OYA 2025–2026

Oratory Young Adults meetings include a time of discussion, catechesis, conversation and prayer. Refreshments are available from the Cafe Neri bar from 7:30 and the main discussion begins at 8pm. Adults aged 18 to 35 are welcome to come along.

24 October — Come and see —
What does it mean to be a disciple?
The first in a new series of meetings for young adults at the Oratory. Jesus invites all of us to become closer to him and become his disciple. What about you? Have you answered his invitation? Come along and explore with us what it means to be a disciple.

14 November — Who do you say that I am? Answering the great question.
Perhaps the most important question we can answer. Who is Jesus, not in theory, not to other people, but to you? Answering this question changed the lives of his disciples. Come along to find out how your answer can change your life.

28 November (in place of December meeting) — Staying healthy
Sometimes the Christian faith gets reduced to a code for living a moral life. But Christ tells us that he came so that we may have life, and have it to the full. We’ll be thinking about how God saves us from far more than just sin, and how Christ helps us to live a life that is truly happy.

23 January — “God’s home is among mortals” — What is heaven like?
Heaven is where we are all aiming for, but what will it be like when we get there? Are we going to spend eternity on fluffy clouds with angels playing harps? Scripture presents a far more appealing picture. Come and learn how praying with the scriptures can give us a glimpse of heaven here on earth.

13 February — When the going gets tough, the tough get praying
How do we pray when everything seems to be going wrong? Those who turn to Christ for help in the Gospels give us an example of sincere prayer, even when God seems to ignore our cries for help. Come along to find out more.

6 March — Being really sorry
Confession can feel daunting, but it is really one of the most beautiful encounters we can have with God — a return to the Father who never stops waiting for us. Come and hear some practical advice on confession, and reflect on what it means to be truly sorry.

1 May (in place of April meeting) — Should we be afraid of evil?
We know that the Christian life involves fighting some evil forces, like sin and temptation. But there are also supernatural forces out there. Should we be scared of them? Are demons something for Christians to worry about or not, and what can we do to keep ourselves safe? Come along to find out more.

22 May — What does it mean to be good?
Every Christian is called to be good, but what does that mean? In this meeting we will be discussing just what it means to live the virtuous life and how only striving to do this will make our lives truly happy ones.

5 June — Christ has no body now on earth but yours
The work that Jesus began in the Gospels carries on today, and it’s our job to do it. But can we? Are we really able to carry on that work? Christ has set us a challenge — find out how to live up to it, and see some of the miracles we work ourselves on the way.

O Jesus Christ, remember,
When thou shalt come again,
Upon the clouds of heaven,
With all thy shining train:
When every eye shall see thee
In deity revealed,
Who now upon this altar
In silence are concealed.

Remember, then, O Saviour,
I supplicate of thee,
That here I bowed before thee,
Upon my bended knee;
That here I owned thy presence,
And did not thee deny;
And glorified thy greatness
Though hid from human eye.

Accept, divine Redeemer,
The homage of my praise;
Be thou the light and honour
And glory of my days.
Be thou my consolation
When death is drawing nigh;
Be thou my only treasure
Through all eternity.

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Our Forty Hours’ Devotion has begun.

Join us any time tonight or tomorrow for exposition until midnight on Saturday.

7:00 Sung Lauds of the Blessed Sacrament
8:00 Mass — Extraordinary Form
10:00 Mass — Votive Mass for Peace

NB: The advertised Musical Oratory has been cancelled

Confessions will be heard as usual from 17:30–18:30

18:30 Mass — Vigil Mass of Sunday
21:00 Sung Compline

Masses are as usual on Sunday, with closing Choral Vespers, Procession & Benediction at 5pm

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The Forty Hours

Our annual Quarant’ore devotion — Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament all weekend — begins with a Solemn Mass on Friday evening. The Sacrament will remain exposed, and the church open, all night and throughout the next day, interrupted only by the celebration of Mass. The altar will be decorated with many candles and flowers, and in the centre a throne, and on the throne the monstrance. The opening Mass will feature beautiful vestments and the best music, building in a great crescendo of as much splendour as we can muster. And then, the music stops, and the lights are dimmed, and all focus is on that gold monstrance. And there our focus, our attention, our hearts, will remain for forty hours.

For what is placed in the monstrance, is a Who and not a thing: he is Christ the Lord, and we come to be in his company, in his presence. Even though we will see the Host, seemingly immovable and inactive surrounded by candles and flowers and hangings, we know that there is more happening than the eye can see. Christ is not inactive and immovable in the Eucharist. In this sacrament, he continually pours himself out in love for us and for the world he came to save. We gaze on him in the Blessed Sacrament because he first gazed upon us with eyes of love, a look that sees into the very core of our being, loving us, calling out to us, asking that we forsake our sinful ways and our petty distractions, and return our love for his. Where Christ is, there is heaven and when Christ comes he never comes alone. All of heaven draws near to us: the angels and the saints, our brothers and sisters who have gone on before us draw close; past, present and future all converge in him who is the Lord of time and history. This is why when the Christian prays, even in early in the morning in a dark church, he or she never prays alone. And this gift, this call to step out of time and into his company, is given not because we deserve it, nor is it denied us because we are sinful. It is given because of the love he has for us, and the mercy with which he deals with us until the day when our time is ended.

So we still our souls, we raise our hearts and minds and voices to the Lord. We put aside our distractions for a time and cease to worry about what we have to do or how we are to pray. Prayer, after all, is not the words we speak. It is focusing on him, gazing on him. It is listening to the heart of God speaking to our hearts, and our hearts making their fleeting, and faltering, and yet eminently precious answer to his love. So come to the Lord this weekend during the Forty Hours, if not for the all-night vigil then at least for an hour or so. He will be waiting to spend time with you.

First day of school! Br Thomas began his studies for the priesthood at Blackfriars this morning. Br Ambrose continues into his second year of philosophy, and Br Vincent has begun the first of three years of theology.

A prayer for steadfastness in good beginnings
O God, who in order to procure the salvation of souls, didst grant to blessed Philip a remarkable steadfastness in good beginnings; grant us to be firm in the service of thy will, and the preservation of the Congregation instituted by him. Amen.

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On the first day of a new term at Oxford University, we ask the intercession of Our Cardinal on all the students of our city. We also pray for all those who are following his path into the “One Fold of the Redeemer” as our adult catechism classes begin on Thursday.

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