It does not take a lot of imagination to realise that everything in our church — all the images and statues, the candles, the altar, etc. — everything points to what is central in our Faith, and that is the Incarnation. Every word preached in our pulpit, the confessions uttered and absolutions granted, the baptisms and marriages, and our funerals too, even the conversations with friends in the forecourt and Café Neri, all are they, all point to, all happen because of that fundamental Truth that the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us — and dwells amongst us still in the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle of our church. That is why Christianity is fundamentally different to all other religions — our proclamation is not primarily what God taught, but what God did; that the redemptive work of Christ has fundamentally changed what it is to be human.

And that is what we realise when we mediate upon the Stations of the Cross. Our set of Stations, carved in alabaster by Basil Champneys, came to us from the former convent of the Holy Child Sisters. They are marvellously lit from behind and on cold dark nights they remind us of how Christ is the Light which shines in the darkness, and who cannot be overcome — not even by death. We pray those Stations each Friday in Lent at 17:30, and on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of Holy Week, we will pray them too at 10:30 each morning.

The Stations provide us with the opportunity to follow Christ from the Judgement Hall of Pilate, through every step of his Passion, until his Body, broken and pierced for us, is laid in the Garden Tomb and all come sorrowfully away. The Stations are based on the path of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem — the path trod by Christ himself to his Cross. Saint Helena, an Essex girl and daughter of old king Cole, is credited with identifying locations in Jerusalem, including the site of the crucifixion and burial, leading to the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. She spoke to the Christian community there, learning their traditions and all that they had received concerning the location of the Holy Places.

The precise route of the Via Dolorosa as we know it today was not firmly established until the medieval period when the Franciscans were granted custody of the Christian holy places in Jerusalem and then formalised the devotion associated with the Stations of the Cross. They organized processions and established specific stations along a route that pilgrims could follow, meditating on the sufferings of Christ. But of course, as now, not everybody could go up to Jerusalem, and so the Stations began to be erected in parish churches and other locations, far from Jerusalem, but enabling anyone to follow behind Christ and to meditate on his Passion, wherever in the world they may be.

There is a prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows which captures what we seek in making the Stations of the Cross:

Obtain for us the grace to hate sin,
  even as he hated it in the agony in the garden;
to endure wrong and insult with all patience
  as he endured them in the judgement hall;
to be meek and humble in all our trials
  as he was before his judges;
to love our enemies
  even as he loved his murderers, and prayed for them upon the Cross;
and to glorify God and to do good to our neighbour,
  even as he did in every mystery of his suffering.

We have skipped over the greatest part of our church so far: the nave. When his bishop thought that St John Henry Newman was too eager to consult the laity, the bishop asked him ‘What are the laity?’ Newman responded: ‘the Church would look foolish without them.’ And so indeed would our church if the nave were empty. (Somewhat ironically, when Newman visited our church to preach on Trinity Sunday 1880, he presented the Jesuit fathers with a watercolour of the church in thanksgiving for their hospitality. The painting depicts the church with an empty nave…)

The body of our church seats about 400 people (and even more when it needs to at Christmas and Easter). The “nave” takes its name from the Latin word for boat, since the historical shape of churches appeared to be that of an upturned ship. The ceiling of our church does indeed resemble this hull shape. And as we voyage towards heaven in it, we are reminded that those boats in the Gospels that carried Our Lord never sank, no matter what storms threatened the vessel.

A curious feature of our church is that wherever you sit in the nave (unless you are right up against the pulpit) the altar is clearly visible. Our church may be gothic in decoration, but it is not medieval in design. Instead, it is an example of the principles of the counter-reformation pioneered by the Society of Jesus in their mother church of the Gesù in Rome. The altar is not hidden behind a screen or a deep sanctuary, but all can see Our Lord directly when he is lifted up in adoration.

The nave is also home to the pulpit. The pulpit is an important place in any church for preaching sermons, but in the Oratory, it has a particular significance. It is said that there are three pieces of wood where a good Oratorian priest should be found: the wood of the altar step (because he is saying Mass), the wood of the confessional (because he is hearing confessions) or the wood of the pulpit (because he is preaching). The “daily distribution of the Word of God” was the essential work of the Oratory when St Philip started: he began preaching even as a layman. Sermons are preached at least daily in our church today.

The original pulpit — from which Newman preached — was made entirely of wood, and collapsed during a rather vigorous sermon of Fr William Humphrey SJ in the 1880s. Fr Humphrey, as he climbed out of the remains of the pulpit, could only conclude his sermon, “a blessing which I wish you all.”

The sturdier stone pulpit now in place is adorned with statues of the Madonna and Child, St Joseph, St Aloysius, St Philip and St Charles. After all, any ship needs to know where it is heading, and the saints are the stars in the heavens by which we direct the course of our lives.

Almost hidden beyond the Sanctuary is the Sacred Heart chapel. Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is very ancient but became widely popular in 18th century France and was promoted by the Jesuits who built our church. It focuses on the profound love that Jesus has in his humanity for those who trust in him. It reminds us that although he is God, he is also man, and loves us in a way we can understand — although he does so perfectly and unconditionally. In this image his heart is wounded on account of our sins but on fire with love for us.

A new altar of Portuguese limestone and marble, designed by Robbie Kerr of Adam Architecture in the Roman baroque style, was installed in 2019. The tabernacle, used on certain feasts, is modelled on the main doors of the Oratory church in Rome with the star of St Philip’s coat of arms above it. The altar was consecrated in 2020. The ancient ceremonies for consecrating an altar echo the rites of consecration given to Moses by God. You can watch the highlights from the consecration on our YouTube channel. Turn on the captions to see the explanations of the rite.