bottles or salt in plastic containers or bags will not be blessed. Similarly, if you wish to bring your own container to collect Holy Water, it must be appropriate and fitting for this purpose.

Our annual Advent Recollection, helping us to prepare spiritually for the great feast of Christmas, will take place on 19 December from 6:30pm, at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

Mgr Michael Nazir-Ali will give a spiritual conference at 6:30pm, which will be followed by Holy Mass at around 7pm.

All are welcome to attend.

The Order’s annual Carol Service in London will take place on Wednesday 11 December 2025 at 7pm at the church of St James’s, Spanish Place.

This candle-lit service marking the Advent season and the approach of Christmas, will include traditional carols, beautiful choral music, and scripture, and conclude with Benediction.

The service is followed by a reception. To buy tickets, visit https://bit.ly/carolservice2024. Proceeds go to support the work of the Companions of the Order of Malta with the poor and marginalised.

The Priory will mark the beginning of Advent with a traditional, candlelit, Mass of Our Blessed Lady, on Tuesday 3 December. This beautiful custom is called a “Rorate Mass”, after the first word of the Introit for the Mass, Rorate caeli de super et nubes pluant justm - “Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.”

The Mass will be celebrated at 8am on Tuesday 3 December at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, and be followed by coffee in the Chapter Room. All are welcome to attend.

His Beatitude the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa, is visiting London at the end of November.

We are delighted that we will host His Beatitude for sung Vespers on Thursday 28 November at 4:15pm. This will take place, by kind permission of our friends in the Venerable Order of St John, in the crypt of the Priory Church of St John, Clerkenwell, the pre-Reformation home of the Grand Priory and now in the care of the Venerable Order.

This is a wonderfully fitting venue, given that Cardinal Pizzzaballa’s predecessor, Heraclius, consecrated the Priory Church in 1185.

The following Sunday, 1 December (Advent Sunday), the Patriarch will preach at the 12 noon solemn Mass at Westminster Cathedral, and has asked for the presence of representatives from our Order given our long connection with the Holy Land.

The Order's Scottish Requiem Mass offered for the repose of the souls of deceased Members and Companions will be offered at 12 noon on Saturday 23 November in St Margaret's Chapel, Gillis Centre, Edinburgh, EH9 1BB. The celebrant will be the Very Rev'd Fr Scott Deeley, Magistral Chaplain.

Members, Companions and their guests are all invited to attend.

Members and clergy should bring choir dress. Vesting facilities will be available for before Holy Mass in the centre's Islay Suite (from 11:15AM).

There is parking both within the Centre grounds and the surrounding streets (free of charge on Saturdays)/

After Mass, there will be a reception with light refreshments in the Islay Suite, for which a donation (£15 for Members and their guests and £10 for Companions and their guests) is requested.

Anyone wishing to attend is asked to email Mark Hamid
(scotland.secretary@orderofmalta.org.uk) by Monday 18 November; this will assist with the marshalling of those in choir and the provision of refreshments.

By kind invitation of Count and Countess Charles de Salis, there will be (for the seventh year) a Day of Recollection at Yarlington House, Somerset BA9 8DY on Saturday 23rd November, the eve of the Feast of the Solemnity of Christ the King. Our confrère, Fr Stephen Morrison O.Praem, Parish Priest at Our Lady of Sorrows, Peckham, will lead the day.

The day will start with Holy Mass at 10.30am, followed by morning and afternoon talks from Fr. Stephen, recitation of the Rosary and times for confession and reflection. Refreshments will be provided during the day and lunch will be at 1pm. We will finish with tea at around 4pm.

There will be a charge for the day of £25 per person, which should be paid in advance when your place has been confirmed - please contact Duncan McKechnie to do so.

As ever, everyone is invited: all Members of the Order in Britain, Companions, members of the OMV, family and guests. Those based on the Southwest of England are particularly encouraged to make the effort to attend.

The Order’s annual Day of Recollection at the famed recusant house, Harvington Hall (Kidderminster, Worcester, DY10 4LR ) will take place on Friday 15 November 2024.

Harvington Hall was built in the 1580s by Humphrey Pakington and passed to the Throckmorton family in 1696. The Hall is renowned for the number and diversity of its priest’s hiding places, most likely by St. Nicholas Owen. It has fascinating early wall paintings, and more renovation has taken place since we were last there. There will be ample opportunity to explore the house during the day.

The day will be led by our confrère, Fr Richard Duffield, Provost of the York Oratory.

Horarium (choir dress will be worn for those parts marked with an *):

• 10.30am - Coffee in the Great Chamber

• 11.00am - First Spiritual Conference

• 11.45 noon - Confessions and silent prayer

• 12:15pm - *Holy Mass in St Mary’s Church

• 1.00pm - Lunch

• 2:15pm - Second Spiritual Conference

• 3pm - Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

Lunch: There is no in-house catering so please bring a packed lunch: coffee and tea will be provided.  Alternatively, lunch will be available at the Dog, which is half a mile away.  In order to fit in with what is for them a fairly tight timescale, a sandwich menu will be circulated for pre-orders a fortnight in advance.

A donation of £20 per head is requested to defray the costs of the day which can be made on the day by cash or cheque (but cash preferred), or in advance by bank transfer.

If you wish to come please contact us in advance by 1st November.

The Order’s annual Requiem Mass for our deceased members and benefactors will take place on 12 November 2024, at 6:30pm at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. The date is also significant as it is the third anniversary of the death of Fra’ Matthew Festing, 79th Prince and Grand Master of the Order.

All are welcome to attend.

The Grand Priory’s October Day of Recollection will take place in central London, at the Priory’s Chapter Room and the adjacent parish church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street on 26 October 2024.

The day will be led by Fr Christian de Lisle and will start with sung Lauds at 10:30am. Throughout the day, there will be spiritual conferences, Holy Mass, opportunities for confession, and exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Grand Priory will mark the feast of Blessed Gerard, who founded the Order in 11th century Jerusalem, on 14 October 2024 (transferred from 13 October which this year falls on a Sunday).

A solemn Mass will be celebrated at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, at the end of which a relic of Blessed Gerard will be venerated.

In addition, after Mass, the Grand Prior will confer the Medal of Merit of the Grand Priory of England on this year’s recipients.

All are warmly invited to attend, and clergy and members of the Order should wear choir dress.

The annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Grand Priory of England will take place at 5pm on Monday 14 October at 5pm. The meeting will be held in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. All members of the Order ordinarily resident in Britain are required to attend unless excused by some just cause. Apologies for absence should be addressed to the Chancellor.

The Grand Priory will keep the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary with sung Vespers and Rosary on Monday 7 October. This feast is also known as Our Lady of Victories or the feast of the Battle of Lepanto, as it commemorates the defeat of the Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571, a defeat attributed by the Pope, St Pius V, to the intercession of Our Blessed Lady after he exhorted all Christians to pray the Rosary for this intention. Galleys of our Order took part this in this decisive naval engagement, which, together with the defeat of the Ottoman attempt to take our island of Malta in 1565, ensured the Christian presence in Mediterranean.

Vespers and Rosary will take place at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London, and all are invited to attend.

Our next Day of Recollection will be the annual visit to New Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, and will take place on Saturday 28 September 2024. 

Wardour Chapel was built as part of Wardour Castle, near the small town of Tisbury, by the recusant Arundell family in the late 18th century, and is a masterpiece of the neo-classical style.  Tisbury can be reached by car via the A303, or by train.

The day will be led by our confrère, Fr Stephen Morrison O.Praem. 

Horarium (choir dress will be worn for those parts marked with an *):

• Gather from 10am at the Chapel

• 10.30am - *Lauds

• 11.00am - First Spiritual Conference

• 12.00 noon - *Holy Mass

• 1pm - Lunch

• 2:30pm - Second Spiritual Conference

• 3:15pm - *Vespers, Exposition, & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

A donation of £20 per head will be asked for on the day, to cover the costs of the clergy and of lunch

The Grand Priory will keep the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the transferred date of Monday 9 September.

This feast is of special significance for the Order of Malta. First, it is on this feast that we venerate Our Lady under the title “Our Lady of Philermo” - you can read more about this title and devotion here.

Secondly, on this day in 1565, by Our Lady’s intercession the Great Siege of Malta by the Ottomans was lifted, following four months of heroic struggle by the overwhelmingly outnumbered knights led by Jean de Valette. It is on account of this providential victory that the Mass on today’s feast has ever since been called the ‘Victory Mass’

Holy Mass will be celebrated at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

The Grand Priory will celebrate the great feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Holy Mass at 6:30pm at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick, that church’s patronal feast.

All are welcome to attend.

The Grand Priory will mark the feast of the Transfiguration with sung Vespers and Benediction, starting at 6:30pm on 6th August 2024 at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street. All are welcome.

The Order’s next Day of Recollection will take place at Farnborough Abbey, on 3 August 2024 by kind permission of Abbot Brogan. We are delighted that day will be led by Fr Pius Collins, one of the community of Norbertine Canons based at Peckham.

Farnborough is easily accessible by car (junction 4 of the M3) or train to the main station in Farnborough then a short walk. For those who do not know it, the Abbey is well worth a visit – founded by the Empress Eugénie as a monastery and Imperial Mausoleum to house the mortal remains of her husband Napoleon III and their son the Prince Imperial (killed under British colours in the Zulu War of 1879), and designed by the renowned French architect Gabriel-Hyppolyte Destailleur (who also designed Waddesdon Manor).

As ever, everyone is welcome: all Members of the Order in Britain, Companions, friends, family, and guests. Recollections are a very important vehicle for the ongoing formation and spiritual development of members, to which we all commit when we join the Order.

Please bring choir dress if you are a Member of the Order – it will be worn for those parts of the day marked with an *.

Horarium

10.30am *Lauds (Abbey Church)
11.15am *Holy Mass (Abbey Church)
12.15 noon Confessions (House Chapel)
12:30 Lunch
2:15pm Spiritual Conference
3pm Abbey tour / Confessions
3:30pm *Holy Rosary (Abbey Church)
3:45pm *Vespers, Exposition, & Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament (Abbey Church)
4:30pm Tea and departure

There will be a collection, with a suggested donation of £10 per person, to defray the costs of the day.

Please note that no formal arrangements will be made for lunch, but, as is the custom
at Days of Recollection in London, please bring food to share and we will eat a shared lunch together in the Refectory.

The latest in our series of Chapter Room talks will be given by Professor Magnus Williamson, Professor of Early Music at Newcastle University, on “Music, the Hospitallers and the Tudors”. Professor Williamson is a specialist in the sources and context of late Mediaeval and Early Modern/Renaissance English and French music, and has recently worked with Ensemble Pro Victoria (directed by our own praefectus cantorum, Toby Ward), including on their exquisite album marking Robert Fayrfax’s quincentenary, Music for Tudor Kings and Queens.

All are very welcome to attend the talk and to bring guests. The talk will last c.45 minutes, questions will be welcome, and formal proceedings will be followed by a glass of wine. A voluntary donation of £10 is suggested for attendees.

About this series:

The Grand Priory’s Chapter Room talks address topics relating to Christian culture, heritage, and history, looking not only at the Order of Malta but more broadly across time, place, people and institutions. It is hoped that the exploration of cultural phenomena and the way in which the Church has influenced and engaged with them will complement the ongoing formation of Members. Understanding our Christian culture will give us more of the tools we need to understand our Faith and communicate it to others, pursuant therefore to the Order’s charism of ‘Tuitio fidei et obsequium pauperum”. The talks also give Members, volunteers, friends, guests, and others interested in the Order the opportunity to meet informally.

Each year the Grand Priory makes a pilgrimage to the site of the martyrdom of our Blessed David Gunson on his feast,12 July.

Blessed David, one of our three Reformation martyrs (together with Blessed Adrian Fortescue and the Venerable Thomas Dingley), was executed during the Henrician persecution of the church, on 12 July 1541 at St Thomas Waterings, Southwark. Having long been venerated by the Order as a martyr, he was formally beatified on 15 December 1929.

The pilgrimage will begin with Holy Mass and Sermon at 6pm at the Church of Our Lady of la Salette, Melior Street, Borough SE1 3QP (courtesy of the Parish Priest, Fr Mark Powell OAR). The church is five minutes’ walk from London Bridge Station, behind Guy's Hospital. The Preacher is Fr Francis Murphy, priest of the Archdiocese of Southwark.

After Mass (at c.6.45pm) we will walk, praying the rosary silently, along the Martyr route via Tabard Street (formerly Kent Street) and Old Kent Road to the site of martyrdom at Saint Thomas Waterings (about 25 minutes), on arrival at which short prayers will be said. This was the route of the Canterbury Pilgrimage, so many of the holy Martyrs had made this journey before under happier circumstances.

Those unable to walk should bring a car or arrange some other means of transport.

If you would like to attend, please let us know.

We hope one day soon to be able to erect a small monument to Blessed David at the martyrdom site, for which we have the support of the Archbishop of Southwark - for more information and if you would like to support this please contact us - you can also make a donation for this purpose which would be gratefully received.

The feast of the patron of the Grand Priory, Blessed Adrian Fortescue, will be celebrated with Holy Mass at 6:30pm on Monday 8 July 2024 at the church of Orr Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, London.

Blessed Adrian was martyred under Henry VIII during his persecution of the Church and has been venerated by the Order of Malta as one of its martyrs continuous since that time. He was formally beatified on 13 May 1895.

The Grand Priory will hold a Day of Recollection in Cambridge on 29 June 2024.

By kind invitation of Fr Paul Keane, Chaplain to the University of Cambridge and recently admitted as a chaplain of our Order, the day will be held at Fisher House. Fr Paul, who was vice-rector (and for a short time, rector) of Oscott College, a fine theologian and art historian, will lead the day.

All are invited and welcome to attend: all Members of the Order, Companions, members of the University and of the Chaplaincy community, and their friends and guests.

Those who live, study or work in Cambridge or East Anglia more broadly are strongly encouraged to attend.

From 10:15: Arrival and coffee
10.45 am: Sung lauds
11.15 am: First spiritual conference
12 pm: Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament
c.1.10 pm: Holy Mass
2pm: Lunch
2.45pm: Second spiritual conference
3:15 pm: Vespers and Benediction
c.3:45: Ends.

No formal arrangements will be made for lunch, but many attendees will bring food which we will share together in picnic-style lunch. Otherwise, there are plenty of cafes and restaurants in central Cambridge.

There will be a collection, with a suggested donation of £10 per person, to defray the costs of the day.

The Grand Priory will celebrate the principal patronal feast of the Order, the Nativity of St John the Baptist, with a solemn Mass at 6:30pm on Monday 24 June 2024 at the church of Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street.

All are welcome to attend.

The Grand Priory and British Association will celebrate their annual Mass and Investiture on Friday 21st June 2024 at the London Oratory, starting at 10:15am, the Friday closest to the feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist.

Mass will be celebrated by the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía. During Mass, new members will be admitted to the Order by the Grand Prior, and awards in the order Pro Merito Melitensi will be made to those who have contributed significantly to the work and charism of the Order or otherwise signally demonstrated their dedication to Christian values.

The Mass is open to the public, and all are welcome to attend.

Our patronal feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist on Monday 24 June 2024 will be marked by a solemn Mass at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory, Warwick Street, at 6:30pm, to which all are also welcome.

The Order will once again be taking part in the annual Corpus Christi procession through central London on 2 June 2024: Members, Companions, members of the OMV, and friends are strongly encouraged to participate for all or part of the procession.

This procession is a wonderful act of witness to our Eucharistic Lord through the heart of our city and includes the two parishes with which we work most closely in our hospitaller work, St James’s Spanish Place and Warwick Street, as well as the Diocesan Shrine of the Blessed Sacrament at Corpus Christi, Maiden Lane. The Order is one of the founders of this annual event which has grown steadily since its institution ten years ago.

This year is a particularly special year, as Warwick Street marks its 300th anniversary, Maiden Lane the 150th anniversary of the erection of its church, and Spanish Place the 75th anniversary of the consecration of its church. The procession, led by the Apostolic Nuncio together with our confrère, Mgr Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, and Bishop Kenneth Nowalski, Eparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, will therefore link these three churches together in two phases: one starting at Maiden Lane at c.12:45 and processing to Warwick Street, arriving at c.2pm, where there will be one and a half hours of adoration; the second leaving Warwick Street at 3:30pm and processing to Spanish Place, via the Ukrainian Cathedral at Duke Street, arriving for solemn Benediction at 4:45pm. 

The Procession is the culmination and conclusion of the London Eucharistic Octave, a week of prayer before and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament centred on the Shrine at Maiden Lane – full detail of everything happening during the Octave can be found at https://catholicengland.org/.

The annual Scottish Day of Recollection will take place on Saturday 1 June 2024 at Kilgraston School, Bridge of Earn, Perthshire; we are most grateful to the community at Kilgraston for kindly agreeing to host us this year. 

The day will be led and the spiritual conferences given by Fr Malcolm Hutchison of the Diocese of Dunkeld. Fr Hutchison was ordained to the priesthood in 2022 and returned to Scotland following studies at the Pontifical Scots College, Rome, in 2023, when he was appointed as assistant priest in the parish of Ss Peter and Paul, Dundee. 

As ever, everyone is welcome: All Members of the Order in Britain, Companions and guests. 

Please note that, following the established precedent for this event in Scotland, participants are requested to register in advance. 

The Grand Priory’s May Day of Recollection will be held at our central London Chapter Room on 25 May 2024, starting with sung Lauds at 10:30am.

The two spiritual conferences will be given by Fr Stanislaus Mycka OSB, a monk of Farnborough Abbey.

The day will include also Holy Mass, the opportunity for confessions, Holy Hour, and Benediction, and conclude at around 4pm.

The Grand Priory’s April Day of Recollection will be held at our central London Chapter Room on 27 April 2024, starting with sung Lauds at 10:30am.

The two spiritual conferences will be given by Fr Gerard Skinner, parish priest of Notting Hill, author of a number of books (including on St John Henry Newman, Blessed Dominic Barberi, and the priesthood), and a fine musician.

The day will include also Holy Mass, the opportunity for confessions, Holy Hour, and Benediction.