Closing the Pentecost Octave with baptisms and confirmations. Today we baptised six adults, welcomed six already baptised into Full Communion, and confirmed four more adults. Please pray for them all!
June Music
Sunday 1 June Solemn Mass 11:00
7th Sunday of Easter
Missa Ave virgo sanctissima Esquivel
Viri galilaei Sweelinck
Regina Caeli Lusitano
Sunday 8 June Solemn Mass 11:00
Pentecost
Missa Dum complerentur Victoria
Confirma hoc Deus Lassus
Loquebantur variis linguis Tallis
Sunday 15 June Solemn Mass 11:00
The Most Holy Trinity
Missa de la batalla escoutez Guerrero
Benedictus sit Deus Palestrina
Tibi laus, tibi gloria Philips
Saturday 21 June Solemn Mass 11:00
St Aloysius Gonzaga
Missa O quam gloriosum Victoria
O quam gloriosum Victoria
Sic Deus dilexit mundum Gabrieli
Sunday 22 June Solemn Mass 11:00
Corpus Christi
Missa Pange Lingua Josquin
Sanctificavit Moyses Palestrina
Panis Angelicus Rebelo
Friday 27 June Solemn Mass 18:00
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Missa Dormendo un giorno Guerrero
Improperium Palestrina
Sancte Deus Tallis
Sunday 29 June Solemn Mass 11:00
SS Peter & Paul
Missa Tu es Petrus Palestrina
Tu es Petrus Palestrina
Panis Angelicus Dering
As we prepare for the feast of Our Lord’s Sacred Heart later this month, here is a picture from the archive of our Sacred Heart Chapel as it once was.
Three new members of the Secular Oratory enrolled at last Saturday’s Grande Oratorio.
“A good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” (Acts 11:24)
Though not one of the original Twelve, Barnabas was called an apostle by the early Church. His given name was Joseph, but the apostles gave him a new name, Barnabas, meaning “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36), a name which seems to capture his mission in life, because he was someone who built others up, who opened doors, who believed in people when others doubted them.
He first appears in Acts as a generous disciple of our Lord, selling a field and laying the proceeds at the apostles’ feet. But his deeper significance emerges when he welcomes a newly converted Saul — later Paul — into the Christian community. Others were understandably suspicious of Paul, given his past as a persecutor, but Barnabas believed in the change grace had wrought. He stood beside Paul and introduced him to the apostles. In doing so, he opened the door to one of the greatest missionary vocations in history, because without Paul’s energy and enthusiasm, the Church would have found the work of evangelisation far more difficult.
Later, when the Church in Antioch began to grow, it was Barnabas who was sent from Jerusalem to guide and encourage this fledgling Gentile community. He rejoiced in what he saw and again reached out to Paul, inviting him to join in the work. Together they became the first great missionary pair of the Church.
What stands out is Barnabas’ quiet, steady presence: not dominating, not desperately seeking attention, but enabling others to shine, especially Paul. And even when Paul and Barnabas had a disagreement over whether to bring along the young John Mark, Barnabas again chose to believe in the one who had previously failed. He took Mark with him and gave him another chance. Later, Paul himself would commend Mark as “useful to me in ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11) and all perhaps because Barnabas had chosen not to give up on him.
Barnabas teaches us something vital about the Christian life: that encouragement is not a lesser gift. It is a grace that often works behind the scenes, lifting the discouraged, believing in those whom others distrust, and enabling vocations to flourish. The Church needs not only great preachers and saints, but also people like Barnabas, who see potential, who forgive, who strengthen, who believe.
His life invites us to ask: Whom might I encourage today? Is there someone whose gifts need drawing out? Is there someone who failed once but deserves another chance?
Barnabas was a bridge-builder, a man of generosity, humility, and peace. He reminds us that to be an apostle is not just to proclaim the Word, but to make space for others to proclaim it too.
St Barnabas, Son of encouragement, pray for us.
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Wait there for the promise of the Father
At the Ascension we heard how Jesus, before he returned to the Father, told the Apostles not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the “promise of the Father… in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). The Apostles and other disciples, together with Our Lady, waited in the Upper Room, where the Lord had celebrated the Last Supper, where they had hidden in fear after his death, and where he had appeared to them on Easter Sunday. They waited, and waited. A day and a night passed, and then another, and then another. Only ten days later, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost, did the promised Spirit arrive, in wind and flame.
We might ask why the Lord made them wait so long. Pentecost, the Jewish harvest festival and celebration of the giving of the Law, was an appropriate day for descent of the Holy Spirit, who is the law of the New Covenant placed in the heart of believers and the power to harvest men and women for Christ’s kingdom. A long wait gave them plenty of time to learn from Our Lady about the Lord’s early life, as a lovely tradition tells us, and to be formed by her to cooperate with the Holy Spirit whom she had known since her Conception.
Perhaps the most fitting explanation for the long wait was that God wanted the early Church to grow in desire for the Holy Spirit promised by Christ, to long for the Spirit’s presence, to see and know all the reasons why they needed his guidance and help, so that they would be totally receptive and responsive, like Our Lady, to his power coming down upon them.
This experience of desiring the Spirit is a lesson the Church wants each of us to learn — not just as we wait for the yearly celebration of Pentecost, but every day of our lives. We pray “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love”. The Holy Spirit has already come into our hearts, at our baptism, at Confirmation, every time we receive Holy Communion and the other sacraments. The Holy Spirit comes with every absolution of our sins, and speaks in our hearts in every prayer and good work. And yet we keep praying, “Come!” Our need for the power of the Spirit is always the same, and yet always new, as we encounter new challenges, meet new obstacles, have new needs.
In the Veni Creator Spiritus hymn for Pentecost we beg the Holy Spirit to take up his rest in our hearts, to come with his grace and heavenly aid, to fill the hearts he has made, to give us his sevenfold gift of grace, to illumine our minds, inflame our hearts, strengthen our bodies, repel our enemies, give us peace, and help us to know God the Father and the Son. The Sequence for the Mass of Pentecost asks the Spirit to comfort us, give us rest in labour, refreshment in heat, solace in tribulation, cleansing what is impure, irrigating what is desiccated, healing what is wounded, bending whatever is stubborn, warming whatever is frozen, putting back on the narrow way whatever leads us astray, granting us the reward of virtue, the end of salvation and eternal joy. That is quite a list!
The more we realise our need for the Holy Spirit and the more we ask of him, the more he is able to do for us. And so we wait, and pray, and implore: “Come, Holy Spirit.”
These reflections are sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.
“Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere in a good life; wherefore the servant of God ought always to be in good spirits.” — St Philip
“The feast hath been too much for him...”
“The feast hath been too much for him;
His heart is full, his eye is dim,”
Those words of Fr Faber’s hymn The Death of Saint Philip are no doubt still ringing in the ears of many of St Philip’s sons and friends after the great feast of Our Holy Father, which we celebrated on Monday. This year we do not have much time to hold on to the memory of that day before the Church directs us, not elsewhere, still to Heaven, but seen through different lenses. On Tuesday we continued our May devotions to Our Lady, and then on Wednesday night we sing First Vespers of the Ascension and celebrate that feast all through Thursday. St Philip, Our Lady, and Our Lord — all in the space of a few days — what more could we ask for? St Philip himself reminds us: “He who wishes for anything but Christ, does not know what he wishes; he who asks for anything but Christ, does not know what he is asking; he who works, and not for Christ, does not know what he is doing.”
Our Holy Father himself preferred nothing to the love of God. His entire life was spent “going from Christ to Christ”, be it in prayer or in his apostolic labours. He was, as has been written, “naturally supernatural”. The account of St Philip’s death could really be an account of any day of his life. He rose early, welcomed those who came seeking confession, he prayed, he celebrated Mass, he received his spiritual children and conversed with them familiarly on the things of God. But he knew it would be his last day upon this earth and so every action of his that day was done in the knowledge that it would be his last.
Ascension Thursday then directs our gaze heavenwards too. It reminds us of the hope we have for those who have gone before us in death and urges us on in our prayers for them. Above all it reminds us that like Christ, like St Philip, we too shall pass through death, and please God, one day join them in Heaven. It is there that Our Redeemer awaits us, having prepared there a place for us. It is the reminder of Heaven that allows us to live and breath in that sure and certain hope which is so indispensable in our Christian life, and which is the source of our Christian joy. It was his loving familiarity with the things of Heaven that gave Saint Philip his natural supernaturality.
Please God each of us will allow St Philip to be that loving, gentle, and kind Father who will lead us to Heaven too.
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“In order to begin well, and to finish better, it is quite necessary to hear Mass every day, unless there be some lawful hindrance in the way.” — St Philip
The full collection of St Philip’s maxims is available from our online shop: shop.oxfordoratory.org.uk
Wonderful celebrations for the feast of Our Holy Father St Philip last night with Abbot Cuthbert Brogan OSB.
Just in time for St Philip’s day, our latest publication: The Little Hymnodic Office of St Philip Neri. Available online (shop.oxfordoratory.org.uk) and in our bookshop.
The Little Hymnodic Office of St Philip Neri was first published in Florence in 1878. Each hour begins with a short verse of a Latin hymn; together these verses trace the whole of St Philip’s life in the course of a single day. Each hymn is followed by an antiphon and collect. This edition presents the full Latin text alongside a new English translation.
The translation of the hymn at each hour has been adapted from A Rhymed Life of Saint Philip Neri by Fr Ralph Kerr. All other texts — versicles, responses, prayers, and collects — are newly and faithfully translated, with care to preserve both the tone and rhythm of the original.
Little hymnodic offices were a common form of devotion in the 18th and 19th centuries. While they follow the structure of the canonical hours, they are much shorter than the Divine Office, and contain no psalms. Their purpose was to foster regular, affectionate recollection of God and his saints throughout the day.
Preparing for the feast of St Philip
For each of the last five evenings, after Mass we have prayed the novena prayers to St Philip in preparation for his feast day. They are simple and heartfelt, calling on our Holy Father’s aid for this little corner of the Lord’s vineyard which is never without need of help. The words of the hymns, written in his honour by old Fathers over the years, remind us of his life and his patronage of us in heaven. As part of those devotions we read from St Philip’s life, giving us a picture of the fruits as well as the cause of Our Holy Father’s sanctity throughout his long life. We pray to the Holy Spirit during the novena on account of the great closeness St Philip had to the third person of the Blessed Trinity. That proximity to the Holy Spirit changed the young Philip’s life, and remained for him as a Pentecostal fire for the rest of his life. From the moment in the catacombs in 1544 when the Holy Spirit appeared to him as a ball of fire and entered into his heart he was changed both spiritually and physically: his heart was enlarged so much that his ribs remained broken his entire life. Philip was taken over by the Spirit and his life was guided by the Holy Spirit’s promptings in an extraordinary way.
St Philip’s life is a good place to look for evidence of what that Holy Spirit can do in a soul that is well disposed to him. If, in St Philip’s life, we see compassion, courage and a hatred of sin, all tied to his profound devotion (particularly to the Mass) along with a radiant, beautiful joy, we see too the work the Holy Spirit wants to do in us. Although our Father enjoyed these spiritual gifts in an unusual and impressive way, we should certainly try to imitate much of what the Spirit did in him. We should imitate him in his prayerfulness, in his love of learning of the things of God, in his devotion to the Blessed Eucharist and in his zeal for winning souls for the Lord — this is what his Oratory, after all, is for — it is for making us into saints after the pattern Philip sets.
Feast days are given us as helps, useful steps on our journey to support and encourage us. Put Monday in your diary, come to the Mass for our Saint and ask him to help you in your own journey with God. Take him as your own special patron and entrust your cares to him. Perhaps we could all of us try a little bit more to allow that saint of “gentleness and kindness, cheerful in penance, and in precept winning” to steer the little ships of our lives. And if we do trust him as our friend and guide, we ca be confident that he, kindest and most cheerful of fathers, will help us along that journey to the place where he is now and forever.
These reflections are sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.
The Novena to St Philip continues each night until Sunday, when we begin celebrations of his feast with Solemn First Vespers at 5pm.
On Monday, we will welcome Abbot Cuthbert Brogan from St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough, as our guest celebrant and preacher at the Solemn Pontifical Mass at 6pm.
Our Lady, Salus populi Romani and Queen of Heaven
There has been much in the media recently about the principal image of Our Lady in Rome, Our Lady Salus populi Romani, whose history of veneration by the popes goes back to St Gregory the Great, who brought the image into Rome. But this is only one of the titles given to the image of Our Lady, and for much of its history, it has been known as the image of Our Lady, Regina caeli, the Queen of Heaven, the title by which we invoke the Mother of God so often during the Easter season.
This season is marked by this Marian antiphon in a way that the other seasons are not, because it even replaces the Angelus three times a day. So it seems worth taking a look at the text of it. It is shorter and simpler than the others. We don’t have the poetry of the Salve regina, where Eve’s exiled children mourn and weep in a vale of tears. We don’t have the clever Hebrew-Latin pun of the Alma redemptoris mater (Alma is both Latin for “kind” and Hebrew for “virgin”). In fact, the text is extremely straightforward:
O Queen of heaven rejoice! alleluia:
For he whom thou didst merit to bear, alleluia,
Hath arisen as he said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.
It seems we spend three quarters of this antiphon telling the Mother of God things she already knows. But we do that in all these antiphons, and not for her benefit. When we say, “Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy; hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope!”, we are reminding ourselves that Mary is merciful, and a consolation to us in this life. When we call her “clement, loving and sweet”, it’s not an empty compliment, but another reminder for us. In the same way, as we speak to Mary so many times a day throughout Eastertide, we are reminded that her Son is risen from the dead, as he foretold, and that we are joyful about it.
The last line is different. “Pray for us to God.” It’s not about Easter. We’re not telling her something that she already knows. We’re asking her to do something. Or…is it really that different? If we treat it in the same way as the first three lines, maybe we are telling the Queen of heaven to do something that she not only already knows but is already doing. This antiphon that we say and sing so many times throughout the season of Easter, then, is a joyful reminder of the Resurrection, and a joyful reminder that we have an advocate in heaven, looking out for us and pleading our cause, even as we go about our day and are busy with much more earthly things. Our Lady, Queen of heaven, pray for us.
These reflections are sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.
We were delighted to welcome the members of the Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors Association who are in Oxford for their annual conference. They were given a presentation by Fr Benedict and one of our architects as our plans for our buildings are one of their case studies in excellence.
Habemus Papam!
The Fathers and Brothers received Pope Leo’s first Urbi et orbi blessing after singing the Te Deum in thanksgiving last night. It is a special privilege of the Pope to be able to bless everyone in the world all at once, as explained by the Cardinal Deacon:
“The Holy Father Leo grants, in the form established by the Church, an indulgence to all the faithful present and to those who receive his blessing by means of radio, television, and other technologies. Let us pray to God that he may long preserve the Pope as the shepherd of the Church and bestow peace and unity upon the whole world.”
Conclave
Today, the Cardinals go into Conclave, locked together in the Sistine Chapel, until they elect the next Pope, the successor of St Peter. It is a serious business, since so much hangs on who that man will be. In our church, as in many, many churches throughout the Catholic world, Masses have been offered Pro eligendo Summo Pontifice, with accompanying prayers from the faithful, that the Cardinals will choose the right man. There have been Masses offered in honour of the Holy Spirit, since it is understood that he has an important part to play in the process. But what is his role? It is easy to imagine that the Holy Spirit is solely responsible for the choice, but that might not account for the bad popes who have governed the Church from time to time.
Pope Francis, who revealed that Cardinal Ratzinger had been his candidate in 2005, was asked what he thought the Holy Spirit was saying to the Catholic Church through the election of Pope Benedict. He said that the Spirit was saying, “Here I am in charge. There is no room for manoeuvre.” Back in 1997, when Ratzinger was asked whether the Spirit was responsible for the choice of the new pope, he chuckled and said, “I would not say so, in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope… I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”
Pope Benedict’s nuanced response is surely correct. He acknowledges the sense in which the Holy Spirit isn’t responsible: the electors have free will to choose whom they will. But at the same time, he also acknowledges the sense in which the Holy Spirit is responsible: the Spirit’s elastic, educative approach ultimately envelops the process and shields the barque of Peter from shipwreck. And certainly in the last centuries, the Church has been blessed with some outstanding holders of the Keys of Peter. Think of those men from the last couple of centuries, whose cause for beatification has been successfully pursued: Pius IX, Pius X, Pius XII (Venerable), John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II. The Alexander VI’s and Boniface VIIIs are all very much in the past.
The manner in which the Press reports on the choice and election of the new Vicar of Christ has been very much as if it were a political appointment. Hence the mantra from the Cardinals, “not a successor of Francis, but a successor of Peter,” which gives us hope that while the human element is indeed present — the Cardinals vote, debate, and deliberate — we should hold firmly to the belief that God works through their hearts and minds as they cast their votes.
When the new Pope emerges on the balcony of St Peter’s (whatever his theological colours) some of his supporters may think to themselves that the Holy Spirit has dramatically intervened and secured the best man for the job. Some of his critics, on the other hand, might think that the God has just withdrawn his wisdom and left the Cardinals to pick the wrong person.
Neither would be right, and both would be thinking not as God does but as human beings do. Instead, the decision of the cardinal electors will resound with the same unified but distinctive force as that declaration of the first apostles: “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28)
These reflections are sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.
May Music
Sunday 4 May Solemn Mass 11:00
3rd Sunday of Easter
Missa “Puisque j’ay perdu” Lassus
Sicut cervus Palestrina
Regina Caeli Morales
Toccata in D BWV 912 Bach
Sunday 11 May Solemn Mass 11:00
4th Sunday of Easter
Missa Ave virgo sanctissima Esquivel
Deus, Deus meus Palestrina
Regina Caeli a 5 Victoria
Prelude and Fugue in G BWV541 Bach
Sunday 18 May Solemn Mass 11:00
5th Sunday of Easter
Missa Congratulamini mihi Lassus
Ardens est cor meum Dering
Caro mea vere est cibus Guerrero
Sunday 25 May Solemn Mass 11:00
6th Sunday of Easter
Missa brevis in C, KV 220 ‘Spatzen-Messe’ Mozart
Benedicite gentes Palestrina
Laudate Dominum Mozart
Allegro Moderato e serioso (Sonata I) Mendelssohn
Sunday 25 May Solemn Vespers 17:00
Our Holy Father St Philip Neri
Deus in adjutorium Croce
Magnificat primi toni Palestrina
Pangamus Nerio Sewell
Respice de caelo Sewell
Allegro assai vivace (Sonata I) Mendelssohn
Monday 26 May Solemn Mass 18:00
Our Holy Father St Philip Neri
Missa Papae Marcelli Palestrina
In spiritu humilitatis Croce
Jubilate Deo a 8 Gabrielli
Toccata in F BWV 540 Bach
Thursday 29 May Solemn Mass 18:00
The Ascension of the Lord
Missa La Corrente Foggia
O Rex Gloriae Palestrina
Ascendit Deus Phillips