We recently had the sisters of the Spiritual Family The Work to tea, to say farewell to one sister who is moving to another of their houses and to welcome another sister who is newly arrived in Oxford. The sisters live in Newman’s College in Littlemore, where they welcome pilgrims and visitors.
#oxfordoratory
August Music
Sunday 7 August Solemn Mass 11:00
19th Sunday of the Year
Missa Hic est praecursor Lobo
Credo quod Redemptor Lobo
Sic Deus dilexit mundum Gabrieli
Fugue in D major BWV 532ii Bach
Sunday 14 August Solemn Mass 11:00
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Missa Vidi speciosam Victoria
Assumpta est Maria Palestrina
Ave virgo sanctissma Guerrero
Fuga sopra il Magnificat BWV 733 Bach
Sunday 21 August Solemn Mass 11:00
21st Sunday of the Year
Missa Aeterna Christi munera Palestrina
Transfige dulcissime Biordi
O sacrum convivium d’Evry
Prelude in C BWV 547i Bach
Sunday 28 August Solemn Mass 11:00
22nd Sunday of the Year
Mass for five voices Byrd
Inclina Domine Sheppard
Sacris solemnis Sheppard
Prélude Op. 29 No. 1 Pierné
How to pray (4)
Our weekly reflections are paused for the summer, so in their place there will be a short extract from how to pray in ten easy steps. This guide is taken from The Oratory Prayer Book, a new prayer book of old prayers that we are publishing and will be available in the coming months.
4. Prepare a place
It’s easy to get distracted from prayer, so a great help in forming good prayer habits is to have a place for prayer where you can focus on God. You don’t need to build a chapel: it might be a particular part of your bedroom where you always pray. A crucifix or some other holy image can also help to focus on God. Don’t be put off by distractions. If there’s something you can’t help thinking about, turn it into a prayer by bringing it before God. He’ll know what to do with it.
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.
Br Alexander is visiting us from the Oratory in Philadelphia. He learnt how to subdeacon this weekend.
#oxfordoratory
Congratulations to Fr Rupert, clothed as a novice in the habit of St Philip today, the feast of Our Lady of Oxford.
#oxfordoratory
The Relic Chapel in 1908, newly fitted out with the contents of Grissell’s chapel, with our Lady of Oxford above the altar.
Prayer of Consecration to the Mother of Mercy
by Saint John Paul II
O Mother of Mercy, we entrust to your loving heart the entire people and Church of this land. Keep us from all injustice, division, violence and war. Protect us from temptation and slavery of sin and evil. Be with us! Help us to overcome doubt by faith, egoism by service, pride by meekness, and hatred by love. Help us to live the Gospel with the "folly" of the Cross, giving testimony to Christ who died on it, so that we may rise with your Son to the true life with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. O Mother of Christ, comfort and strengthen all those who suffer: the poor, the lonely, the frightened, the unloved, the oppressed and the forgotten. Bless us! Pray for us with St Joseph, and unite us in love. Grant peace to our divided earth and the light of hope to all. Show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus!
Novena Prayer
O Immaculate Virgin Mary,
Mother of our Lord Jesus and our Mother,
penetrated with the most lively confidence
in your all-powerful and never-failing intercession,
we your loving children implore you to obtain for us
the graces and favours we ask in these devotions,
if they be beneficial to our immortal souls,
and the souls for whom we pray.
(Here make your petitions.)
You know, O Mary,
how often our souls have been the sanctuaries of your Son,
who hates iniquity.
Obtain for us then a deep hatred of sin
and that purity of heart which will attach us to God alone,
so that our every thought, word and deed
may tend to his greater glory.
Obtain for us a spirit of prayer and self-denial,
that we may recover by penance what we have lost by sin,
and at length attain to that blessed abode
where you are the Queen of angels and of men.
Amen.
The devotions end with the Salve Regina.
#oxfordoratory
Devotion to Our Lady of Oxford began in the private chapel of Hartwell de la Garde Grissell on the High Street. When he died, he left his collection to our church. Many of the items in this photo are now in our relic chapel.
The Litany of Our Lady of Mercy
Lord, have mercy. R. Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy. R. Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy. R. Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven. R. Have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World, R. Have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, R. Have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, R. Have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, R. Pray for us.
Chosen daughter of the Father,
Glory of the Holy Spirit,
Virgin consecrated to God,
Virgin poor and humble,
Virgin gentle and obedient,
Handmaid of the Lord,
Helper of the Redeemer,
Our Mother,
Full of grace,
Fullness of virtue,
Chosen fruit of redemption,
Perfect disciple of Christ,
Untarnished image of the Church,
Blessed woman,
Woman of the new covenant,
Joy of Israel,
Honour of the human race,
Splendour of the Church,
Model of perfect commitment,
Mother of hope,
Mother of fidelity,
Mother of mercy,
Hope of slaves,
Strength of the suffering,
Help of sinners,
Relief in difficult times,
Model of fortitude,
Advocate of grace,
Champion of God's people,
Queen of love,
Queen of peace,
Queen of heaven,
Queen of the universe,
Our Lady of Oxford,
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, R. Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, R. Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, R. Have mercy on us.
V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God:
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Let us pray.
Merciful Father and God of all consolation,
you have shown yourself to be wonderful
in the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ,
and have given her to us as the Mother of Mercy.
May all of us who venerate her with devotion,
always experience her powerful intercession
and enjoy your immense mercy.
Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.
#oxfordoratory
This Saturday is the feast of Our Lady of Oxford, Mother of Mercy.
There will be the usual devotions to Our Lady of Oxford after the 10am Mass on Saturday and a procession and prayers to Our Lady after the 11am Solemn Mass on Sunday.
#oxfordoratory
How to pray (3)
Our weekly reflections are paused for the summer, so in their place there will be a short extract from how to pray in ten easy steps. This guide is taken from The Oratory Prayer Book, a new prayer book of old prayers that we are publishing and will be available in the coming months.
3. Spend time praying
God is always there waiting to listen to us, so we need to be ready to speak! Spending time in prayer might mean giving up time that we use for other things. Pick a time for prayer and set it aside. Treat it as the special time you have reserved for God, and remember that choosing a regular time will help to form a habit of praying. It is always good to spend the first and last moments of the day in God’s presence, which is why this book contains prayers for the morning and the evening. If you can afford it, there might be other moments you can spend with God. You might pass a church during your daily routine, or have a break in the middle or at the end of the day that you can give to God. Pick a time and offer it to God.
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.
Today we welcomed the newly-ordained Fr Albert from Blackfriars to celebrate the Solemn Mass.
#oxfordoratory
How to pray (2)
Our weekly reflections are paused for the summer, so in their place there will be a short extract from how to pray in ten easy steps. This guide is taken from The Oratory Prayer Book, a new prayer book of old prayers that we are publishing and will be available in the coming months.
2. Walk before you run
If your prayer time is going to fit into your routine, it has to be short enough to fit into your timetable. It is much better to have a short but regular time of prayer than to spend hours trying to catch up. Many people take on too much when they begin to pray, like someone beginning a new exercise routine with a marathon. But when they can’t keep up their new routine, they give up all together. Start slowly—walk before you run—and once you form a habit of praying regularly, your time of prayer can grow naturally.
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.
Congratulations to Fr Albert Robertson OP who was ordained priest in Blackfriars this Sunday!
Fr Nicholas preached at his first Mass the next day.
Fr Albert will celebrate the Solemn Mass for us this Sunday.
#oxfordoratory
July Music
Sunday 3 July Solemn Mass 11:00
14th Sunday of the Year
Missa Cara la vita mia de Monte
Populum humilem Lassus
Tu solus qui facis mirabilia Josquin
Fugue sur le nom Alain Duruflé
Sunday 10 July Solemn Mass 11:00
15th Sunday of the Year
Mass in the Dorian Mode Howells
Ad te, Domine, levavi Scarlatti
Ego sum panis vivus Byrd
Paean Howells
Sunday 17 July Solemn Mass 11:00
16th Sunday of the Year
Missa Beati omnes Gombert
Iustitiae Domini Mendelssohn
Ave verum Mozart
Prelude in C minor Mendelssohn
Sunday 24 July Solemn Mass 11:00
17th Sunday of the Year
Missa Primi toni Porta
Gaude Virgo Maria Porta
Salve Regina Obrecht
Offertoire sur les Grands Jeux Couperin
Sunday 31 July Solemn Mass 11:00
18th Sunday of the Year
Missa in illo tempore Monteverdi
Precatus est Moyses Palestrina
Adoramus te Christe Monteverdi
Tiento de falsas 2º tono Bruna
How to pray (1)
Our weekly reflections are paused for the summer, so in their place there will be a short extract from how to pray in ten easy steps. This guide is taken from The Oratory Prayer Book, a new prayer book of old prayers that we are publishing and will be available in the coming months.
1. Make prayer a habit
We very rarely have to be reminded to eat, drink or sleep. They are part of our daily routines. We do them out of habit. We always make sure there is time to do them each day because we don’t want to go without them. Prayer should be something special because it is time spent with someone important to us, not because it is something rare. If you want your friendship with God to grow, you need to spend time with him. Make a routine and form habits of praying at set times. Put prayer first so that it doesn’t get forgotten. Form a habit, and you won’t have to spend time thinking about praying every time you want to pray.
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.
Celebrating the feast of our local martyrs.
“The executions took place at Oxford in July 1589. The two priests were each dragged through the streets on a horse-drawn hurdle. The first to die was Fr George Nichols. Having been refused permission to address the crowd, he made his profession of faith. He made it clear that he was being executed merely because he was a priest. Climbing the ladder to the gallows, he made the sign of the cross on each rung and kissed it. Then he was thrown off to his death.
“Fr Richard Yaxley was the next to die. He embraced the body of his dead colleague, then climbed the ladder and started to make his own profession of faith. But, before he could finish, he too was pushed off.
“It was now Thomas Belson’s turn to die. He hugged the bodies of the two priests and prayed that he would share their courage. He climbed the ladder, started his profession of faith and, like Fr Yaxley, was executed before he could finish. He was twenty-six years old.
“Finally, it was the turn of Humphrey Prichard, the servant from the Catherine Wheel. At the top of the ladder, he told the crowd that he died for ‘being a Catholic and faithful Christian of Holy Church’. A Puritan minister mocked him for being ignorant. Prichard replied that ‘what I cannot explain by mouth, I am ready and prepared to explain and testify to you at the cost of my blood.’ Whereupon he was thrown from the ladder.
“The priests were decapitated and quartered, their heads and quarters being parboiled in a cauldron. Their remains were then fixed to the wall of Oxford Castle, where they were mutilated by Puritan extremists. A couple of days later, the remains were fixed to the town gates. The right arm of Fr Nichols is reported to have swivelled round of its own accord. Some said it pointed accusingly at the city.” (From ‘Thames Valley Papists’ by Tony Hadland)
#oxfordoratory
Fr Benedict has been unpacking loads of great new books for our bookshop.
#oxfordoratory
Romanità
It is a much-quoted line of Cicero which says that to be ignorant of the past is to ever remain a child. Memory and learning the lessons of the past is part of what it is to be mature. It is true of our faith, too. Remembering particularly the wonders the Lord has done is a constant refrain in the Old Testament and, for Catholics, being faithful to that which was handed down to us from the Apostles requires of us a remembrance of things past. But this requires not just a mere remarking upon the past as we might do in a museum, observing artefacts. Rather, the past of which we speak, the Tradition of the Church, informs the present and the future, because we live it in the now.
At Vespers this evening the Church prays, in the hymn for Peter and Paul, “O happy Rome, which was consecrated by the glorious blood of the two Princes!” They are called princes not because of any earthly power or stately glory at the time — the state put them to death — but on account of their faith and their share in the glory and kingship of Christ, sealed by the shedding of their blood.
It is not just out of pietas to these Apostles, these Princes of the Church of Rome, that our particularly Roman Catholic traditions and heritage is important. We speak of the importance of a Romanità in what we do in church not out of some sort of mawkish sentimentality. Rather, it is a statement and a participation in what has gone before us. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis a few years ago reminded us that: “To be modern, some believe that it is necessary to break away from the roots. And this is their ruin, because the roots, the tradition, are the guarantee of the future.” To be fearful of our tradition, to be anxious at the presence of the past is a fear that our ways, our innovations, our blowing with trends and fads — which at times seem attractive — might be curtailed. Tradition, its practices and above all its Sacred Teachings, free us. They strengthen our unity in faith, and they give us a trajectory.
Our Catholic remembering sees itself crowned in the Mass, when we not only remember and recall the sacrifice of sacrifices of our Lord and Saviour, but by our “hyper-remembering”, by action of the Lord made present again we participate in that sacrifice again. We receive its merits afresh, applied now. Our past, made present now, saves us.
Romanità is not just a particular decorative taste or an affinity for a kind of music (it includes those things and we must celebrate them). It is moreover an active participation in the faith and the sacrifice and the mysteries of those who have gone before us, who have sought to follow Christ in his way — and in the case of Saints Peter and Paul even to death. It is our tribe, our identity and culture. It is the way we express our fidelity to the Lord and to his teachings, passed down from these men who planted the faith at the centre of the world in the city of Rome.
We must learn about our Roman Catholic tradition. We must embrace it as our culture, as the roots from which we draw much to help us live well now. But it is so much more than just a source of inspiration. It is our participation in what St Peter and St Paul died for. It is our sharing in the life and work of all the other saints we hear of in the Roman Canon, or who were buried in the Catacombs, down to St Philip and his holy friends, or any of those great saints of the Church. With an active participation in that treasury of faith, we can face the future with confidence.
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.
Devotions to Our Lady of Oxford on the feast of her Immaculate Heart.
These devotions take place every Saturday after the 10am Mass.
#oxfordoratory
The Feast of God
One of the most iconic images of the Catholic Church has to be St Peter’s in Rome and the square in front of it. When a news article needs a photo to accompany a story on the Church, that’s the picture they use. So even if you’ve never been to Rome, we can all imagine that scene: the façade of the basilica, with the colonnade surrounding the square, drawing you in with the two great ‘maternal arms of Mother Church’ as their architect Bernini called them. And forming the welcoming committee, the friendly face of the Church, are the saints — 140 statues of them on top of the colonnade, all facing inwards, welcoming visitors to the square into their company. All, that is, except one.
As you enter the square, the first saint on your left isn’t paying any attention to what’s going on there. He has his back to the basilica, and is looking out over the city of Rome. That saint’s name is Norbert. And the reason he’s not interested in what’s going on behind him is that he’s holding up a monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament and showing it to the world. Before you even step foot in St Peter’s, it’s been made pretty clear: this is what it’s all about. If you want to know what the focus is of the Church’s life, here’s the summary. Or rather, not what, but who. It’s all about Jesus Christ, who gives himself to us under the appearance of bread.
It’s at this point we realise we also have to admit something quite shocking: the French have got it right. They call Corpus Christi Fête-Dieu — the feast of God. It says something about what an important day it is. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost — all of these days celebrate the most important events in salvation history. But Corpus Christi celebrates one of the greatest mysteries in salvation history. We couldn’t celebrate those feasts — at least not properly, not in the way that we do — without the Mass. Corpus Christi is the celebration of what makes every other feast day possible, what makes it possible to encounter the Word made Flesh when we come to Church at Christmas. This is what makes us able to meet the risen Christ ourselves on Easter Sunday. Corpus Christi is the celebration of our own encounter with Christ, not in some vague and abstract way, but in a real, objective, and simple way. Christ makes himself present, under the appearance of bread, and gives himself to us.
At the Last Supper, shortly after giving his Body and Blood to his disciples for the first time, Jesus said to them, ‘No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.’ (John 15:15) This is one of the most important things that Christ ever revealed to us. God calls us friends, he calls us into a relationship with him not of slavery, but — and we wouldn’t dare to say it unless he had said it first — a relationship of equals.
Human beings are not purely spiritual beings like angels. We struggle to form purely spiritual relationships with other people. It’s unlikely that your best friend is someone you’ve never met in person. It’s through this gift of his Body that Christ opens up the possibility of a real, human relationship with him. We don’t have to imagine that he’s there, we don’t have to convince ourselves that he is close to us. We know it, we can be sure of it, because of this sacrament.
Just as this feast comes as a high point after so many other great feasts of the Church’s year, so this sacrament is the high point of all the sacraments. The feast of Corpus Christi couldn’t take place if Christmas and Easter had never happened, and similarly, we would never receive Holy Communion if we hadn’t first been baptised, if we didn’t have access to confession, if there were no men ordained as priests to celebrate the Mass. But, of all the sacraments, Holy Communion is the greatest because, as St Thomas Aquinas pointed out, the other sacraments all use some kind of instrument to do God’s work. When we baptise a person, the water doesn’t become God. When we are confirmed, the chrism isn’t turned into the Holy Spirit. But in the Eucharist, Christ is not working through bread and wine. Those material things are turned into him. Holy Communion is actually him himself. God works through all of the the sacraments, but only the Eucharist actually is God.
That encounter with Christ that each of us undergoes when we receive Holy Communion is hidden and private — so hidden that most of what he does in that moment is unseen even to ourselves. But the effects are not to be hidden. We can’t touch God and remain untouched by him. That image of St Peter’s in Rome is an image of what we are called to. We enter the church, we receive God, we enjoy the company of all those saints, but like St Norbert, our task is then to show Christ to the world, to draw them into his friendship as well.
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.