CORPUS CHRISTI: HOW IT SEEMED THEN.
[born 21 October 1924 at 31 Woodside Rd, the house built by his grandfather, in which he lived, apart from some early years, until he left home in January 1942, to join the SJ. Apart from some references to the future, I have tried to remain in my early consciousness, eschewing the interpretations of later life]
My early memories of Corpus Christi are faintish. I can remember the Church as it once was, and how the bell was rung from outside. The family attended the 07.00a.m Mass on Sundays.
When I became a torch-bearer, soon after 1st Holy Communion, I would serve at the 11.00 Mass on Sundays, and be at Evening Service and Benediction at 18.00.
Sunday afternoon catechism was a regular duty during my years at Holy Cross School. I was one of the first pupils at St Peter's School in 1936, and left school in July, 1940, to work for Bradley, Slater, and Ratcliffe, Incorporated Accountants, Boscombe, until Christmas 1941.
Priests remembered:
Fr Ralph Baines: a dimly remembered commanding figure: an impresario behind the enlargement of the Church, and such enterprises as the Corpus Christi players. He was late in turning up to teach me my Latin responses when I began to serve Mass. The priests took pity on me, invited me to tea, and offered me cake with jam on it.
Fr Walter Gibbons replaced Fr Baines. He was very liturgically aware, created a boys choir, and introduced Vespers of Our Lady on most Sundays, persuading a group of men to form a choir. He also began to replace the fiddle-backs, with gothic and semi-gothic vestments.
Fr Thomas Coverdale: a friendly man, immensely proud of past enterprise, including a monstrance on which rubies formed a naturalistic bunch of grapes. He is said to have told a woman who asked for her daughter to be baptised, Hazel: "You have all the saints in the calendar to choose from, and you ask for your baby to be called after a ruddy nut".
Fr George Turner: the priest who took the Sunday catechism classes. He was very fond of using his torch to illustrate the difference made to the soul by the gift of grace, and the effect of mortal sin. He was a practical man who built the shrine to the Little Flower at the back of the church.
Fr Francis Weaver: a great checker of incautious statements.
Fr John Delahunty: a superlative musician, excellent with young people.
Fr Philip Widdowson: a great and loveable eccentric. Stories abound including the occasion when he entered the sanctuary wearing a trilby in mistake for a biretta. He became the priest in charge of St Thomas More when that enterprise was opened.
Fr Cuthbert Cary-Elwes whose missionary past seemed to explain his considerable eccentricity.
Fr 'Sam' (not to us) Watson: a ponderous individual whose sermons could include such statements as: Paul uses here the figure of speech called zeugma, as in 'he took his hat and his departure'.
Fr Victor Boehme: a foreign enigma.
There were, too, a whole host of visitors, from colleges, and from the missions, one of which was Fr Ryder, whose Slavonic liturgy I was detailed to serve. Among others: Fr Crompton; Fr Mooney; Fr Stratton (of the walking stick), etc.
Some of the altar-servers:
Mr Charles (too grand to have a Christian name) who MC'd on great occasions.
John Young, the regular MC, who occasionally attended Westminster Cathedral in search of best practice. (For example we started swinging the thurible with the left hand and extended chain.)
Others included Peter (then Percy) Durrant and fellow schoolboys.
Among other great names we must include Mr Charles Leeson, an organist of outstanding quality. His voluntaries could be surprising: 'Little man you've had a busy day' once intruded itself.
Liturgical notes:
Communicants came to early Mass on Sundays since Holy Communion was not given at 11.00
All early Masses (07.00, 08.00, 09.30) were low, and without homily.
The 11.00 was usually a Missa Cantata (one priest and choir), though on big occasions we had 3 priests (i.e celebrant, deacon and sub-deacon).
Holy Week was observed with due solemnity at the then customary times: Tenebrae, of course, but never washing of the congregation's feet.
Weekday Mass: the 07.25, started with Holy Communion for those who had to get to work; followed by Mass at 08.00.
Evening Service always included sermon, and Benediction. Under Fr Gibbons it reduced from a whole variety of devotion to Vespers of Our Lady replaced on the first Sunday of the month by a version of Bona Mors including a reading from A Kempis.
Confirmations with William Timothy Cotter were followed by Benediction with prayers for Ireland rather than England.
The presbytery was very much the priest's home in the 30's, boasting a resident butler and housekeeper (Mr and Mrs Bastable)
The grounds, like the grounds of the then Convent of the Cross, were available for such parish occasions as processions.
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