In every Oratory there is place of devotion to our Holy Father, St Philip, who is our patron, spiritual father and a model of holiness and priestly life. He is known as the amabile santo, the lovable saint. His example of evangelical simplicity, as well as his zeal for bringing men and women to know Christ through his compassionate friendship and guidance, is an inspiration to us.

The painting of the saint which hangs above the altar was painted in Rome, a copy of an original by Guido Reni which hangs in St Philip’s rooms at the Roman Oratory. It was painted by Maria Gibberne (1802–1885) as a gift for her friend, Cardinal Newman. The carved, gilt-wood altar frontal is Italian, and was part of the collection of furnishings bequeathed to the church by Hartwell de la Garde Grissell. For St Philip things of beauty were important in the worship of God, the source of all beauty, truth and goodness. They are both an act of reverence in themselves, and draw the heart and mind of worshippers upward to God.

It is quite fitting that the two confessionals are so close by, since it is in the confessional that St Philip did so much to help people grow in holiness:

In those times men lived very remissly in matters of devotion; most people thought it enough to confess once a year. Philip, regarding this as the cause of perdition to a great number of souls, put forward all his industry to induce people to frequent the Sacraments, and other spiritual exercises, but, above all, confession. He was one of the first aided by the holy men already mentioned, who revived in Rome the practice of frequent confession and communion. In order to obtain this object of his desire more easily, he abandoned every other care, and gave himself entirely to hearing confessions. He got a number of good penitents together; and seeing the fruit which he obtained by this means, he was not content to employ the day in the confessional, but gave up a considerable part of the night to it as well. Before sunrise in the morning he had generally confessed a good number of persons in his own chamber; for whose convenience he used to leave the key under the door of his apartments, that they might get in whenever they pleased. When he had retired to the solitude of his room, he still confessed every one who came; but this was not enough for his zeal and charity; if he was at prayer, he broke off instantly; if he was at meals, he rose from table the moment he heard that any one was seeking him in order to confess. When the church was opened at daybreak he went down there, and entered the confessional, and never left it except to say Mass, which he usually did about midday, or for some other cogent reason, always leaving word whither he was gone. If it happened that no penitents came, he remained near the confessional, reading, or telling his beads, or saying office; and sometimes he walked up and down outside the door of the church, expecting people, and that he might be the more readily seen; so that any one could find him with the utmost ease at almost any hour.

In a word, he had such a spiritual relish in hearing confessions, that he said himself, “To do nothing, beyond merely sitting alone in the confessional is an immense pleasure to me;” and this, as well as other sensible heavenly consolations, was bestowed upon him, as he himself declared, in order that he might be able to endure the fatigues caused by the confessional.

From ‘The Life of St Philip Neri, Apostle of Rome’ by Father Pietro Giacomo Bacci

Frequent, regular confession is one of the surest means for growing closer to God. The Church requires us to go to confession and receive Holy Communion at least once a year. Most people can see quite rightly that we should want to receive Communion far more frequently than that, but not everyone has drawn the same conclusion about confession. As we begin this penitential season today, perhaps one of our Lenten resolutions could be to receive this wonderful sacrament of forgiveness every month.

The Relic Chapel is one of the most beautiful spaces in our Church. The furnishings were part of the legacy of an Oxford man, Hartwell de la Garde Grissell, who also received the image of Our Lady of Oxford from Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1869. It is an ancient tradition to enshrine an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the special protector of a place and to invoke her aid under the title of that place. Here we invoke her as Our Lady of Oxford and Mother of Mercy, confident that she intercedes with her Son for the protection of all in our city and university.

When Grissell died in 1907, he left the contents of his private chapel to the church on condition that a chapel be built to house it all. The font was moved and the chapel redecorated. The wall paintings in this chapel are of early Christian scenes and symbols from the Roman catacombs by the Catholic Arts and Crafts artist, Gabriel Pippet. They were restored in 2009. They depict two deer drinking from the waters of a fountain, evoking the words of Psalm 41: “Like the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul is thirsting for you, my God.” There are also images of Christ the Good Shepherd, a typical early Christian depiction of Jesus, as well as the Blessed Virgin Mary and Christ child. Other symbols represent aspects of the Christian faith. The peacock represents new life and resurrection; loaves and fish point to the eucharist and the heavenly banquet; and the anchor is an early Christian symbol that symbolises arriving in the divine harbour of peace. Images of martyred saints take up the ancient posture of prayer, and the burning lamps represent faith.

These early Christian images are particularly appropriate since the chapel houses a collection of the relics of many saints, among them a number of the early Christian martyrs who were once buried in the catacombs in Rome.

Relics are reserved here not only for private prayer and veneration, but also to be placed on the altar during the celebration of Mass on solemn feasts. For Christians, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and is a sacred thing, to be treated with care and reverence. Since we revere the saints as holy men and women, extraordinary individuals filled with the Holy Spirit, we reverence their mortal remains as having been filled with that same Spirit as holy relics.  It is something of a popular myth that the early Christians prayed in the catacombs just to avoid persecution. That may have been true at times, but those early Christians continued to celebrate Mass in the catacombs in time of peace because they wanted to be close to their brothers and sisters who had gone before them. Their bodies are a tangible link to their souls in heaven, and so to heaven itself.