Sunday 11th February 2024 at 5.15pm (at the conclusion of the 4.30pm Mass) we will process with lighted candles, bearing an image of Our Lady of Lourdes around the inside of the church, and briefly outside the boundaries of the church (Cowgate and Gray’s Close) whilst singing hymns, before ending with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
The feast of St John Henry Newman. There will be a sung Mass at 5.45pm.
St John Henry brought the Oratory of St Philip Neri to these islands in 1848, three years after he was received into the Catholic Church. He was a priest, scholar and theologian, but above all, a faithful son of St Philip. St John Henry, pray for us!
For the month of October, there will be devotional talks on Our Lady every Saturday at 10am, followed by the usual Holy Hour, Benediction and Mass. Tomorrow’s talk will be on the Rosary.
The Triduo for St John Henry Newman starts today, with devotions after Mass leading up to his feast day on Monday.
The feast of St Luigi Scrosoppi, a priest of the Oratory in Udine.
His older brother Carlo had been a member of the Oratory before it was suppressed by Napoleon in 1810. When Luigi was ordained in 1827, he said his first Mass in the old Oratory Church. He devoted himself to founding orphanages and oversaw the founding of the Sisters of Providence to care for them.
In 1846, the Udine Oratory was finally reopened. Carlo and Luigi were each superior in turn. After two decades of Oratorian community life, it was suppressed by the Italian state in 1867. For the rest of his life, though no longer in community, Luigi signed his name ‘F. Luigi of the Oratory’ and imitated St Philip Neri’s humility and love of being unknown. On his death in 1884, he left his possessions to the Udine Oratory, should it ever be reopened. His grave is marked Presbyter Oratorii, priest of the Oratory.
As well as healing the sick, St Luigi is known as the patron saint of footballers for his work with young people. He was alive at the time that our own Canon Hannan founded the Hibernian Club here at St Patrick’s.
St Luigi, pray for us!
“When I die, I will send down a shower of roses from the heavens. I will spend my heaven by doing good on earth.” (St Thérèse of Lisieux)