Cardinal Burke at the London Oratory

The formal photos are now in from Cardinal Burke's Pontifical Mass, celebrated at the London Oratory on the occasion of St. Philip's Day -- St. Philip Neri, of course, being the founder of the Oratory.

The full text of the Cardinal's homily has been published by the Catholic Herald here: ‘Never cease to centre your lives in the Sacred liturgy’.

In that homily, Cardinal Burke commented upon St. Philip's love of the sacred liturgy, and the attention to beauty in the sacred liturgy and liturgical arts:

...it is important to underline one aspect, that is, Saint Philip’s attention to the beauty of the Sacred Liturgy, of the art and architecture of churches and chapels, and of everything employed for the worship of God. Saint Philip understood that our lives are first and foremost centered upon Christ, firmly and fully grafted into His Life, by means of Sacred Worship. For Saint Philip, everything about Sacred Worship must point to the beauty of Christ alone and of the eternal salvation which He has won for us. It is not by accident that the first two chapters of the original Constitutions of the Congregation of the Oratory treat, first, prayer and the oratory as primarily the place of prayer, and, second, the church and Divine Worship. Before the daunting challenges of Christian living in our time, let us never cease to centre our lives in the Sacred liturgy handed down to us in an unbroken tradition from the Apostles. Let us always discover anew the beauty of our life in Christ in the immeasurable beauty of His life with us through the Sacred Liturgy.