Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman

When we read the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, we have the opportunity to reflect on ourselves.

This final of three posts covers the last part of Newman’s important sermon, The Developments of Religious Doctrine. Newman will end the sermon asserting that although dogmas about God are very imperfect they constitute true knowledge. He considers developments in doctrine regarding the Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation. He begins by pointing out that here […]

Newman wishes to show how faith and reason work closely together. As St. Augustine had said centuries earlier faith seeks understanding.

Newman's love of Nature, his love of friends, his love of the Catholic Church were all because he loved God, for whom they were intimations.

Implicit faith, or trust in God and the Church, forms the foundation, while explicit reasoning enriches and defends belief.

Everywhere in our culture we are urged to be ourselves, to buck the system, to express our unique individuality, to break the glass ceiling, to stand up and stand out and stand apart. In obeying God, we will certainly do some of these things, and people around us may be offended. But there is no virtue in individual expression or in offending others, only in obedience to God.

Newman teaches that God who is faithful does not tempt men. We are moral agents responsible for our actions. We should not try to rid ourselves of responsibility, transferring our guilt for wrong acts to other agents.

With our Lord so close to us, residing in our souls, how can we be anything but joyful?

Newman writes, “the world overcomes us, not merely by appealing to our reason, or by exciting our passions, but by imposing on our imagination.”

St. John Henry Newman told boys that the rosary makes the Creed into a prayer.

In a recent conference titled "Newman, Tradition and Law" at the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law various speakers discussed Newman's ideas on development of doctrine.

Newman examines the relation between reason and faith, and the usurpations or misuses of reason on the one hard and Church authority on the other.

Faith then is not the reasoning of a weak mind rather it is the reasoning of a divinely enlightened mind.

Today we celebrate the fifth anniversary of John Henry Newman's canonization which took place on October 13, 2019.

"Arguably no theologian has had a greater impact on the Catholic Church in the past 150 years than St. John Henry Newman."

Christian writer C.S. Lewis likened the process of sanctification to God building a house: “The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

Newman’s beautiful poem, The Dream of Gerontius, is completed by the magnificent choral composition of Edward Elgar.

This vision of purgatory from St. John Henry Newman is one of the most beautiful insights in English literature, and could only have come from the mature mind of an eventual saint.

This gorgeous oratorio reaches a climax with the piercing notes of the refrain of Praise to the Holiest in the Height.

Praise to the Holiest in the height, And in the depth be praise: In all His words most wonderful; Most sure in all His ways!

The Soul (of Gerontius), we find, is comforted knowing that his Angel is clasping him. Gerontius, safely with his Angel, is ready to pass the demons and receive his judgment.

Death is not the end; it is a passage into the next part of the journey, which also must be accompanied by prayer. It’s a reminder to us that prayer is conversation with God and it continues throughout our whole life and into the next. As we think of our family and friends who have passed through the veil of death, we accompany them by praying. It’s our way of life, our first instinct and our last breath. It’s what marks us as Christians.

“The Dream of Gerontius” is St. John Henry Newman's longest poem which describes the dying moments of an old man (in Greek Geron), his coming before God's judgment, and his descent to purgatory.

St. John Henry Newman said that a great author "is one who has something to say and knows how to say it."

There is a clear picture that emerges from these glimpses into life at The Oratory School: Education was in service of man, not the other way around. Play found its proper place, not only as a balance to rigorous academic study, but as an important part of human development.

O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still.