Corpus Christi Procession

The latest edition of the Catholic Herald has a prominent article about our Corpus Christi procession which took place the Sunday before last. About 300 people from the Oxford Deanery parishes took part in the procession through the shopping streets of Oxford from the Oratory, via Blackfriars to the University Catholic Chaplaincy.

This is the tenth year of the revived procession, which began again in the Jubilee Year 2000, at the suggestion of the late Fr Edward Yarnold S.J. The procession was a regular event in the city's Catholic calendar up until the 1960s.

To see the article on the Herald's website, please click here.

There is also a good report of the event, with many excellent photos, on the Dominican students' blog Godzdogz!

Online Booking

Online booking is now available at Tickets Oxford for two events connected with the Oxford Oratory, our Therese Play, "Divine Comedy" and the Plock Cathedral Choir.

The Cathedral Choir of Plock in Poland are performing a concert of Western and Slavonic Music in support of our development campaign on Saturday, 11th July at 7.30pm in Merton College Chapel. Please click on the poster to enlarge it.

Here is the programme:

PART ONE (Mostly Western)

1. ‘Locus Iste’ - Anton Bruckner, 1824-1896

2. ‘Iustorum Animae’ - William Byrd, c.1543-1623

3. Organ : ‘ Voluntary VIII; Opus 2 ( No.2 )’ - William Walond, c.1727-1770

4. ‘Agnus Dei’ from the ‘Mass for Four Voices’ - William Byrd, c.1543-1623

5. ‘Funeral Ikos’ – Sir John Tavener, 1944 –

6. ‘Salve Regina’ (simplex Gregorian) followed by an organ improvisation based on it

7. ‘Veni Jesu’ - Luigi Cherubini, 1760 – 1842

8. From the verse-anthem ‘Lord, thou hast been our refuge’ :‘The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord’ … ‘Thou openest thine hand’ - William Boyce, 1711-1779

9. ‘Magnificat Octavi Toni’ - David Bevan, 1951 -

PART TWO (Slavonic, mostly Polish)

1. ‘Bogurodzica’ – anon. c. 10th. - 13th. centuries

2. ‘Veni Consolator’ - Damian Stachowicz, 1658 – 1699

3. Organ : ‘ Preambulum’ - Mikołaj of Krakowa 1. ‘Połowa’, 16th. century

4. ‘Fortuna’ - Piotr Jańczak, 1972 -

5. ‘Notturno ‘- Henryk Czyż, 1923-2003

6. Organ : ‘Pastoralen für die Sommerflöte’ - Imants Zemzaris, 1951 -

7. ‘Radujsja’ - Paweł Czesnokow, 1877 – 1944

8. ‘Szczedryk’ - Mikołaj Leontowicz, 1877 – 1921

9. ‘Insanae et vanae curae’ - Joseph Haydn, 1732 – 1809

Online booking is also available for the Therese play "Divine Comedy"

Oxford Oratory Slideshow

Please click here for a link to a slideshow of some good photographs of our church. They are taken by Br Lawrence Lew OP of Blackfriars and show the work that has been done so far on the sanctuary. They also include photographs of George, Cardinal Pell, of Sydney celebrating Mass in our church earlier this year.

The baroque ceiling (first picture in the slideshow) is not in our church! It is the ceiling of the Roman Oratory, the Chiesa Nuova, or New Church, built by St Philip in the 1580's for the newly founded Congregation. The picture shows a miracle during the construction of the church when a beam threatened to fall and bring the ceiling down with it. Our Blessed Lady is shown holding it up!

There are some pictures of the Forty Hours Exposition which were taken before the restorations and provide some contrast.

St Philip was ambitious in his plans for the church, not least in its scale. The funds seemed to come in just when he needed them!

Blessed Lucy of Narnia

Mr Walter Hooper, whose C.S.Lewis first editions raised £25,000 for our campaign, has been presented with a relic of Blessed Lucy of Narnia, to be kept in our relic chapel.

The relic (from the habit of the sixteenth century Dominican nun) was handed over last week at a ceremony in the cathedral of Narni, central Italy.

Mr Hooper believes Lewis's early reading of Latin authors inspired him in the choice of a name for the fictional country in his books. The presence there of a saint with the same name as one of the main characters is probably coincidental, but it is striking nonetheless!

The baroque reliquary will be installed in the restored cupboards later in the year, and Mr Hooper has generously offered to cover the cost of restoring one of the cupboards. Back into the wardrobe for Blessed Lucy, perhaps...!

For a report on Lewis's Narnia inspiration, please click here.

For the life of the real Blessed Lucy of Narnia, please click here.

The Relic Chapel

Work will shortly begin on the refurbishment of the Relic Chapel. We hope to begin the work by the end of June and finish in mid-September, in good time for the visit of the relics of St Thérèse of Lisieux in October.

The font will be taken away to be restored, and will probably not return until the new chapel is built on the other side of church. We will use the holy water stoup or a temporary font at the back of the church for the time being.

The cupboards, altar, walls and ceiling will all be restored to their orginal condition, as will the shrine of St Aloysius. Pictures and information are available in the St Philip's Day Donation post.

The whole chapel will be relit, with lighting within the relic cupboards and from the skylight above.