What is the Oratory?

....And who is St. Philip Neri?

An Oratory is a place to pray.  In the early days of Christianity in Rome, between 1515 and 1595, the first Oratory was a movement of people from all walks of life who wanted to pray, and in that prayer discover their call to service.

During that time Philip Neri, an attractive, joyful person totally dedicated to the renewal of the Church, spent half of his life as a lay man, sometimes a hermit, and very actively engaged in service.  He wanted to be a missionary like St. Francis Xavier, but was told that his mission was staying home and making Christians out of the Christians in Rome.

A LONG WAY FROM ROME TO HAWAI’I

St. Philip Neri renewed the church through laity before becoming a priest in his late 30s. He began his ministry in Rome as a hermit with a street ministry. This grew into a movement of laity which met at an Oratory.  Eventually, Philip was ordained, but the Oratory remained a lay movement for a long time. After his ordination, the laity gathered in large numbers and some of them got ordained and lived in the community meeting twice a day for prayer and service to their neighbor.

People gathered around Philip for prayer every day.  He lived without cloister. The key to his room was under the mat if anyone needed him. He spent hours a day in prayer and "anchoring" groups who wanted to pray.  When Philip was 60 years old, some of the ordained members formed a canonical congregation known as the Congregation of the Oratory.  Born from this prayer and service, here laity preached, songs were sung, discussions were held, and lives were renewed.  It was a rather unique congregation because Philip insisted that there be no vows, oaths, or promises and that each house remain independent from the others. The priest members remain seculars and the lay members remain laity, with everyone living in a community.

In the evenings, smaller groups gathered and meditated in silence together before finishing with some prayers and a hymn. This was the beginning of the movement that took its name from the place where they gathered.

Three hundred years later, John Henry Newman (1801-1890) founded the first English speaking Oratories in his native Britain. His devotion to renewal, the laity and prayer made the Oratory a happy choice for him. Today, there are three Oratories in England, five in the United States, and one in Canada.

The ideals and works of Philip Neri and John Henry Newman have attracted 700 priests and brothers in the Americas, Africa, and Europe. The laity are as important as ever and have met internationally twice this decade in Spain and in Mexico.