CONFESSIONS on Christmas Eve from 10am – 6.30pm

CHRISTMAS EVE

6.30pm – Vigil Mass with carols

The Church reopens at 11pm

11.15pm – Carols & Readings

Midnight Mass at midnight
– Mozart’s Coronation Mass with strings

CHRISTMAS DAY

8am – Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form)

9.30am – Parish Mass, with Children’s Liturgy

11am – Solemn Mass
– Messe pour le tems de Noel (Michel Corrette 1707–1795)

5.30pm – Solemn Benediction
NO EVENING MASS

Saturday 26th December, ST STEPHEN’S DAY

Mass at 10am

Vigil Mass at 6.30pm

The Oxford Companions of the Order of Malta, helped by our parish Conference of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, today provided a Christmas lunch for the homeless.

The food was cooked in the Oratory kitchen and then brought over to St Giles’ Church Hall, where a team of volunteers waited on the guests.

The guests were also each given a bag of presents, provided by the Order of Malta, and wrapped by the SVP. The gifts included chocolate, some winter leggings, and a wet-weather poncho.

Two pictures of our Advent Rorate Mass, which was sung at seven o’clock this morning:

On Wednesday we had a beautiful Advent Carol Service – one of the first musical events conducted by our new Director of Music, Andrew Knowles.

From the order of service:

Concerning the Musical Oratory

St Philip, or Filippo Neri as he was known when was born in 1515 at Florence in Italy, moved to Rome as a young man and set up the Congregazione dell’ Oratorio, of which the Oxford Oratory is a part to this very day. St Philip was a spiritual power–house in his own day in Baroque Rome who attracted large crowds because of his generosity of spirit and spiritual insight; this was always linked to any kind of artistic, theatrical or musical endeavour which he thought would fix the hearts and minds of the faithful on the love of God. Palestrina frequented the Oratory and confessed there, whilst Tomás Luis de Victoria received a chaplaincy at San Girolamo della Carità after joining this community of priests; in fact, all kinds of people were deeply attracted to the Oratory, where they were taught to pray as services called The Oratory, of which this candlelit service is a modern example.

St Philip would take hundreds of people on pilgrim walks up to the hills of Rome, where they would sit and listen to spiritual stories of angels and saints delivered, often by young children, in a dramatic way. The people were amazed, hearts were moved and their lives became charged with a new zeal and vigour. They were attracted to evening spiritual concerts too in the church, and the semi–staged dramatic dialogues and choruses prefigured the development of both the oratorio and opera genres. At the end people would sing one of the beloved laude – vernacular hymns of Florentine origin and much beloved by Neri since his youth – and would feel the power of the Holy Spirit moving deep within. These developments can easily be seen to be the very cradle of the Baroque in music, and led to a more extended type of dramatic performance with instrumental accompaniment. It was at the Oratory in Rome that this genre first started and from which it takes its name.

This Musical Oratory for Advent uses hymns and carols in much the same way that St Philip used the laude, and it is hoped that your hearts and minds will find comfort, expression and a spiritual awakening in this time of preparation before Christmas. Listen to the readings with great attention and pray during the motets and carols which the choir sing. Music takes us away from the presence of our daily lives and I believe that it is while listening to music that our hearts and minds are best prepared for an encounter with the Divine. So too, during these scriptural readings, let Christ the Word enter your hearts.

Fr Daniel Seward, Provost of the Oxford Oratory

Then on Thursday, the ensemble Artes Christi from Sydney, New South Wales, came to sing a concert of Christmas music. The group is based at the parish of St Peter’s Surry Hills, which in 2008 hosted our fifty pilgrims for the Sydney World Youth Day. It was good to be able to welcome them here.

On Saturday (19th) there will be a sung Rorate Mass by candle light at 7 o’clock in the morning.

At the beginning of the High Mass on the third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, Bishop William Kenney, C.P. came to bless and open our Jubilee Holy Door.

The Mass began at the back of church (a seasonal drizzle preventing us from all being outside) with the call to repentance and to experience God’s infinite mercy.

The Bishop blessed the door.

Bishop Kenney then opened the door and passed through it, followed by the servers and clergy.

The people were sprinkled with Holy Water during the Asperges.

After Mass, the faithful had the opportunity to pass through the Holy Door, so as to gain the Plenary Indulgence.

During the Year of Mercy, the Holy Door will be open before all Sunday Masses, and there will be a procession through it at the weekly Saturday ten o’clock Pilgrimage Mass, in honour of Our Lady of Oxford, Mother of Mercy.

Photographs by Hannah Chegwyn.

The Holy Father inaugurated the Year of Mercy when he opened the Holy Door into St Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday.

Our own church has been designated as a Jubilee Church, which means that we have our own Holy Door, which will be opened this coming Sunday (13th December) at the beginning of the eleven o’clock Solemn Mass.

All those who pass through this Holy Door during the Year of Mercy will be able to gain the Jubilee plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions of Confession, Holy Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions.

The Door will be open at the beginning of all Sunday Masses during the year, and on Saturdays at the ten o’clock Mass, which will be a Pilgrimage Mass, concluding with a procession through the Door and prayers to Our Lady of Oxford, Mother of Mercy.

Other events will be announced in due course, and we hope to welcome groups of pilgrims who may wish to come to our Jubilee Church.

The preacher was Fr Richard Ounsworth, O.P., whose words we hope to publish here soon.

The Elevation:

The Ecce Agnus Dei:

Photography by Hannah Chegwyn.

These pictures show the Solemn First Vespers and Benediction held on 7th December, the vigil of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Lady Altar is incensed:

Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament:

Photographs by Hannah Chegwyn.

The travelling reliquary bust of St Philip has now gone to Cardiff. Thence it will move on to Birmingham, York, London, and then Manchester, before crossing the Atlantic to Toronto.

“A traveller now, who in his life,
Ne’er left that one dear cell”
(from Blessed John Henry Newman’s hymn On Northern Coasts).

Our congratulations go to Mrs Eileen Healy, who has been awarded the Papal medal Benemerenti by Pope Francis. This is in recognition of her long and devoted service to the Church, especially by serving as a cook and housekeeper to many priests (and bishops!)

Bishop Robert Byrne came on Saturday 5th December, the feast of St Birinus, Apostle of the West Saxons, to present the medal.

The Benemerenti Medal was first awarded by Pope Pius VI (1775–1799) to recognize military merit. Since 1925 it has been awarded to clergy and lay members of the faithful, both military and civil.

Photographs by Hannah Chegwyn