The Philadelphia Oratory at Saint Francis Xavier Church

Hail, thou ever blessed morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!
(by Fr. Edward Caswall, C.O., of the Birmingham Oratory)

From all of us at the Philadelphia Oratory, Merry Christmas, everyone!

"Let us reflect that the Word left heaven, and stooped to become man for us."
—St. Philip Neri

Happy Feast of Blessed Antony Grassi of the Oratory!

Blessed Antony was born in 1592 in Fermo, Italy, not too far from the Holy House of Loreto. He lost his father, from whom he learned a great love for Our Lady of Loreto, at the age of 10 and joined the Oratory at the age of 17 in 1609. In 1617, Blessed Antony was ordained a priest of the Oratory. He became very well known for his great knowledge of sacred Scripture and of sacred theology. Like St. Philip, he was very devoted to the care of the poor and also to hearing confessions which he would do for hours on end. Also like St. Philip, Blessed Antony had the gift of reading souls and of seeing the future—gifts which he used to great effect in the cure of souls. In 1635 he was elected the provost of the Oratory in Fermo and was re-elected to the post every three years until his death. He was well known for his gentleness, his generosity to the poor, and for his ability to reconcile people at odds.

He spent the last period of his life bedridden and severely hampered in the exercise of his ministry as he lost his teeth, his hearing, and finally, after a bad fall, his mobility. All of this he bore with patient resignation. He finally died in 1671 with the Archbishop of Fermo at his bedside.

Blessed Antony Grassi, pray for us!

This past Sunday we were very pleased to officially welcome Emma and Haider as catechumens in our church at the Rite of Welcome ceremony. Please be sure to keep them in your prayers as they continue to prepare to be received into the Church at Easter.

Experience the joy of our traditional Christmas concert. Let’s celebrate this festive season together! Get your tickets now!

32nd Annual Oratory Christmas Concert Tickets | The Philadelphia Oratory A Christmas tradition! We welcome all to attend our Annual Oratory Christmas Concert of classic hymns and anthems performed by Philadelphia-aera musicians.

Wishing you all a happy and blessed Feast of St. Francis Xavier today, the patronal feast of our parish! Because today was also the First Sunday of Advent, we will be observing the feast of St. Francis at Mass tomorrow.

Perhaps the greatest missionary in the Church's history after St. Paul the apostle, St. Francis Xavier was a Spanish priest born in 1506. He was a companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits who took vows in 1534. He traveled to India, Japan, and throughout Southeast Asia, spreading the Gospel and baptizing many converts. He was a great inspiration to our glorious patriarch St. Philip Neri, who devotedly read the letters St. Francis sent back to St. Ignatius in Rome. St. Philip, desiring very much to join St. Francis in his missionary work, was told by a saintly monk that "Rome would be [his] Indies." St. Francis gave his life for the sake of furthering the kingdom of God, and eventually died from a fever at Shangchuan, Taishan, awaiting a boat that would take him to mainland China, in 1552. St. Francis Xavier is, along with St. Therese of Lisieux, co-patron of foreign missions.
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O God, Who wast pleased to gather into Thy Church the nations of the Indies by the preaching and miracles of blessed Francis, mercifully grant that we, who venerate his glorious merits, may also imitate the example of his virtues. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
St. Francis Xavier, pray for us!

Today begins the holy season of Advent, wherein we prepare ourselves spiritually for the coming of Our Lord. Wishing you all a Blessed Advent season!
We offer for your reflection these words of St. John Henry Newman:
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We are destined to come before Him; nay, and to come before Him in judgment ...We have to stand before His righteous Presence, and that one by one. One by one we shall have to endure His holy and searching eye. At present we are in a world of shadows. What we see is not substantial. Suddenly it will be rent in twain and vanish away, and our Maker will appear. And then, I say, that first appearance will be nothing less than a personal in*******se between the Creator and every creature. He will look on us, while we look on Him.
...Again, when we come to church, then let us say:—The day will be when I shall see Christ surrounded by His Holy Angels. I shall be brought into that blessed company, in which all will be pure, all bright. I come then to learn to endure the sight of the Holy One and His Servants; to nerve myself for a vision which is fearful before it is ecstatic, and which they only enjoy whom it does not consume. ...I come then to church, because I am an heir of heaven. It is my desire and hope one day to take possession of my inheritance: and I come to make myself ready for it, and I would not see heaven yet, for I could not bear to see it. I am allowed to be in it without seeing it, that I may learn to see it. And by psalm and sacred song, by confession and by praise, I learn my part.
(Worship, a Preparation for Christ's Coming, PPS5-1)
(Image from: My Book of the Church's Year by Enid Chadwick)

Get into the Christmas spirit! Join us for our 32nd Annual Oratory Christmas Concert. Tickets available online now! https://www.simpletix.com/e/32nd-annual-oratory-christmas-concert-tickets-152357

A Christmas tradition! We welcome all to attend our Annual Oratory Christmas Concert of classic hymns and anthems. Reserve your tickets today at: https://www.simpletix.com/e/32nd-annual-oratory-christmas-concert-tickets-152357

The concert features Philadelphia-area musicians and is conducted by Mrs. Alicia Brozovich.

The concert is family-friendly and will be about an hour long. The concert will be followed by a reception with even more live music and entertainment.

All proceeds from the concert directly support the ministries of the historic St. Francis Xavier Church in the beautiful Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, just across the street from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

During today's plenary assembly, the United States bishops supported the request of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, asking the Holy Father to name Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church.

The Blessed Sacrament is now exposed for adoration.
Today marks the beginning of our 40 hours devotion at St. Francis Xavier Church—The Oratory! The church will remain open all day today until 8:00pm and again on Monday and Tuesday for you to come and adore our Blessed Lord.

We will conclude each day with preaching by Fr. Vincent Smith, O.S.F.S., an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales, at 7:30pm, followed by Benediction. The 40 hours will conclude on Tuesday evening when we will have a procession to the nearby Chapel of Divine Love. We strongly encourage all to attend the closing procession.

We are very happy to announce that today during the 10:30 Mass Br. Joshua was instituted as an acolyte. This is an important step in his formation toward the priesthood. A person is installed in the ministry of Acolyte in order to assist the deacon and the priest in liturgical celebrations; involving especially the duties of setting up the altar and distributing Holy Communion.

Please continue to keep Br. Joshua and Br. Alexander in your prayers as they continue their seminary studies and formation.

Reminder: Tomorrow (Wednesday) is a Holy Day of Obligation! Get thee to Holy Mass!
Our 7:30pm Mass will have music.

We ask for your continued prayers for our brethren in Washington, D.C. Thankfully, the fire was contained to the working sacristy, & did not spread to the body of the church.

Pope Francis has invited us all to dedicate Friday, 27 October, to a Day of Prayer, Fasting, and Penance for peace in our war-torn world.

Find out more: https://loom.ly/qzIzMz8

Pope Francis has called for a day of fasting tomorrow for peace, and a swift resolution to the Israel-Hamas war.

So many lives lost, and so many people displaced. Kyrie eleison.

Pope Francis Announces Prayer Vigil, Day of Fasting for Peace in Israel-Hamas War The Holy Father’s announcement was preceded by his renewed appeal for peace in the Holy Land.

We request your prayers for our brethren in DC—the Community in Formation for the Oratory, and the people of their parish, St. Thomas the Apostle.

Happy Feast of St. John Henry Newman, C.O.!
(February 21, 1801 - August 11, 1890)
St. John Henry Newman brought the Oratory of St. Philip Neri to England and founded the Birmingham Oratory and the Brompton Oratory in London. One of the most influential men in 19th century England, Newman was an intellectual giant who left behind a great deal of what his life as an Anglican had been, including reputable positions and a great many friends, to follow what he came to see as the truth of the Catholic faith. His profound sermons and writings continue to shape and inspire those who read them,and his teaching on the Development of Christian Doctrine has been an important contribution to the theology of the Church. St. John Henry Newman, pray for us!

"God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments. Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about."

Happy Feast of St. Luigi Scrosoppi of the Oratory!
Born in Udine, Luigi was one of three boys in his family, all of whom became priests. After his ordination in 1827, he lived a very active priestly life, and showed a particular concern for the care of orphans. To this end he and his step-brother Fr Carlo established a 'House for the Destitute': fund-raising and building work took a number of years, but it was ready by 1837. Luigi played an important role in the foundation of the Sisters of Providence, who devoted their lives to the service of the orphans.

Luigi had been associated with the Oratorian Fathers from his earliest years, but the Udine Oratory was suppressed in 1810, a victim of anti-clerical laws. In 1846, it was re-established, with Carlo, Luigi and two other priests as its members.
The work of Luigi and the Sisters continued to expand: schools were opened, including one for deaf and dumb girls in 1857, the Sisters' work reached beyond Udine into hospital ministry, a cholera epidemic in 1855 provided an opportunity for Luigi and the Sisters to alleviate suffering among the general population of Friuli.

In 1866 the army of the Kingdom of Italy conquered Udine and the surrounding regions, and the Oratory was suppressed once more. Luigi would never again live within the formal structures of an Oratory.

But this did not prevent him from remaining a faithful disciple of St Philip. He devoted himself from that time on to the spiritual and practical welfare of the Sisters of Providence. Happily the House for the Destitute was saved, although it had to become subject to public control, and the from the mid-1860s onwards, the work of the Sisters flourished in Austrian-controlled territory, so that Luigi's prophecy that twelve houses would be founded by the time of his death came true.

Towards the end of 1883, Luigi had to give up all his activity because of ill-health, and he died on 3rd April 1884. During his life, he lived by the motto 'Work, suffer, and be silent.' He was indeed a man of prayer, and was filled with spiritual wisdom. His final exhortation to his Sisters also sums up his own life: 'Charity! Charity!... Save souls, and save them with charity.'
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O God, since you have inflamed the heart of your priest, Saint Luigi, so that he might be an example of genuine charity towards those who suffer, grant to us that, with the help of his intercession, we may love our brethren with sincere hearts, and daily seek the kingdom of God and his justice. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
(Text adapted from the Oxford Oratory website.)

It was with great joy that we celebrated last Sunday Br. Joshua receiving the Office of Lector, the first formal step towards priesthood. We ask for your continued prayers for Br. Joshua, and for our entire community as we continue to strive to serve Our Lord in the manner established by our glorious patriarch, St. Philip Neri.

Happy and Blessed Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels!

We are blessed to have this stunning window of St. Michael defeating Satan in our Church.

For your edification, some words from St. John Henry Newman:

"Surely we are not told in Scripture about the Angels for nothing, but for practical purposes; nor can I conceive a use of our knowledge more practical than to make it connect the sight of this world with the thought of another. Nor one more consolatory; for surely it is a great comfort to reflect that, wherever we go, we have those about us, who are ministering to all the heirs of salvation, though we see them not.
..Let us then entertain such thoughts as these of the Angels of God; and while we try to think of them worthily, let us beware lest we make the contemplation of them a mere feeling, and a sort of luxury of the imagination. This world is to be a world of practice and labour; God reveals to us glimpses of the Third Heaven for our comfort; but if we indulge in these as the end of our present being, not trying day by day to purify ourselves for the future enjoyment of the fulness of them, they become but a snare of our enemy. The Services of religion, day by day, obedience to God in our calling and in ordinary matters, endeavours to imitate our Saviour Christ in word and deed, constant prayer to Him, and dependence on Him, these are the due preparation for receiving and profiting by His revelations; whereas many a man can write and talk beautifully about them, who is not at all better or nearer heaven for all his excellent words."

(Parochial & Plain Sermons, Vol. II, Sermon 29)

Happy Feast of Blessed Juvenal Ancina of the Oratory!
Blessed Juvenal Ancina, pray for us!
1545-1604, Beatified 1890
Giovanni Giovenale Ancina was born at Fossano in Piemonte, Italy on October 19, 1545. After receiving his doctorate in medicine and philosophy at age 24, he came to Rome in 1575, where he studied theology under St. Robert Bellarmine at the Roman College. Baronius, St. Philip's disciple, called Ancina “a new St. Basil,” due to his remarkable intellectual gifts and capacity for teaching. A year later, Juvenal entered St. Philip’s Oratory, followed by his brother, Giovanni Matteo, two years later in 1578. In 1582, Giovenale was ordained a priest and Matteo a deacon.
Juvenal became known for his preaching and teaching in the Oratory; his handwritten theology lessons are still preserved. Of all of St. Philip’s disciples, Ancina is said to have most closely imitated him. St. Philip sent him to Naples to assist with establishing a new Oratory there. He worked in Naples tirelessly with great zeal for a decade before he was recalled to Rome in 1595, the year of St. Philip’s death, to become the new provost (superior) of the community. The following year, Pope Clement VIII appointed Juvenal bishop of Saluzzo. Juvenal, seeking to remain a simple Oratorian priest, fled into the hills for five months. In 1602, the pope ordered him to accept assignment as bishop of Saluzzo and he finally acquised. In Saluzzo, Ancina instituted a diocesan seminary, made a pastoral visit of his diocese, and reached out to heretics; even being instrumental in the conversion of a grandson of the heresiarch John Calvin. He lived a very austere life for a bishop, retaining only the luxury of his extensive library, and spending long hours in prayer, often in ecstasy.

Blessed Juvenal was murdered by poisoning on August 30, 1604 by a dissolute friar whom he had rebuked for having an affair with a nun. He is remembered as a great disciple of St. Philip, close friend of St. Francis de Sales, and a holy bishop.

This Tuesday, August 15th is a Holy Day of Obligation—get thee to holy Mass!

An old joke says that a Dominican and a Jesuit were once arguing about whose was the greater order. They compared the reason each was founded: the Dominicans to save people from the Albigensian heresy, the Jesuits to fight Protestantism. The Dominican smiled and asked: ‘Met any Albigensians recently?’

The strange thing about the great success of St Dominic as a preacher and founder of the Order of Preachers is that not a single sermon of his survives. Perhaps this is because he simply preached the Gospel, and so there was no need to record what he said.

It is a style of preaching that our own St Philip picked up from the Dominicans. He used to say that he learnt all that was good in him when he was young from the friars in Florence, and he enjoyed a close friendship with the friars in Rome for the rest of his life. They even gave him keys to the Minerva, so that he could let himself in for Matins and Compline, which he would often do, bringing a group of young people with him.

That friendship between the Oratory and the Dominicans continues today in Oxford. Most of the fathers studied for the priesthood at Blackfriars, and in October our two brothers will also start their studies there.

We pray today for all our Dominican friends on the feast of St Dominic, and especially the community at Blackfriars and the Dominican sisters who live in our parish.

We are very happy to announce that yesterday during the 10:30 Mass Br. Alexander was instituted as an acolyte. This is an important step in his formation toward the priesthood. A person is installed in the ministry of Acolyte in order to assist the deacon and the priest in liturgical celebrations; involving especially the duties of setting up the altar and distributing Holy Communion.

Please continue to keep Br. Alexander and Br. Joshua in your prayers as they continue their seminary studies and formation.

Today at 5:00! A reception in the parish house will follow the ceremony.

Wishing you all a blessed Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

Let us entrust ourselves to that Heart which has so loved us.

A prayer of St. John Henry Newman:
"O Sacred Heart of Jesus, living and quickening source of eternal life, infinite treasure of the Divinity, and burning furnace of divine love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary, O my amiable Saviour. Consume my heart with that burning fire with which Your Heart is ever inflamed. Pour down on my soul those graces which flow from Your love, and let my heart be so united with Yours, that our wills may be one; and mine in all things, be conformed to Yours. May Your divine will be equally the standard and rule of all my desires and of all my actions."