The Feast of St. Philip Neri is kept on 26 May in both the General Roman Calendar and in the Proper Calendar of the Congregations of the Oratory. The Novena, nine days of prayer leading up to the feast, therefore begins on 17 May.
So that the Faithful may join in with the Novena Prayers as offered in the Oratory, the Fathers and Brothers have published a little book, in which are drawn together Devotions to St. Philip Neri from the wealth of English-language sources, particularly those written by St. John Henry Newman of the Birmingham Oratory and by Fr. Wilfrid Faber of the London Oratory.
Download the Novena Prayers to St. Philip Neri here.
The usual custom for keeping St. Philip’s Novena in the Cardi Oratory is to oer the Novena Prayers of St. John Henry, then to sing a Hymn to St. Philip, and finally to offer the Prayer of Baronius.
In this Fourth Centenary since the Canonisation of St. Philip, there is a chance to renew a spirit of devotion to our Glorious Patriarch as exemplar and model for both the spiritual life and for pastoral work. As the Oratorian Constitutions of 1612 remind us, “Prayer and study, almsgiving and evangelisation, must still be the four pillars of the work of the Oratory in the world.”