Chrism Mass Draws Hundreds to Packed Cathedral

On Tuesday 15 April, the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Norwich was filled to capacity as clergy and parishioners from across the Diocese of East Anglia gathered for the annual Chrism Mass.

Led by Bishop Peter Collins, and concelebrated by nearly every priest of the diocese, the liturgy offered a powerful expression of the unity and mission of the local Church. The Cathedral was bustling with life and filled to the rafters — a visible witness to the vitality of faith in East Anglia.

The Gospel reading for the Mass was taken from Luke 4:16–21, in which Jesus, in the synagogue at Nazareth, proclaims: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.” A particularly resonant choice, as the Chrism Mass celebrates both the ministerial priesthood and the Church’s sacramental life — especially through the blessing of the holy oils.

In his homily, Bishop Peter reflected on the deep tradition of proclamation, service and mission that underpins the Church. He thanked his brother priests for their “service to Word and Sacrament,” their commitment to “faith, hope and charity,” and their “willingness to speak aloud, to preach and to prophesy.” (Full homily below.)

The priests of the diocese then stood to renew the promises they made at ordination — a solemn and moving moment of recommitment witnessed by the faithful.

The blessing of the holy oils followed a procession of three deacons who brought the Oil of the Sick, the Oil of Catechumens, and the Sacred Chrism from the Cathedral’s west end to the sanctuary. The Oil of the Sick was blessed before Communion; the Oil of Catechumens and the Sacred Chrism were blessed and consecrated following Communion. During the consecration of the Chrism, Bishop Peter added the perfumed balsam to the oil and breathed the Sign of the Cross three times over the opening of the vessel, invoking the Holy Spirit upon it.

Before the final blessing, Bishop Peter gave heartfelt thanks to Fr Alan Hodgson, Cathedral Dean, and his team of volunteers — from altar servers and sacristans to stewards, cleaners and flower arrangers — for their generous contributions. He also thanked David Grealy, Director of Music, and the choir for their role in the celebration.

Bishop Alan Hopes was warmly thanked for his support during Bishop Peter’s recent illness. Bishop Peter also welcomed Fr Teodoro, Father General of the Adorno Fathers, who has signed a formal agreement establishing the Congregation’s presence in the diocese. Fr Teodoro was present at the Mass, joined by Fr Robin Joseph and Fr Alex Sunny, the newly appointed Parish Priest and Assistant Priest at St Laurence’s, Cambridge.

Following the Mass, the Cathedral café hosted refreshments including hot cross buns, with many parishioners staying to enjoy the sunshine and fellowship.

Bishop Peter’s Homily

The foundation stone of this now ‘Cathedral’ church was laid without ostentation or public announcement on the 17th July 1884, the site having previously housed the prison. Bishop Riddell of Northampton conducted the ceremony, accompanied by Canon Duckett and Fr.Murphy.

It was ten years later that the first phase of the building was formally opened with great ceremony, the nave having been completed, enabling the sacramental life of the Church to be celebrated more worthily than in years past.

The great project had been facilitated through the generosity of the then Duke of Norfolk.

The opening took place on the 29th August 1894, the Feast of the Passion of St. John the Baptist. Bishop Riddell of Northampton was once again present to preside at the celebration.

The patronal name of my Catholic high school belonged to the Bishop who preached at the opening Mass, the Right Reverend John Cuthbert Hedley OSB, Bishop of Newport – the Diocese of Newport was the precursor to the Archdiocese of Cardiff.

During his homily, Bishop Hedley employed these words:

“These stones embody, reparation, protest, aspiration. (This church) is intended, not to be a dumb monument or a meaningless expenditure of labour, of art and of treasure; but to speak aloud, to preach and to prophesy. Here will be the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, as handed down in unbroken tradition from the apostles. Here will be the Christian Eucharistic sacrifice, as it has been kept up in every age. Here will be the sacraments of the new law, and the ever-expanding devotion, the pious practices, old and new, of the faith which is inspired and guarded by the Holy Spirit of God.”

The voice of Bishop Hedley reminds us still that our duty is to serve the great mission of evangelisation. Next year we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the erection of the Diocese of East Anglia and over the next eighteen months we will all be addressing the need to adapt our structures and resources in service to the demands of the mission that awaits us over the next decade and beyond.

Today we gather as a diocesan family to celebrate the Mass of Chrism, to celebrate the full sacramental life of Holy Mother Church.

At the dawn of his public ministry, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ entered the synagogue in his home village of Nazareth and was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me.”

As then, so too now, the Lord proclaims the time of fulfilment. Today, at this Chrism Mass, we must enact what Bishop Hedley announced back in 1894, we must speak aloud, we must preach and prophesy to the people of our own age, according to our common priesthood, given birth at our baptism. All the faithful must embrace this duty, this vocation.

We must speak, though not with our own words, our own wisdom, but with the word of the Lord. We must proclaim liberty to captives and to all who are oppressed. We must bring the deliverance of healing and restoration to all who are afflicted.

As pilgrims of hope in this holy year of Jubilee, we must proclaim a year of favour. The Lord’s favour is not something theoretical nor ethereal, but something that is meant to be translated into practice, meant to be applied to the realities of the human condition.

We must therefore cry out in support of the people of Ukraine in defence of the territorial integrity of their established borders, in defence of their independent sovereignty.

We must cry out to the peoples of the Holy Lands, calling on each and every party in the conflict to respect the dignity of all, to acknowledge the needs of all, to sacrifice for the sake of justice, to extend the heart and hand of mercy in obedience to the demands of reconciliation.

We must cry out in defence of the peoples of every country where the forces of violence and oppression reign.

We must cry out also in generous support of our brothers and sisters who are bearing painful burdens in the aftermath of natural disaster, remembering especially the people of Myanmar.

In celebrating the glory of our sacramental life, empowered by the gifts of grace, we humbly, yet courageously, embrace this duty to speak and act, a work that is entrusted to us all.

We must play our part in addressing the need for radical transformation in response to the challenges of climate change.

Whilst recognising the complexities of commerce and economic strategy, we must play our part in defence of the common good by addressing the tensions created by the imbalances of globalisation and we must resist the selfish temptations of isolationism.

We must play our part in addressing the malign content that infest the hidden streams of social media, inflicting dreadful immoral distortions upon the consciousness of so many, especially the young.

We must play our part in defending the value and dignity of every human life, from natural conception to natural death. I bring to your attention the fact that the crucial vote on ‘The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’ that was scheduled to take place on Friday 25th April has been postponed until Friday 16th May and could be pushed back further into June. The postponement, at least in part, reveals a lack of confidence from the mover of the bill, and provides us with more time to hopefully influence the voting intentions of Members of Parliament.

Throughout the ages, the world has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that it cannot provide the ultimate remedy for its own afflictions. Yet, year after year, human pride declares that we need wait but a little longer before we conjure some magic ingredient that will bring the peace and integrity we crave.

We proclaim that there is but one who can address our needs and apply an enduring remedy to our afflictions. 

The one who entered Jerusalem on a colt, the King of Peace, Jesus Christ, he who is the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, he alone holds in his hands the dominion of grace which has the power to refashion human existence.

Jesus, the innocent Lamb of sacrifice, he alone can pour the cascade of grace that reconciles the human spirit, he alone can pour the oil of gladness that heals the wounds of sin, he alone can vest us in the garments of salvation.

The eternal Father empowers his beloved Son to lift humanity from the depths to the heights. Through the outpouring of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Church is empowered with all that is exchanged between the Father and the Son.

Contemplating this reflection on the internal communion of the Blessed Trinity, let me now address the priests of the diocese specifically.

In reflecting upon the reciprocity between faith and the sacraments in the sacramental economy, the International Theological Commission has recently reminded us that God the Father’s desire to give himself (to his creation) acquires its unsurpassable summit in Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the primary sacrament and the key to the sacramental structure of salvation history. In synthesis, in Jesus Christ we discover that the divine economy of salvation, because it is incarnational, is sacramental.

And so, as we prepare to bless the Oil of the Sick and the Oil of Catechumens, and to consecrate the Sacred Chrism, we rejoice that Christ, the High Priest, has called us to the ministerial priesthood, called us to serve the sacramental life of the Church.

Those who respond in faith to the Lord’s call and advance to the Order of the Presbyterate are configured to Christ, as Head and Shepherd, called to continue the proclamation of the Gospel, leading the whole community of faith in the likeness of the Good Shepherd and offering the living and holy sacrifice.

Through today’s sacred liturgy we proclaim that the Church, through the sacraments, makes God’s saving grace fully visible in the world.

My sons, my brothers in the priesthood, as your bishop, on behalf of God’s faithful people, I thank you for your service to Word and Sacrament, I thank you for your service in strengthening the bonds of faith, hope and charity, I thank you for your willingness to speak aloud, to preach and to prophesy – to employ once more the words of Bishop Hedley.

My beloved priests, in and through the sacrifice of Christ, let us entrust ourselves continually to the Father’s providence. I recommend the Prayer of Abandonment penned by St. Charles de Foucauld:

Father,

I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you: I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures – I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,

For I love you Lord, and so need to give myself,

To surrender myself into your hands,

Without reserve, and with boundless confidence,

For you are my Father.

My dear people, brothers and sisters all, pray for your priests, care for your priests, work with your priests, in the fullness of faith, in the fullness of sacramental life and communion.

Let this local Church of East Anglia, this diocesan family, within the full communion of the Universal Church, ever grow in faith, hope and charity.

We all rejoiced to witness the appearance of the Holy Father on Palm Sunday. I urge you to continue praying for the health and wellbeing of the successor of St. Peter.

Let me conclude by quoting Pope Francis, with words taken from the conclusion of his most recent Encyclical Letter ‘Dilexit Nos’ on the human and divine love of the Heart of Jesus Christ:

“I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that his Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary and fraternal world – until that day when we will rejoice in celebrating together the banquet of the heavenly Kingdom in the presence of the Risen Lord, who harmonizes all our differences in the light that radiates perpetually from his open Heart. May he be blessed forever.”

Amen.

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