Candlemas brings the extended Christmas season to a close. With Septuagesima the next season of our liturgical year is now already upon us. As we say farewell to the crib we start to prepare for Lent and Passiontide. The Presentation and the Purification were the remote preparation for Passiontide, both for the Lord Himself, and for His sinless Mother, and [...]
Today’s introit and epistle bid us always to rejoice in the Lord. Should we make this a daily resolution? “Today I’m going to be joyful.” No, that won’t work. We might resolve to be more charitable or more patient. Charity and patience are virtues, good habits. We acquire those virtuous good habits by repeating them over and over again. We [...]
The Birmingham Oratory parish is dedicated to our Lady’s Immaculate Conception and so we have the privilege of being under her special patronage. In order for our understanding of our Lady’s sinlessness to be more than merely theoretical, God has given us a way of approaching it that is personal and truly human. He has given us the beautiful devotion [...]
The Oratory's annual service of Nine Lessons and Carols will take place on Saturday 19th December at 7pm, with organ and choral music sung by the Oratory Choir. All are welcome. You are advised to arrive a little early to ensure a seat, in light of social distancing requirements. Sadly present circumstances do not permit congregational singing. [...]
The Oratory will be open as usual for Christmas Masses. This year we are increasing the number of Masses to ensure we meet social distancing requirement. In addition to our usual Masses, there will be an extra English Mass at 4pm on Christmas Eve, and an additional Missa Cantata (sung Latin EF) at 9pm. There will also be a [...]
We are told that four babies are born on earth every second. In the same moment, a comparable number of souls who have lived their allotted span in this world are leaving it behind as they are called to their final destiny in eternity. The flow of individual human souls in and out of this world is unending. New lives [...]
The original score of Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, a setting of the poem by Cardinal Newman, is now available to view online after a digitisation project completed at the Oratory earlier this year. The project was carried out in partnership with Dr Joanna Bullivant of Oxford University, the National Institute for Newman Studies, the British Library and the [...]
The Oratory is open for all of our usual public Masses. We do not require advance booking to visit the church, or to attend Mass, but we ask that you please observe the following hygiene and physical distancing measures: If you have symptoms of Covid-19, please do not come to the Oratory church. The law demands that you isolate at [...]
In the Bible, there is no hard and fast distinction between public worship and private prayer. In the Gospels, Our Lord, quoting the Prophet Isaiah, condemns those who honour God with their lips, but whose hearts are far from Him. In other words, engagement in external ritual without an inward dedication of heart is of no use spiritually. Equally, the [...]
This sermon was preached at the 11am High Mass on Whit Sunday. The Bible is so sparing in the incidental details that it gives of the ministry of Our Lord and the Apostles, that when such details are given you can be sure that some significance is intended. When some of those who witnessed the prodigious wonders of that [...]