Before the start of what we call ‘time’, the reason, the meaning, and the power behind everything that exists were already fully there, and always had been. God was there from before all beginnings. His Mind is the source of everything that has ever been created. No single thing that exists has any meaning outside of the meaning that [...]
All human souls born into this world are images of God. Unfortunately they all arrive partially spoiled – except for one. There is one reflection of Himself into which God has poured all His artistry, and which He has not allowed to be damaged in any way. In the Blessed Virgin Mary, God shows us what Eve was before [...]
Each November we make a special effort to pray for the faithful departed, those whose names we know and those who are known to God alone. We pray for all departed souls whose salvation is assured but who are still in purgatory, waiting for their purification to be completed so that they may then enter heaven. The Holy Souls [...]
“And so in religion, we have need to watch against that narrowness of mind, to which we are tempted by the uniformity and tranquillity of God’s providence towards us. We should be on our guard lest we suppose ourselves to have such a clear knowledge of God’s ways, as to rely implicitly on our own notions and feelings. Men [...]
Lourdes and Fatima are popular Marian shrines, among many others around the world. The apparition at La Salette on 19th September 1846 is much less well known and less closely followed, even though it received diocesan and then papal approval as being worthy of belief. Two ignorant peasant children, Melanie Calvat (aged 14) and Maximin Giraud (aged 11) were tending their [...]
Each year at the Birmingham Oratory on the feast of the Assumption we entrust ourselves to our Blessed Lady. O Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven and Mother of the Oratory, behold us now, your devoted sons, gathered in prayer before your image. Today we once again entrust to you our Congregation, this Oratory, our house, our home. We wish [...]
In 1960 Pope John XXIII issued an inspiring Apostolic Letter about devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ (Inde a primis). He reminded us that the Precious Blood was poured out for us “first at his circumcision eight days after birth, and more profusely later on in his agony in the garden, in his scourging and crowning with thorns, in [...]
Corpus Christi is one of the most colourful and joyful feasts of the Catholic year. It is especially dear to us at the Oratory because it was a feast for which our founder St Philip Neri had a particular devotion. On Maundy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper the sanctuary bells rang out at Gloria in excelsis Deo. Why? To [...]