from the Provost

April 2026 Letter from the Provost

April 2026 Letter from the Provost

March 2026 Letter from the Provost

March 2026 Letter from the Provost

February 2026 Letter from the Provost

It is sometimes said that Christianity is a religion “of the book”. Fake News (at least as far as our Catholic religion is concerned)!

January 2026 Letter from the Provost

As this first issue of the 2026 Oratory Parish Magazine was just about to go to press, the Archdiocese of Westminster announced...

December 2025 Letter from the Provost

It has been said that we are living in a post-truth society.

November 2025 Letter from the Provost

On the great Feast of All Saints the altars of our church are laden with gilded reliquaries

October 2025 Letter from the Provost

Broadly speaking there are two methods of interpreting Holy Scripture that we are likely to encounter today.

September 2025 Letter from the Provost

The question of how many souls will be saved is one which has stimulated much reflection and discussion since the earliest days of Christianity.

August 2025 Letter from the Provost

We recently celebrated the feast day of St Mary Magdalene, to whom a beautiful chapel is dedicated in our church.

July 2025 Letter from the Provost

During the last weeks many children have made their first Holy Communions in the Oratory church, and it is always edifying to see the devotion with which these little ones approach the altar to receive the Blessed Sacrament.

June 2025 Letter from the Provost

On this year’s celebration of the Feast of St Peter and St Paul we shall all be praying especially for our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV.

Sermon: Requiem for Pope Francis

The following sermon was preached at a Solemn Requiem Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis on 1st May 2025.

May 2025 Letter from the Provost

On Easter Monday the world received the news that His Holiness Pope Francis had died in the Vatican.

April 2025 Letter from the Provost

If the good Archbishop lived to see the crumbling of that citadel in the 1960s and 70s, we now inhabit its ruins.

Lenten Musical Oratories 2025

March 2025 Letter from the Provost

We live in an era in which invective is endemic.

February 2025 Letter from the Provost

One of the joys and great responsibilities of the priesthood is the preparation of young couples for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

January 2025 Letter from the Provost

On Christmas Eve, at the Midnight Mass, we heard how the first to be called to Bethlehem to join the Holy Family were some poor shepherds, who were summoned from the surrounding hills by a choir of angels.

December 2024 Letter from the Provost

A royal birth is traditionally the occasion for celebration. When the civilised world was ruled by kings and disputed succession might mean civil war and the threat of foreign invasion then the hopes of an entire nation would be invested in a new-born child, and especially a first-born son.

November 2024 Letter from the Provost

If you come into the Oratory Church on 1st November, you will find the Altar of St Philip Neri and the High Altar decked with reliquaries.

October 2024 Letter from the Provost

Hierarchy is the principle by which God has chosen to order His creation.

September 2024 Letter from the Provost

The Last Supper is surely one of the scenes most cherished by Christians of all denominations.

August 2024 Letter from the Provost

Saint John the Baptist is such an important saint that he has two feast days – the feast of his nativity, on 24th June, and the feast of his martyrdom on 29th August.

July 2024 Letter from the Provost

The gap between the extremely rich and the rest of humanity seems to have widened dangerously since the dreaded “Pandemic”.

April 2024 Letter from the Provost

March 2024 Letter from the Provost

During Lent, those who attend the full series of Musical Oratories in the church on Wednesday evenings will be familiar with the invaluable contribution made by all of the three choirs with which we are currently blessed here.

Lenten Musical Oratories 2024

Lenten Musical 2024

February 2024 Letter from the Provost

On the Second Sunday of Lent, the Church leads us on a gentle hike up the slopes of Mount Tabor, to witness Our Lord’s Transfiguration.

January 2024 Letter from the Provost

It seems that for many of our contemporaries the Christmas season begins as soon as the pumpkins and skulls of Halloween have made way for tinsel and baubles in the shop window displays in early November.

December 2023 Letter from the Provost

In Advent we are called to prepare on different levels for the coming of Our Lord.

November 2023 Letter from the Provost

Ascending to the imposing pulpit of the Oratory church, the preacher these days has to remind himself to be grateful to look out onto a sea of faces.

October 2023 Letter from the Provost

The Holy Scriptures are so full of angels that we should not be surprised if our Bibles suddenly sprout feathery wings and flutter into the air.

September 2023 Letter from the Provost

Reading the account of Our Lord’s encounter with the Canaanite woman in The Gospel of St Matthew (15:21-28), we might well be surprised by the tone of their exchange.

August 2023 Letter from the Provost

We are all familiar with the parable of the sower, who distributes his seed with such varying success. Our Lord helpfully unpacks and explains this particular parable for us, teaching us how to interpret His parables in general.

July 2023 Letter from the Provost

Father Hugh Barrett-Lennard, who died just six days short of his ninetieth birthday in 2007, is remembered with great fondness by those who encountered him during his sixty-two years at the Oratory.

June 2023 Letter from the Provost

Everyday language inevitably fails us when it comes to expressing the Mysteries of our holy Catholic Faith.

May 2023 Letter from the Provost

It is surely a grace of Divine Providence that the feast of our holy father St Philip falls within the month that is so sweetly fragranced by its dedication to Our Blessed Lady.

April 2023 Letter from the Provost

This year the feast of the Annunciation fell on a Saturday.

March 2023 Letter from the Provost

On the first Sunday of Lent, we accompanied Our Lord into the desert where the devil tempted him.

January 2023 Letter from the Provost

The restoration of the feast of the Epiphany to its proper day in this country is to be welcomed.

December 2022 Letter from the Provost

A 4th-century Egyptian observed that “the Son of God became man so that we might become God”.

November 2022 Letter from the Provost

One of the most moving verses in Holy Scripture is also the shortest: “Jesus wept.”

October 2022 Letter from the Provost

We marked the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with a Solemn High Mass for the repose of the late monarch’s soul on Sunday 11th September.

September 2022 Letter from the Provost

“I am a very spiritual person Father, but I am not religious”.

August 2022 Letter from the Provost

When St Philip died in 1595, all of his possessions were lovingly preserved at the Roman Oratory.

July 2022 Letter from the Provost

“I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest when I can communicate directly with God.” This used to be a classic Protestant objection to the Sacrament of Confession.

June 2022 Letter from the Provost

The liturgical texts of Eastertide have enabled us to participate in the joy of the Apostles, who enjoyed a precious forty days with Our Lord after His Resurrection, as He talked with them, taught them and dined with them.

May 2022 Letter from the Provost

Trying to imagine what Heaven is like must ultimately turn out to be a frustrating exercise. The utter perfection of Heaven and the nature of existence there necessarily transcend all earthly experience.

April 2022 Letter from the Provost

Insofar as it is an excessive exultation of human achievements and capabilities, triumphalism can only ever be an impediment to the Church’s mission.

March 2022 Letter from the Provost

Our holy father St Philip liked to tell anyone who tried to praise him that they would one day see him hanged in Rome.

February 2022 Letter from the Provost

We have been given various images of the Church which help us to understand what it means to be Christian and Catholic.

January 2022 Letter from the Provost

An elderly Catholic prelate was recently asked what he believes to be the secret of a peaceful retirement. After a few moments of reflection, His Lordship replied: ‘Try not to watch television. And if you do, never watch the news’.

December 2021 Letter from the Provost

After a highly publicised “private visit” to the Vatican, the current incumbent of the White House told the press he had been assured on the highest authority that he was “a good Catholic” and should continue receiving Holy Communion.

November 2021 Letter from the Provost

The sardonic observation that nothing in this world is certain except for death and taxes is usually attributed to the eighteenth-century polymath, Freemason and American Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin.

October 2021 Letter from the Provost

If we had to sum up our Holy Catholic Faith in two words, we would probably have to say “Jesus Christ”.

September 2021 Letter from the

Our holy father St Philip had a knack for winning souls in a manner which could be simultaneously gentle and discomfiting.

August 2021 Letter from the Provost

A cartoon that appeared in the New Yorker some decades ago depicted a weary looking angel sitting on a cloud, a harp lying at his feet.

July 2021 Letter from the Provost

Preaching on the feast of Pentecost in 2012, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI described Pentecost as the feast of “union, comprehension and communion.”

June 2021 Letter from the Provost

In our Triduo devotions during the three days leading up to the feast of our holy father St Philip, we are reminded in one of Father Faber's most brilliant hymns that our Saint's death in 1595 coincided with the celebration of Corpus Christi:

May 2021 Letter from the Provost

It has been asked whether the Oratory is visited regularly by a team of elves who appear during the night to prepare the church for feasts and ceremonies.

April 2021 Letter from the Provost

There is something of a consensus amongst scientists that the origin of this universe as we know it lies in a great explosion in which space began to expand from a single point – the theory known as the Big Bang.

March 2021 Letter from the Provost

On the First Sunday of Lent, we heard the Gospel account of Our Lord's forty days in the desert.

February 2021 Letter from the Provost

"Father, what will it be like when we die?" This is a question that priests are used to being asked by both children and adults.

January 2021 Letter from the Provost

The unveiling of the Oratory Crib took place during the First Mass of Christmas at midnight.

December 2020 Letter from the Provost

One of Father Faber’s legacies at the London Oratory is an extensive library on the lives of the saints.

November 2020 Letter from the Provost

On the great feast of Christ the King we celebrate the universal sovereignty of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

October 2020 Letter from the Provost

When hearing the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard (Mt 20:1-16), it is quite possible that our initial reaction is one of indignation.

September 2020 Letter from the Provost

It is sometimes said that if all the pieces of wood that are venerated around the world as relics of the True Cross were put together, then there would be enough material to build a Spanish galleon.

August 2020 Letter from the Provost

It is difficult to describe what a relief it was to see our congregation again when public Masses resumed at the beginning of July.

July 2020 Letter from the Provost

The word miracle comes from the Latin miraculum, which is an object of wonder.

June 2020 Letter from the Provost

Along with the Chiesa Nuova, San Girolamo della Carità and San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, one of the Roman churches of special interest to anyone with an Oratorian connection is the beautiful Santissima Trinità dei Pellegrini.

May 2020 Letter from the Provost

Shortly before the lockdown there was a christening at the Oratory attended by a whole army of children belonging to godparents and other guests.

April 2020 Letter from the Provost

In the Creation account in Genesis we read how, at the end of each day, God looked at what He had made and saw that it was good. In other words.

March 2020 Letter from the Provost

By the time this letter appears, we shall have made (and possibly broken) our Lenten resolutions. Perseverance is of the essence in the Christian life.

February 2020 Letter from the Provost

We tend to associate Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, which in former days were an excellent way of using up eggs, flour, milk and other ingredients before the rigours of Lent, and which remain a welcome source of nourishment before the fasting and abstinence of Ash Wednesday.

January 2020 Letter from the Provost

The Feast of the Epiphany marks the manifestation of Our Lord’s Divinity to the gentile world. No longer will salvation be the preserve of a particular race.

December 2019 Letter from the Provost

Exactly nine months before Christmas day we celebrated the visit of an Angel to a Virgin in Nazareth.

November 2019 Letter from the Provost

“Mark my words,” our holy father St Philip once said, “if you live long enough, you will see me hanged like a common criminal in this city of Rome.”

October 2019 Letter from the Provost

On Sunday the 13th October, Bl. John Henry Newman will be canonised during a papal celebration of Holy Mass in St Peter’s Square in Rome.

September 2019 Letter from the Provost

A believable anecdote relates that Napoleon was boasting about his power to destroy the Catholic Church when, in response, the Pope’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Consalvi, asked him: “If, in 1,800 years, we, the clergy, have not managed to destroy the Church, do you really believe that you will be able to do it?”

August 2019 Letter from the Provost

The custom of holidaying in August predates Christianity.

July 2019 Letter from the Provost

Flick through a national newspaper and the chances are that you will find at least one account of someone suffering from a dreadful illness, where the underlying message from the editorial is as follows:

June 2019 Letter from the Provost

The devil revels in division. We see this at the beginning of human history in Genesis.

May 2019 Letter from the Provost

As the May edition of the Oratory Parish Magazine is about to go to press, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris continues to smoulder after a devastating fire which destroyed most of its roof yesterday evening and into the night.

April 2019 Letter from the Provost

Talking to parishioners, it transpires that many of them have a great love for the season of Lent.

March 2019 Letter from the Provost

In this quite troubled world in which we live today, it is not as if there is no-one looking for solutions.

February 2019 Letter from the Provost

Visitors to the Oratory Church are often surprised by the Jewish-looking candelabras on either side of the sanctuary.

January 2019 Letter from the Provost

A major highlight of any pilgrimage to Rome must be a visit to the basilica of St Mary Major.

December 2018 Letter from the Provost

Rorate Caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum – Aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem.

November 2018 Letter from the Provost

There has recently been some controversy in the English-speaking Catholic media about the place and the role of converts in our Holy Catholic Church.

October 2018 Letter from the Provost

We live in an era which bombards us with images.

September 2018 Letter from the Provost

As a former Fleet Street hack, I was asked soon after my studies for the priesthood had begun: “Wasn’t that an extraordinary change, going from journalism to the cloth?”

August 2018 Letter from the Provost

The month of August is bathed in the glorious rays of Our Lady’s Assumption into Heaven.

July 2018 Letter from the Provost

Very early in Holy Scripture we are confronted with the presence of an evil personality, Satan, who comes to Eve in the form of a serpent.

June 2018 Letter from the Provost

Last month the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held an annual knees-up to raise money for its costume collection.

May 2018 Letter from the Provost

Reading the newspapers, even (perhaps especially) some of the Catholic ones, we could easily end up thinking that the Catholic religion is all about issues.

April 2018 Letter from the Provost

Since the earliest days in the catacombs, no image of Our Lord has appealed more powerfully to the Christian imagination than that of the shepherd

March 2018 Letter from the Provost

Children’s drawings of Noah’s Ark usually depict smiling giraffes stretching their necks out of Mr and Mrs Noah’s well-appointed living quarters.

February 2018 Letter from the Provost

One of the Oratory Fathers was recently approached by a guest at a local night shelter who announced that he had “a bone to pick.”

January 2018 Letter from the Provost

On the Feast of the Epiphany the scene at the Crib is completed, with the arrival of the wise men, or Magi, in Bethlehem.