Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Saturday 11th February

Day of Prayer for the Sick

11am - Mass, Procession to the Shrine,

Devotions and Prayers for the Sick

Brothers of St Philip meet before the Solemn Mass on these Sundays

for Prayer, Reading and Meditation

Spring Programme based on the

Spring Sermons of the Bl John Henry Newman from 1838

Sunday 5th February

9.45am  Rosary in the Newman Chapel

10am  Conference on Sermon Faith and Love

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume4/sermon21.html

Sunday 19th February

9.45am  Rosary in the Newman Chapel

10am  Conference on Sermon Fasting a Source of Trail

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume6/sermon1.html

Sunday 4th March

9.45am  Rosary in the Newman Chapel

10am  Conference on Sermon Trangressions and Infirmities

 http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume5/sermon14.html

Sunday 18th March

9.45am Rosary in the Newman Chapel 

10am  Conference on Sermon Keeping Fast and Festival

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume4/sermon23.html

Saturday 24th or 31st March (to be announced)

Penitential Pilgriamge to Pantasaph

Outdoor Stations of the Cross

Further details and copies of the sermons can be obtained from Fr Christopher

Of Your Charity

Pray for the Repose of the Soul of

Fr Gregory Winterton

Priest of the Birmingham Oratory

who died on the morning of 18th January

Prayer of the Bl John Henry Newman

May He support us all the day long,

till the shades lengthen and the evening comes,

and the busy world is hushed,

and the fever of life is over,

and our work is done.

Then in His mercy may He give us a safe lodging,

and a holy rest and peace at the last.

The Holy Name of Jesus

In the middle of the Christmas Cycle, between the Nativity and the Epiphany, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. In this we recall the eighth day after his birth when the Lord’s parents brought him to be circumcised and given the name announced by Gabriel to Mary, “His name shall be Jesus.”

The giving of a name in Judaism has huge significance, because the name gives the public indication of the what the person is; its describes his character, and ’Jesus’ (or ‘Joshua’) means ‘Saviour’. From Hebrew the name is transliterated as yeshu’a, which in Greek becomes iησους, which in Latin becomes Iesus, which in English becomes Jesus. The insignia IHS comes from the first three letters of the Greek name IHΣ (from the captialised IHΣOUΣ), again Latinised as IHS.

At the circumcision the name Jesus was imposed, so at the first shedding of the Lord’s blood we are shown his character in the giving of the name and the ritual action; Saviour and blood.

Iesus Hominum Salvator

It is sometimes said that IHS comes from the initials of Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus Saviour of Men). This is a good devotion, but it is not the first meaning given to the IHS. The symbol was so popular that it is not uncommon to find the Latin IESUS misspelled as IHESUS (with the added ‘H’, although in Greek the ‘η’ (’h’ sound) is equivalent to the Latin ’e').

In fact, the first known use of the IHS abbreviation comes in the 8th century, “DN IHS CHS REX REGNANTIUM”, the first three words being abbreviated from “DominNus IHesus CHistuS’ (The Lord Jesus Christ is the King of Kings). Still, although hisotrically inaccurate, there is certainly nothing wrong with seeing the insignia as a testimony to the truth that there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4.12). Most certainly, Jesus alone is the Saviour and without his grace we cannot attain to everlasting life.

In Hoc Signo Vinces

To the emblem of the IHS is often added the three nails which fastened the Lord’s hands and feet, as well as the cross above. The usual position of these images with the IHS brings out the letter V. This emblem is often seen the iconography of the Society of Jesus, and in the churches they built like ours in Manchester. Here then we have the insignia ‘IHSV’, and so the reference to In Hoc Signum Vinces (In this Sign you shall Conquer). This has been taken to refer to the victory of Constantine over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge on 28th October 312. Before the battle Constantine saw in the sky the symbol XP (the Greek chi-rho of ‘Christ’), and heard the words, which were subsequently translated as (In Hoc Signum Vinces), εν τουτω νικα.

The Jesus Psalter

The repetition of the name ‘Jesus’ has been a popular devotion in both Eastern and Western Churches for many hundreds of years. Such a simple word, or phrase which extends it, is repeated over and over again as a focus for the intellect through which the heart can grow in love of God. In the Middle Ages the ‘Jesus Psalter’ developed in England by the Brigittine community at Sion (near London), and reached its final composition by Richard Whitford, a friend of Thomas More and monk of Sion Abbey. It was printed as a separate devotion by 1520, and was remarkably popular in all classes of society. It remained part of Catholic devotion through penal times, being reprinted in Challoner’s Garden of the Soul.

It uses the repetition of the holy name of Jesus, and adds to it a prayer for a particular intention.

There are 15 intentions, split into 3 parts, rather like the rosary. Copies of the Jesus Psalter are available on application to the Rector.

An online version can be found here: http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Filius/PsalterIesu.html

Old Pictures of the Holy Name

As they come to light, old pictures of the church and area will be put up here. If you have any old pictures of Holy Name buildings, worshippers and parishioners, priests and religious, the liturgy and services, guilds, clubs, societies and schools (or anything else!), then please let Fr Christopher know so we can put them up here and make copies for our archive.

The New Tower

For nearly 60 years the Holy Name had no tower, although one had been incorporated into the original design by Hansom (although if it had been built it would have been 73 feet, a third higher than the present tower, so we should be a little cautious of the seriousness of his intentions here).

This tower was opened and blessed by the bishop of Salford in 1928; the brave party standing on the little balcony for the ritual blessings just below the crucifix facing Oxford Road.

This new tower was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the red telephone box (the tower design can be seen in both of these). On the top of the tower were two great flag poles, but these were removed sometime later as the high winds in the north west caused massive pressure on the fixings of the flagpoles.

Here you can see the newly fininshed tower, with flag poles, standing proudly above Oxford Road. The church would have dominated all the surrounding area, as it continues to do to some degree. Its bells were heard for miles, and at night the tower was illuminated by floodlights in the balconies on the west front.

The Interior

Each generation has added to the interior decoration of the church. Hhere we have a rare picture of how it looked in 1889, within 20 years of its opening, and just 3 years of the consecration of the high altar.

Notice in particular the stained (or perhaps painted) glass window above the high altar showing scenes around the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immacualte Heart of Mary, and the great expanse of clear glass. This original stained glass was removed when the present windows were put in, and placed on the south side of the sanctuary, over the present sedilia. There is a scheme in our archives for all the windows in the church to be coloured, showing representation of the Jesuit saints, which would have made the church very dark and were thankfully never executed.

Also notice the old wooden pulpit that was replaced by the present alabaster pulpit, which was later decorated with representations of five of the English martyrs.

Again notice the light fittings - gas flares coming from the nave pillars. The places where they were fixed can still be seen, and one or two of the original survive out of sight in the ambulatory behind the high altar.

You can just make out the open arches between the ambulatory and the side chapels, where the servers’ benches are. These were blocked in about 30 years ago to give extra support to the weight bearing columns. This wide open sanctuary and chapels would have had quite a different feel what what we have today, although the drafts must have been terrible causing and uncapped wax candles to gutter tremendously.

You will notice that each pew has a small white badge on the nave side, which displayed the pew’s number. The seating in the pews was rented anually, and small ivory name plates were used to allocate each seat, one of which is visible in this picture. Some are still there displaying the names of the last person to pay pew-rent. These were common in the days before a collection was taken up during the Mass, and the most regular source of income for such a large church with a large clerical staff.

This next picture is from 1918, and shows the new windows depicting the coronation of our Lady surrounded by the orders of angels holding various emblems from the ‘Litany of Loreto’ (the next set of friends and family came later). In this view we can also make out the arrangement of the sanctaury lighting - the brass hoops with candles suspended between the arches. Either side of the sanctuary in the opening to the ambulatory are two statues on plinths. These are the twin statues of Ss Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, which now stand in the north west corner and north transept respectively. The ‘Holy Name Magazine’ tells the tale of the arrival of the marble blocks from Italy, much delayed by bad whether, and their transporation to Manchester by barge. They were carved here by Mr Alberti, who carved most of the statues in the church, in 1908 (I’ll check the date). Above these two statues are more stained glass windows; two smaller images of the same two saints in similar poses.

Comparing the two pictures, just 20 years apart, you can see what the air pollution of Manchester had already done to the stonework.

Arts and Crafts Movement

The Holy Name is of a typical counter-Reformation style, with short sanctuary, large pulpit in the congregation, confessionals, etc, although it is dressed as a 14th century gothic building. Other styles have been introduced throughout the years, one being that of the Arts and Crafts Movement in the first half of the 20th century. The great window in the south transept, the Memorial Window for parishioners who died in the First World War, is by Paul Woodroffe. He worked on 15 stained galss windows for the Lady Cahpel of of St Patrick’s cathedral, New York, and several other churches (including St Catherine’s, Chipping Camden where Fr Ray was Parish Priest), and was commissioned to design our beautiful window after the Great War. Here is an example of the design from the bottom left hand quarter:

Although never executed, there is a design for a crucifix by Eric Gill. It was to have the names of all those men who died in the Great War inscribed on the sides of the shaft of the cross below the words, “Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, Esto Mihi Jesus” (Jesus, Jesus , Jesus, be Unto Me a Saviour), the Holy Name being refrain of the Jesus Psalter, and this phrase uttered by many of the martyrs on their way to death.

There is no reference in the church archive for the proposed location of the image (at least none has come to light at the moment), but there is this sketch which exists in Gill’s papers.

Some of the Community of the Dijon Oratory in the Roman Catacomb where St Philip received the gift of the Holy Spirit

A new family of St Philip has been established at Dijon on 15th July 2011, by a rescript of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The new Community was founded from the Congregation at Nancy a few years ago.

The Fathers and Brothers work in local parishes, hospitals and university chaplaincies, as well as cultivating the ministry of the Oratory in helping the laity to love God and their neighbour through informal spiritual meetings and prayer.

This is the link to their website:  http://oratoirededijon.hautetfort.com/

Please pray that the Community at the Holy Name will soon be established as a Congregation of St Philip.

The Spirituality of St Philip

Obedience

Obedience is the only law imposed by God for the universal ordering of all things and for their conservation (Istruzione per Esercizi, p.85). The cosmos obeys the divine order. Man, to give greater glory to God, is called to obey in total freedom.

There is no greater expression of freedom than following God’s plan, since humans are given the freedom to personally chose their own greater good (”The truth will make you free”). And obedience frees us from the slavery of human weakness, which is subject to error.

The Congregation of St Philip can also be considered to be part of the whole Creation, where all the various components work in harmony together; working well when everything is in its place, in ‘obedience’ to the whole.

Blessed Sebastian Valfrè said, “Obedience is the map for navigating towards the shores of perfection and towards the safe port of blessed eternity” (Istruzione per Esercizi Spirituali, p.97).

Fr Consolini said, “One who is not obedient will never be holy” (Pregi della Congregazione dell’Oratorio di San Filippo Neri, p.249).

Obedience is born from the virtue of humility, which recognises one’s own limits, of poverty and of the need for help. At times obedience is difficult, because it requires the renunciation of one’s own desires and egoism.

St Philip said that obedience is, “the true holocaust which is sacrificed to God on the altar of our hearts; it is a shortened route to arrive quickly at perfection; whoever lives an ordinary life in obedience is more praiseworthy than another who does penance at his own choosing; whoever flees one tribulation will only find another; whoever flees frost will have snow fall on him, and whoever flees from the bear will meet the lion.”

Obedience conforms us to Christ who was obedient even unto death. “He desires in his spiritual sons a willing obedience, and often said that it was not enough just to do what obedience commanded, but also that it was necessary to be obedient without complaint, and to believe with certitude that what obedience required would be the best thing, the most perfect that can be found, even when it seems that the opposite should be true. He often said to his spiritual sons, and in particular to those of the house who were eager to be obedient that they should leave aside every other thing to attend to community matters, even if it were prayer itself or something else that seemed important.”

Every state of life, every social arrangement requires obedience; obedience to laws, to regulations, etc.

Even the proverbial ‘Philippine freedom’  requires obedience. Fr Tarugi (d.1611) said time and again, “In the Congregation, even though the members are not bound with a vow of obedience, they are obligated to live freely in obedience” Breve notizia d’alcuni compagni di San Filippo Neri, p.25ff).

The Constitutions of the Oratoryexhorts members not to bind themselves to external works that would cause them to be absent from communal life; and in accepting external works one is invited to obedience (nn.100-101).

Obedience is the best preparation for the assumption of positions of responsibility. There is a saying that in order to know how to command, one must first have learned how to obey.

The Spirituality of St Philip

Chastity

“Chastity is mentioned by St Paul as being one of the fruits of the Spirit. Chastity ought to be lived as the freedom of the heart, in a total giving of oneself to the Lord; not as a rejection of a human reality that was willed by God and sanctified by grace. Chastity is a foretaste of the Kingdom, which yearns for the fullness of love, and of making oneself available to a positive and serene intimacy; it is a spiritual richness which puts right all the possible deviations of egoism and immaturity” (Cittadini).

St Philip, “advised us to flee from every kind of singularity and showing oneself to be or to do more than the others,” knowing that humility is indispensable in preserving purity.

He said, “Be attentive to purity of heart because the Holy Spirit dwells in innocent and simple souls. One should fear carnal temptations and flee from them even in illness, in old age and for as long as one lives, because the spirit of incontinence exempts no place, nor time, nor person.”

Philip often said, “The young should beware of the temptations of the flesh, and the old should beware of avarice. Temptations of the flesh can be better overcome by flight than by fight. Be compassionate towards those who fall - that helps us not to fall. Always be vigilant and never trust oneself. He also said that he preferred a person tempted by the flesh who was able to flee from it than someone not tempted who had never had to escape difficulty. And he proposed five remedies; flee temptation, do not pamper the flesh, flee from idleness, pray frequently, and frequent Confession and the Most Holy Eucharist.”

The Spirituality of St Philip

Work

This is the most important means of practicing poverty in the Oratory. The members of the Congregation live by their own work, “miliant propriis stipendiis,” they live off their own incomes (General Constitutions n. 102).

Even work becomes a means of sanctification when it is understood as a way to fulfil the will of God, from whom everything comes. Wok is prayer, when it is done for the love of God; any kind of work, even the most humble. In fact, the most humble jobs were preferred by St Philip.

One day, Philip saw one of the Fathers taking too much time with pious exercises, while other, manual work needed to be done, so he sent one of the brothers with an apron to put around his neck, saying to him, “We must also work, leaving God for God.” “He encouraged his spiritual sons to avoid idleness as if it were plague; therefore, whenever one of his spiritual sons was with the Blessed Father, he put him to some sort of manual work, such as stringing rosaries, moving boxes, sweeping the rooms, making the bed or the like, or reading a spiritual book or the lives of the Saints, and Philip urged them always to be doing something and never be idle.”

The ancient Fathers taught that perseverance involves these three works: the Church, the Cell and the Office; that is: the administration of the Sacraments, especially confession, divine worship, and preaching; withdrawal from the world and personal mental and vocal prayer; and careful attention to the offices of the Congregation.

The Spirituality of St Philip

Poverty

Jesus warns, “…whoever of you does not renounce all that he has he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14.33).

Detachment from the things of this world and poverty are like the travelling companions of the other virtues. St Philip always showed  great freedom from, and indifference to, worldly possessions and an unconditional confidence in Divine Providence. His disciples were called to be in solidarity with those who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.

Evangelical poverty should not be disassociated from daily duties and work. Work, in fact, is the first form of solidarity and poverty.

Being detached from affection for all that people possess is necessary to every Christian. It is even more necessary for those who have chosen the Lord as their portion and their inheritance.

There is no vow of poverty in the Oratory. St Philip told his own followers to have possessions, but to live in the spirit of the Gospel.

Poverty is a source of blessedness and a way of securing eternal life (Matt 5.3). This includes self-restraint in the use of possessions, detachment of the heart, and confidence in God, who is Father and who “has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away” (Luke 1.53).

Our Constitutions recommend doing good works for the benefit of the Congregation and for the needy with everything one may have, and freeing oneself from the spirit of avarice by not accumulating worldly goods.

Our Holy Father gave an extraordinary example of this throughout his life; he who even sold his own books and rejected gifts and a considerable inheritance. Whatever he accepted he gave to the Church and to the poor. In the conclusion of his will, dated 2nd October 1581, Philip wrote, “…having this alone in mind always, what worries and frightens me is how wealth can be a greater impediment to spiritual progress and to peace than poverty, since worrying about wealth can cause moral laxity” (Istruzione per Esercizi Spirituali, p.51).

Holy Father Philip often said, “Leave your purse behind if you want to earn souls; you cannot gain souls and things at the same time.”

St Paul indicates that greed is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6.9). St Philip said, “God will not fail to give you things, but be sure that when you do have things you do not lack spirit…. If you go after material goods and want money I won’t look after you, because having them without the proper caution makes men incapable of having spirit.” He said, “Give me ten really detached men and with them I will have enough spirit to convert the world.”

Philip wrote to his niece who was a nun, Anna Maria Trievi, “To acquire the love of God there is no truer and shorter route than to detach oneself from the love of things, even if they are small and inconsequential, and from the love of self, while loving the will and service of God more than we love our own will and self-satisfaction” (Gasbarri, Filippo Neri nella Testimonianza, p.191).

Fr Marciani said that St Philip, “would never recognise as his sons those in the Congregation who would seek after things” (Marciani, ‘dell’Oratorio di Napoli’ in Pregi della Congregazione dell’Oratorio di San Filippo Neri, p.58).

Definitively, poverty for St Philip is to be able to say with St Paul, “Not that I complain of want; for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content, I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want” (Phil 4.11-12).