What more for a boy with everything?

Today, June 21, is the feast of St Aloysius Gonzaga, the Jesuit saint in whose honour the Oxford Oratory church is dedicated. The church was built in 1875 by the Society of Jesus and the youthful St Aloysius seen a very suitable patron for a church in a University town - even if at that date in 1875 Catholics were discouraged by the hierarchy from sending their sons to Oxford, and later on when that was approved, the church was seen as being for the townspeople rather than students who were expected to go to the Chaplaincy established in the 1890s.

There is an online account of his life and sanctity at Aloysius Gonzaga and a Jesuit account from IgnatianSpirituality.com at  St. Aloysius Gonzaga, SJ (1568—1591)

St Aloysius Gonzaga in Glory

Gian Battista Tiepolo

Image: Wikipedia

This evening I attended the Mass celebrating his feast day at the Oratory. As is the custom on this day the preacher was a Jesuit, and this year the choice fell on Fr Keith McMillan SJ. His sermon drew out the extent of St Aloysius' many connections to the rich and powerful, and that when the future saint told his father he ws destined for better things than his family and its inheritance could offer that thing was indeed Heaven. That indeed was the what more for a boy with everything.

St Aloysius in word and art

Earlier this evening I attended the Solemn Mass for the patronal feast of St Aloysius, the patron saint of the church and parish, at the Oxford Oratory.

The preacher was Fr Gerard Skinner and his sermon can be read at the post St Aloysius' Day
from the Oxford Oratory website. In his sermon he makes considerable reference to the painting below:

 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri Guercino 

 1591–1666 Bologna

Guercino’s altarpiece was commissioned for the Theatine church of Guastalla in 1650 by Duke Ferrante III Gonzaga (1618–1678). An angel holds a heavenly wreath over the saint’s head, while at his feet are a sheaf of lilies, representing chastity, and a crown, symbolizing the Marquisate he had renounced. 

Image:Wikipedia

Sermon for St Aloysius Day

The statue of St Aloysius in the Oxford Oratory as decorated for his feast day

Image; Oxford Oratory website

Here, from the Oxford Oratory website, is the text of the thoughtful and reflective sermon preached in the church on the feast of St Aloysius last month by the Master of Campion Hall: it can be read at St Aloysius' Day Sermon by Fr James Hanvey SJ

St Aloysius

Image: Oxford Oratory website

St Aloysius Day

Today is the feast day of St Aloysius Gonzaga, the patron saint of the church of the Oxford Oratory. Built in 1875 by the Jesuits they took as their patron one of the great Jesuit saints, and a role model for youth.

The Jesuits surrenderd the care of the church to the Archdiocese of Birmingham in 1981 and in 1990 the Oratorians arrived to found the third English Oratory. Nonetheless devotion to St Aloysius has continued alongside that of St Philip Neri, and St Aloysius Day is always a highlight of the parish year.

The statue of St Aloysius in the church of the Oxford Oratory

Image: Brownie Bear on Flickr

We commenced our celebrations last night with Solemn Vespers and this evening there was a Sung High Mass at 6pm. As is customary the preacher was a Jesuit, and this year it is Fr Dushan Croos  the assistant University Chaplain. In his sermon he said that on theapplication of the Gospel reading St Aloysius' love for God - unkowable to the outsider - could be measured by the love St Aloysius showed to his neighbour, and that this was a model for us all to follow, and as illustrated by the excellent pastoral care we enjoyed from the Oratorians.

It occurs to me that despite the diiferences between a Jesuit and an Oratorian approach one can see in St Aloysius a young man not unlike those of his near contemporaries who were transformed under St Philip's influence to lives of pastoral solicitude.

Following the Mass there was the customary parish buffet, and this time we were back in the reconstructed ansd extended parish centre which I wrote about in my last post. This proved an excellent setting and was amost enjoyable occasion, one on which one could talk to old and new friends and tuck in to Pimms and suitably festive food - not least meat on a Friday as today was, of course, a local Solemnity...  

My posts from previous years about St Aloysius can be seen at  Flos paradisi and  Celebrating St Aloysius from 2010, St Aloysius Gonzaga for 2011 and St Aloysius Gonzaga from last year.