Saturday 18 February 2017

Saturday Talks for Lent: Praying with the Church

Talk 1

In the course of 2000 years, the Church has developed a great variety of spiritual traditions and ways of living out the command to ‘pray at all times’. This Lent, five guest speakers (plus our own Fr Daniel) will share with us insights from their wealth of experience in their own religious orders that will help us in our own times of prayer. These talks are sure to be a help in strengthening our own Lenten practice of prayer. Talks take place on Saturdays at 11:00 in the Oratory parish centre and are open to the public. Tea and coffee available before from 10:30.

NB: talks begin the Saturday before Ash Wednesday.

Our first guest speaker will be Fr James Hanvey, S.J.
, Master of Campion Hall, Oxford, on Finding God in a busy life: 
St Ignatius and the Catholic spiritual tradition. St Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus in 1540, abandoning his career as a soldier and giving to the Church one of her most effective missionary bodies in her history. The Society’s priests spread the Gospel from South America to East Asia, many giving their lives as martyrs for Christ. Find out more about St Ignatius’ unique method of prayer, and how it can be a help to us today in our search for God.

4 March — A School of the Lord’s Service: Contemplative monastic life in the Benedictine tradition
Rt Rev. Dom Cuthbert Brogan, O.S.B., Abbot of St Michael’s Abbey, Farnborough

11 March — The School of St Philip: The spiritual life of the Oratory

Fr Daniel Seward, Cong. Orat., Provost of the Oxford Oratory

18 March — The Odd Life of St Norbert and his White Canons

Fr Stephen Morrison, O.Præm., Subprior of St Philip’s Priory, Chelmsford

1 April — Prayer and Preaching: The spiritual traditions of St Dominic’s Order of Preachers

Fr Richard Finn, O.P.. Director of the Las Casas Institute; Lecturer and Tutor at Blackfriars

8 April — The Still Small Voice that Speaks in Lent: The Prophet Elijah in Carmelite Spirituality

Fr Kevin Alban, O.Carm., Friar of Aylesford Priory, Kent

Full details of all the talks are available in the Lent, Holy Week and Easter booklet. Printed copies are available at the back of church.