The Oxford Catholic Handicapped Fellowship joined up with the recent Birmingham 75th Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes.

The Group attended the International Mass on Wednesday May 27th at which Bishop William Kenney was the principal celebrant, together with six other Bishops and over one hundred Priests from the dioceses of Birmingham, Middlesborough and Plymouth.

2015 marks the 45th Birthday of the Oxford Fellowship Group

Fr Dominic has been the Fellowship Chaplain since 1990.

For more information on the Catholic Handicapped Fellowship in Oxford please contact Fr Dominic at the Oratory.

Last Wednesday, His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Patronus of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, was present for Vespers in our church for the Order.

His Eminence had earlier in the day met members of the Companions of the Order of Malta, who do wonderful work in Oxford with their homeless Shower Project, soup runs, visiting the sick and elderly and other corporal works of mercy. Cardinal Burke was greatly impressed by the Companions and warmly encouraged them in the twofold ministry of the Order of Malta: the care of the poor and the defence of the Faith.

The Vespers was that of the Octave of Pentecost, and the four coped cantors were an Oratorian, a Jesuit, a Benedictine and a Dominican – which sounds like the beginning of a joke about going into a bar, but here is a manifestation of the rich variety of Catholic life in this city.

After Vespers, the Cardinal gave Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, before going on to deliver a lecture at the University Chaplaincy on “The Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI”.

Photographs courtesy of the Oxford Companions of the Order of Malta.

We were honoured to welcome His Eminence Cardinal Burke to our Church to celebrate a Solemn Pontifical Mass for the feast of Our Holy Father St Philip, in the 5th centenary of his birth.

We were joined by many friends and visitors, including the Rt Rev. Hugh Allan O.Praem., Prior of the Norbertine community in Chelmsford, and many local clergy and Knights of Malta.

In his sermon, the Cardinal encouraged each one of us to take St Philip as an example of how to transform the world in Christ. His full sermon can be read here.

The Archbishop very kindly leant us Bishop Ullathorne’s crozier for the Cardinal to use.

On Wednesday, Fr Daniel took the Cardinal on a tour of Oxford. Here he is pictured next to the bust of Blessed John Henry Newman in Trinity College.

All photographs by Hannah Chegwyn

Br Joseph Bailham, O.P., has taken some photographs of the G.K. Chesterton open day in our library last Saturday, some of which are shown below and the rest may be seen here.

Chesterton’s typewriter:

The bust of G.K. Chesterton:

Mr Aidan Mackey addresses the gathering:

In the evening there was a performance of the famous debate between Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw. Fr Jerome took the part of the chairman, Hilaire Belloc, in rather gallic style:

Shaw, looking very radical:

G.K. Chesterton plays the part of Dr William Oddie:

Father Daniel went to preach at one of the Masses at Holy Trinity, Dorchester, for the visit of the holy relics of Blessed Louis and Blessed Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux.

A picture of the casket containing the relics during an earlier stage of the visit in Plymouth Cathedral:

From the Plymouth diocesan website:

Shortly after his ordination, Bishop Mark O’Toole wrote to Lisieux to invite the relics of Blessed Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face, to visit the Diocese. They are the first parents of a saint to be beatified, and the the first spouses in the history of the Church to be proposed for sainthood together. Zélie and Louis are an inspiration to the families of today. Each owned a small business and worked hard while raising a large family.

In the 19th century this two-career couple faced the challenges we face in the 21st: finding good child care; achieving professional excellence; operating a profitable business; caring for aging parents; educating a special-needs child; forming their children in the faith; finding time to pray and to be active in their parish.

Devout Catholics, they saw Christ in the poor and worked for a just society. In 1877 Zélie died of breast cancer, leaving Louis a single parent with five minor daughters to bring up. Later Louis was diagnosed with a form of dementia (cerebral arteriosclerosis) and spent three years in a psychiatric hospital.

Like us, Louis and Zélie could not control their circumstances. Life came at them unexpectedly, just as it comes at us. They could not prevent their tragedies: the Franco-Prussian war, when they had to house nine German soldiers; the infant deaths of four of their nine children, one from abuse by a wet-nurse; their painful diseases; Zélie’s premature death. Nor could they escape their responsibilities as business owners, caregivers, spouses, and parents. Their genius lay in how they accepted what happened to them: they accepted their own powerlessness, that God might be all-powerful in their lives.

They taught the same radical openness to their youngest daughter, Thérèse, now a doctor of the Church. Zélie and Louis were not declared “blessed” because of Thérèse. She became a saint because of them. They created an environment that invited her to holiness, and she responded freely to the invitation they offered her. They offer the same invitation to us and in this period between the two Synods in Rome, they are particularly important and welcome guests in our diocese.

In celebration of the 500th year of our Holy Father’s birth, the Apostolic Penitentiary, His Eminence Cardinal Piacenza, has granted a plenary indulgence in all churches of the Congregation of the Oratory for St Philip’s Day this year (25th-26th May).

The indulgence may be gained by all the faithful under the usual conditions of sacramental confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. To gain the indulgence, a pilgrimage to our church must be made, or one should take part in a service or devotion in honour of St Philip Neri, concluding by saying the Our Father and Creed and invoking the Blessed Virgin and St Philip.

The indulgence may be applied to the faithful departed.

To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of our Holy Father St Philip, Fr Jerome has written a new book. It contains a brief and accessible biography of St Philip, and a description of the works and purpose of the Oratory. It would serve as an excellent introduction to St Philip for those who have only recently discovered the Oratory, and a refresher for those who have already read one of the longer biographies!

It is available to buy from Lulu and in the Porter’s Lodge.

Our other books can be seen in the Publications section of the website.

This morning Br Oliver gave the second in our series of talks on “Friends of the Saints of Joy” – on the first companions of St Philip in the Oratory: men such as Cesare Baronius, Francesco Maria Tarugi, Flaminio Ricci and Pietro Consolini. He quoted Father Visitor as saying that he wanted Cardinal Baronius to be canonized because, though St Philip is a great saint, Baronius must be a greater one for living with him!

Next week at 11 o’ clock on Saturday (16th) Fr Nicholas will speak about “Holy friends of St Philip: his contemporary saints” – people such as St Ignatius, St Charles Borromeo and St Camillus de Lellis.