Born in 1629 in a stable in Verdun, Sebastian Valfrè (1629–1710) blessed in faith and piety began his training for the priesthood at 12 years old. Wishing with greater ardour to devote all to God and the salvation of souls, he entered the Congregation of the Oratory of Turin on the Feast of Our Holy Father St Philip, 1651, one year after being ordained sub-deacon. He saw St Philip as the model of a perfect priest, following his teaching in humility, visiting the hospitals and going from house to house among the poor, imploring them with his persuasive sweetness to abandon sin and turn to the services of the Church.

Blessed Sebastian’s love for the Oratory and St Philip is most evident in his obedience. Members of the Congregation live in community, under obedience, but without vows. While charity and love bind the community together, obedience “is the chart by which to sail for the shores of perfection and the port of a blessed eternity.” “Exact observance” of the customs and traditions of the Oratory and thus priestly life was Blessed Sebastian’s focus. This may lead us to imagine Blessed Sebastian as an uncompromising figure, but his gentle approach to obedience and stress on the existence of loving correction show otherwise. Blessed Sebastian writes that obedience is a path to perfection and that “by this path God wishes to lead us to heaven” — his perceived strictness very often hides his care and sole purpose in life for the salvation of souls.

He himself was a model of obedience. The one longing of Blessed Sebastian was to visit Rome and kneel in prayer in front of our own St Philip, but he had never been able to leave Turin. With the eventual permission and encouragement of his superior to go, Blessed Sebastian bade farewell to the Fathers and many friends and set out for Rome. As soon as the boat was about to depart, his travel companion handed him a note from their superior with the following message: “As soon as you have read these few lines you will immediately return to the Congregation, thinking no more of the journey to Rome.” Blessed Sebastian left the boat saying calmly, “Let us return home. The journey to Rome is delightful, and is at an end.”

Obedience is the path to perfection provided that the thing being commanded be not repugnant to the divine law. As Blessed Sebastian taught, to be obedient is to encourage yourself to turn your eyes to Christ, who for His love for us and through His perfect obedience was stripped, blasphemed, scourged, and crucified to ensure our salvation.

Historians today cast doubt on whether St Francis de Sales ever met St Philip, but we do know that he loved him. Whilst in Rome St Francis visited often the Vallicella and became friends with the early Fathers of the Oratory, especially Baronius, Gallonio and the Blessed Juvenal Ancina. St Francis was made bishop of Geneva at the same time as Blessed Juvenal was made bishop of Saluzzo and the two maintained their friendship through the exchange of letters. Eventually in 1603 they were able to meet again and Blessed Juvenal invited St Francis to preach. In thanking him for a fervent sermon Blessed Juvenal alluded to the name de Sales — “Vere tu es Sal — Truly, you are the Salt”; and Francis, to the name of the diocese of which Juvenal was bishop (Saluzzo), answered him: “Immo tu es Sal et Lux. Ego vere neque sal neque lux — On the contrary, you are salt and light, while I am neither salt nor light”. That is a charming little window into the spirit of humility shared by St Francis and the Oratory, and a testament to his friendship with our early Fathers.

This should come as no surprise, because St Francis was himself an Oratorian and a loving son of St Philip. This is not a fact that is made much of, but that is of course a very Oratorian thing to do. Inspired by his experiences of the Fathers in Rome and faced with the enormous task of calling the people of the Chablais away from Protestantism and back to the Church, St Francis founded an Oratory in Thonon. His plan was that this “Holy House” would provide a base for the Oratorian Fathers to concentrate on the sanctification of the local people especially through the worthy and solemn celebration of the liturgy of the Church. In September 1599 Pope Clement VIII erected the Oratory of Thonon with St Francis as its provost and approved their Rule, modelled on that of the Roman Oratory, and providing Baronius as the special protector of the house. It was a hard beginning because Thonon was a poor Oratory, but St Francis set to work establishing it as a school of prayer and virtue. He hoped that Blessed Juvenal would be allowed to join him, but it was not to be. In 1603 St Francis was called to rule the diocese of Geneva alone and thus to leave the Oratory — but his letters make clear that he would have preferred to have stayed. It was not easy to replace St Francis as provost and so in 1606 the pope made him provost of the Thonon Oratory again — not an easy task to achieve from afar and together with all his labours in the diocese.

Ultimately the Thonon Oratory did not last — through poverty and scarcity of devoted members. St Francis tried desperately to keep it — even trying to convince Cardinal Bérulle to include in his new French Oratory. Right up until his death in 1622 St Francis was trying to save his Oratory, but to no avail. If one goes to Thonon today one can see the basilica of St Francis de Sales and on its façade a mosaic of his beloved St Philip. The greatest testimony however to the Oratorian spirit of St Francis is his writings and his school of spirituality. Who else but a son of St Philip could remind us “that you can attract more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a whole jar of vinegar” and thus insist upon kindness, sweetness and real love when calling people to Our Lord?

“Be who you are and be that well…” St Francis exhorts us. Let us ask his prayers that we may be true sons and friends of St Philip as he was “…so as to bring honour to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are.”

---

This week’s ‘mid-week’ reflection is a bit early, to share with you one of our Oratorian saints. There will be Solemn Benediction in honour of St Francis de Sales after the evening Mass today.

---

These reflections are usually sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.

Today marks the feast of St Joseph Vaz, a Father of the Oratory at Goa and the Apostle of Sri Lanka. Born to Catholic parents in 1651, he was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Goa at the age of 24. From the first days of his priestly life, he felt an ardent desire to go to Sri Lanka as a missionary. The state of the church there was dire: in 1640, the Dutch had conquered the island from the Portuguese, and the vast majority of those who had previously been converted either reverted to paganism or were forced to abjure Catholicism in favour of Dutch Protestantism. Initially, his bishop refused to send him to Sri Lanka, instead sending him to the mission territory at Canara on the mainland. It was during this time that he joined the nascent Oratory of Goa and quickly became Superior. 

Our intrepid Apostle soon gained permission to go to Sri Lanka, finally landing at Jaffna after a difficult journey in 1689. He must no doubt have gained significant inspiration from our Holy Father St Philip, who found himself in a Rome which was almost as de-Christianised as Vaz’s Sri Lanka. St Philip’s mission was, perhaps, less exotic than St Joseph’s: we do not hear of him only avoiding being mauled to death by bears and elephants by divine protection, or escaping the clutches of the Dutch militia thanks to an apparition of the Blessed Virgin. Nonetheless, both, in their different ways and different settings, took to heart the commandment to ‘Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News’ (Mk 16:15). Both St Philip and St Joseph Vaz were deeply moved by what they saw as the sorriest state a man can be in: not knowing and loving Jesus Christ, his Redeemer. Just as St Philip reconverted Rome, St Joseph restored the Faith in Sri Lanka. His mission (consisting of himself and nine other Fathers from the Goa Oratory) saw not only religious toleration for Catholics in Sri Lanka, but the baptism of 30,000 pagans and the reconciliation of the vast majority of those who had abjured the Faith in the face of Dutch persecution. May he and St Philip pray for us.

---

This week’s ‘mid-week’ reflection is a bit early, to share with you one of our Oratorian saints. There will be Solemn Benediction in honour of St Joseph Vaz after the evening Mass today.

---

These reflections are usually sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.

We ended last year with the singing of the Te Deum and Solemn Benediction, in thanksgiving to God for the many blessings and graces he has bestowed on us in 2022. There was much to be grateful for during the year, and many occasions for the Te Deum.

In March, Fr Nicholas represented the community at the solemn celebrations in Rome for the 400th anniversary of the canonisation of St Philip, St Ignatius, St Francis Xavier, St Theresa of Avila and St Isidore the Farmer, and we celebrated a Jubilee Mass and Te Deum in our church together with Jesuit fathers from the University Chaplaincy and Campion Hall, and Carmelite friars from Boar’s Hill.

The Te Deum was again sung in October at the end of our canonical visitation. The Congregation of the Oratory is unusual in the Church in that each Oratory is completely independent, and we have no Superior General. The Holy Father himself watches over our Houses through an Apostolic Delegate, who visits every six years or so to ensure we are living a true Oratorian life. The Delegate, Fr Marco from the Toronto Oratory, was very impressed with our community and parish, and we passed the visitation with flying colours.

We had the great pleasure of singing the Te Deum three more times as part of the clothing rite for our three novices during 2022, welcoming into our family Fr Rupert, Br Vincent, and Br Clement. All three are familiar faces in the parish already, and we are blessed to have such fine men wanting to share our life and serve the Church as priests after St Philip’s example.

Our good friend George, Cardinal Pell, returned to Oxford in May to celebrate St Philip’s Day with us and offered his reflections on what St Philip has to say to us today, and how he can help us with many of the current fears and anxieties of the Church. Cardinal Pell graciously agreed to become patron of the Friends of the Oxford Oratory, a group which we hope to grow this year. In that capacity, the Cardinal hosted a dinner in Rome for some of our Friends and other parishioners who were on pilgrimage to the Eternal City with Fr Benedict.

There were also a great many causes for celebration and thanksgiving in our parish last year. The bishops reinstated the Sunday obligation in May, but our Sunday Mass congregations were already back to pre-Covid numbers, averaging 850 each weekend. This is sadly not a pattern that is repeated in a majority of parishes in the country, so we are especially blessed in Oxford through the dedication of our parishioners and the hard work of the Fathers and Brothers. The Sunday collection, however, lags behind, and is not what a large, busy parish like ours needs to run effectively and to grow. Please see our website for more details on the need to support the parish and how to give: oxfordoratory.org.uk/giving.php

In 2022 we baptised 45 new Christians and welcomed David, Skye, George, Ignacio, Perrine, Lucy, Helena, Weixi, Cillian, Alana, Theodore, Beatrice, Johnny, Dominic, Hugo, Benjamin, Tahri, Mario, Louie, Anne-Fleur, John, Jemima, Helene, Jane, Mahri, Daria, Marie-Louise, Lucy, Leon, Beatrix, Issac, Xhulietta, Xhavier, Lydia, Matilda, Livia, Oakley, Maxwell, Leo, Ambrose, Ava, Matilda, Maia and Anthony into the family of the Church. Matthew, Robin, Holly, Ben, Martin, Stephen, Jade, Philip, Breanna, Asher, Samuel and Nicholas were received into full communion in the One Fold of the Redeemer. The Oratory continues to be a popular church for weddings, and last year 15 couples began their married lives together here: please pray for Ignacio and Consúelo, James and Naomi, Thomas and Jade, Christopher and Bethany, Gareth and Lucy, Timothy and Harriet, Dominic and Michaela, Robin and Melissa, Riley and Ana, Pierre and Weixi, Andrew and Kelly, Andrew and Elizabeth, Paul and Marie, Charles-Marie and Samantha, and Isaac and Ashley.

Cafe Neri and our Oratory Bookshop have had a very successful year, and we are grateful to the many volunteers who help keep these two important ministries going. We are grateful also to our dedicated team of cleaners who keep our church and lodge beautifully clean and welcoming. Paulette, one of the first (and therefore longest serving) porters, retired at the end of the year, as did Christine who has looked after the bookshop for many years, and we had a small celebration before Christmas to thank them and all our other porters and cleaners. There is always need for more helpers, so if you are able to give a few hours each week to help in the Lodge, the Cafe, or as a cleaner, please speak to one of the Fathers.

Our Oratory family was able to help a number of charities here in Oxford and throughout the world through the generosity of parishioners. In total we were able to give £3,832 of “poor box” donations to St Mungo’s, the Oxford Companions of the Order of Malta, the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s Ukraine Appeal, the Gatehouse, Let the Children Live, Missio, and Mary’s Meals. In addition, our crib collection raised £882 for Aid to the Church in Need, and the Lent Project for St Mungo’s totalled £1,511. The Mission Appeal for the Society of African Missions collected £1,415, and we were able to send 186 gift parcels to the Operation Christmas Child Christmas shoebox appeal. Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity.

2022 was not only a year of Te Deums, but also of moments of sadness. The peculiar demography of central Oxford means that we have far fewer funerals than other similar parishes, but we still said goodbye to a number of parishioners last year, commending to God: John MacDonald, Pat Burrows, Ruth Preston, Rosemary Sampson, Francesca Beckinsale, Bimal Prodhan, Dorothy Crowley, and Laurence Payne (who died aged 101). We also hosted the funeral rites of two famous Oxford figures: the Orthodox bishop and theologian Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, and Fr Ian Ker, the great biographer of Our Cardinal, St John Henry Newman. A Solemn Requiem was celebrated for her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and on the last day of the year we sadly lost our beloved Pope Benedict XVI. May God give them all the reward of their labours, and may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Our pipe organ suffered from a terminal illness throughout 2022, finally giving up the ghost just before the feast of the Immaculate Conception. We are managing with a temporary digital replacement, but a new pipe organ will be commissioned in the fullness of time, as part of our general renewal and development project. Planning permission has been given for some of the works to our church, and we hope to share final plans and artist impressions with you this year. Then will begin the tremendous task of fundraising to pay for the redecoration of the church, a new altar, renovated sacristies, a baptistery and the Newman chapel. This is an exciting but daunting project, ensuring a more fitting church in which to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. As Pope Benedict reminded us so often in his sermons and writings:

The beauty of the liturgy is a sublime expression of God’s glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth. Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation.

Pope Benedict XVI, Sacramentum Caritatis, 35

The daily round of Masses and Confessions continues, and 2023 will see its own share of joys, sorrows and celebrations. The life of the Church goes on, and we continue to dedicate ourselves, our Oratory and the parish to the Lord and his Blessed Mother, trusting in the prayers of St Philip and St Aloysius. If we dedicate ourselves to the Lord, if we give him everything that we have and are, we will always shine with him as light in the darkness, and inspire more and more of our brothers and sisters to give themselves to him also.

Do not be afraid of Christ! He takes nothing away, and he gives you everything. When we give ourselves to him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life. Amen.

Pope Benedict XVI, Homily for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry, 24 April 2005

---

It was with great sadness that we learnt of the sudden and unexpected death of Cardinal Pell last night. We pray for the repose of his soul, giving thanks to God for the inspiration so many found in His Eminence’s steadfast perseverance and witness to the Catholic faith. May he rest in peace.

---

These reflections are sent out each Wednesday to all those on our mailing list. Click here to sign up to our mailing list, and receive our Sunday E-newsletter and these reflections straight to your inbox.