“May the Martyrs Receive You...” “Tantus labor non sit cassus”(May such effort not be in vain).

Nicole Hall, a great fighter for Tradition and founder of CIEL UK, died on Tuesday 8 July, 2008. She was sixty-seven. The following homily was preached by Fr Andrew Wadsworth at her Traditional Requiem Mass and burial on Friday 18 July at the Church of Our Blessed Lady and St Alphonsus, Blackmore Park, Worcestershire.

The occasion of any funeral is necessarily the opportunity for many thoughts and memories of a highly personal nature. For all of us here today, our many memories of dear Nicky form the necessary motivation for the prayers that we must make on her behalf. I cannot speak of her as a daughter, a wife, a mother, mother-in-law, cousin or grandmother. That will be up to you, dear Jo, Peter, Amanda and Dominic - you who are Nicky’s closest family and are here today to pay tribute to her in commending her soul to Almighty God in the Traditional Rites of the Catholic Church she loved so much. My words are of a totally personal nature, I speak as someone whose life has been touched by Nicky in the thirteen years since we met one Monday morning in 1995 at the presbytery of St Bede’s, Clapham Park, London.

I had recently returned from two years at the Birmingham Oratory and Nicky was addressing our monthly meeting of the Priestly Society of St John Fisher. This, I should explain, is a group of traditionally-minded priests, founded by Fr Sean Finnegan in the early 1990s to respond to the needs of an increasing number of young priests whose love of the Traditional Latin Mass was the guiding principle of their priestly life. On that occasion, Nicky had come to talk to us about her experience at the first conference of CIEL, the International Centre for Liturgical Study, which had recently taken place at the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Laus, in southern France. With characteristic efficiency, she talked us through her experience, presenting us each with an informative dossier that ensured that we would neither forget nor ignore her words. On reflection, I realise that it must have been a rather daunting experience for her, addressing thirty priests on the subject of the Mass. Needless to say, she did it with that verve and sparkle in her eye which I came to recognise as a characteristic trait of an entirely remarkable woman.

Nicky’s words soon bore fruit in CIEL UK which she founded in 1996 and which was launched with a High Mass at St James’s, Spanish Place, London which I had the honour to celebrate. Nicky had been involved with the Latin Mass Society from its inception and I think it is true to say that her entire adult life in the Church had been characterised by what we have euphemistically come to call “the struggle” for the restoration of the Traditional Catholic faith, most clearly evidenced in the Sacred Liturgy. This new group was a complement to the LMS’s work, providing another forum for the celebration and study of the Traditional liturgy, thereby focussing attention on the pressing need for its restoration.

Following the launch, Nicky planned an ambitious programme - some of us thought it over-ambitious, but we were soon to realise that Nicky generally thought and planned on the grand scale. So it was with equal amounts of amazement and gratitude that we welcomed Dom Gérard Calvet, founder and first abbot of the Monastery of Ste-Madeleine, Le Barroux, to celebrate the first Pontifical High Mass in England since the liturgical changes which followed the Second Vatican Council.

On that momentous occasion, entirely engineered by Nicky, the Mass at Spanish Place was followed by a marvellous afternoon conference at the Wigmore Hall, preceded by a lunch at which Nicky gave an important speech which acknowledged the essential role of Dom Gérard as the spiritual father of French Traditionalism, linking his mission to the experience of the Church in this country. For me personally, the visit of Dom Gérard was Nicky’s finest hour, because it not only established a pattern and standard for the work of CIEL UK, but it also signalled the beginning of Nicky’s wonderful friendship with that great priest, which was to become such a consolation to her in the trials of her last illness.

Having launched the endeavour, Nicky handed over responsibility for CIEL UK to others who have probably since had much cause to marvel at all she was able to achieve in less favourable times and with far more modest resources. The onset of illness provided Nicky with a less public, but more formidable challenge. She accepted it with the same dogged perseverance that had characterised all her work - she clearly believed that barriers and difficulties were there to be overcome, just as mountains existed to be climbed. In His mercy, God planted in her heart a project that would ensure that she remained entirely focused on “the one necessary thing” - her faith and her family. The decision to write a series of books about the Faith for her grandchildren occasioned in Nicky a resourcefulness and determination which even outstripped her earlier efforts.

In her characteristically steely way, she implicated all of us in this endeavour, setting us to work, collaborating with her in what we recognise to be a significant testimony to her life and achievement. I think we have to say that nobody was spared this task. All Nicky’s spiritual mentors were invited to contribute their part to her writing - all gladly and freely did so.

Just a year ago, I was honoured to accompany Bishop Fernando Rifan of Campos, Brazil on a visit to Nicky and her husband, Peter, at Dormers, their home. After the Latin Mass Society’s first triumphant training conference for priests at Merton College Oxford, which was attended by Bishop Rifan, the bishop was very keen to see Nicky. We drove there and had a lovely afternoon which culminated in the bishop’s blessing and enthusiastic endorsement of Nicky’s work. Like Dom Gérard, Bishop Rifan immediately recognised in Nicky someone who punched infinitely above her weight and whose contribution was of immense significance for the future of the Church. When I phoned to inform him of Nicky’s death, he wished me to assure you of his fervent prayers for Nicky and for you all.

I have already mentioned that Nicky found great encouragement and consolation in her spiritual friendship with Dom Gérard Calvet. Whenever I saw him at the monastery, he always asked after her and his letters over the years will remain as evidence of the affection and esteem in which he held her. In his last letter to her, Dom Gérard told Nicky that he had offered his life for her, if God would spare her to complete her work. On 28 February of this year, God took him at his word and in the odour of sanctity, that great soul left the world. Nicky was very conscious of this great grace and knew that whatever time remained should be put to good use, not only in writing, but in seeing as many of her family and friends as time and weakness would allow. With methodical foresight, she planned and cooked for those few days between cycles of treatment when she would be well enough to see people. With Peter’s unfailing help, she maintained this pattern until the end.

As Catholics, we always see significance in the time of death, especially in the case of great souls. It is therefore no surprise to me that Nicky left us on 8 July, the day after the first anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Benedict’s Motu Proprio, ‘Summorum Pontificum’, which brought about the liberation of the Traditional Rites of the Church. More than any other papal act in modern times, the Motu Proprio is the realisation of all that Nicky fought for during her lifetime and all that she now leaves us as her legacy.

She also died on the eve of the feast of two of our greatest English saints - SS John Fisher and Thomas More. The purity and fidelity of their witness was a great inspiration to her in life and it is a consolation to us now to realise that God has permitted her to be numbered among their retinue. At a later stage of today’s liturgy we will pray for Nicky saying, “Suscipiant te martyres” (May the martyrs receive you). I feel confident that even now that particular prayer has already been answered.

I shall always be immensely grateful that God allowed me to know Nicky Hall, and that I was honoured to be numbered among her friends, just as I am grateful to be able to stand before you today in commending her soul to Almighty God. She would have been very angry with me for much that I have said today, but as she is no longer able to interrupt me, I hope she will also forgive me.

I do know, however, that she would wish me to say two things to you on this day and I do so now in closing. She would want me to ask you to pray for her today and in the coming days. I am confident that this demand on your charity will not go unheeded. She would also wish me to profit from the opportunity of thanking you all for your support and love, not only through the trials and tribulations of her illness but through those long years of a life of laughter and happiness, the memory of which will always remain in our hearts.

In thanking Nicky for so much, I commend her to Almighty God in the final lines of Cardinal Newman’s epic poem, ‘The Dream of Gerontius’:

And Masses on the earth and prayers in heaven,
Shall aid thee at the Throne of the most Highest.
Farewell, but not forever!”

Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

The books by Nicolle Hall referred to by Fr Wadsworth cover Confession and first Holy Communion, the life of Jesus, Confirmation, and the post-Vatican II crisis. It is hoped that they will be published soon with a preface by Bishop Fernando Rifan.

[Taken from "Mass of Ages" November 2008, The Latin Mass Society's quarterly magazine]