Saint Cardinal John Henry Newman

We can return to God because he has offered us a new beginning in Christ.

Jesus established a spiritual kingdom on earth and entrusted the spiritual authority over this kingdom to the pope and bishops.

The unity God desires for his Church he models in his divinity and his humanity.

Jesus is, in the words of the Apocalypse, the Captain of God's hosts or Lord of Armies. He leads us in our spiritual combat against the forces of evil.

Faith is not only necessary for reaching God, this gift is the first step toward him.

It is an awful thought to think that God rejects those who reject him, but the truth is that in mercy he invites us to repent.

By fasting we imitate Christ's self-denial, and grow in love for him. And with faith and humility we overcome the temptations of the devil.

Jesus the Son of David, descended from King David to whom God had promised a descendant who would reign forever.

Jesus is the Lamb of God prefigured in the Jewish passover lamb, and later by the prophet Isaiah as the One who was wounded for our sins.

The following is a summary of John Henry Newman's famous poem on Last Things and God's mercy.

At last Gerontius’ soul traverses the threshold of God’s throne.

The soul sees Christ's suffering and feels great sorrow.

The Dream of Gerontius reaches its high point with choirs of angels singing the praise of God and recounting the history of salvation.

The angel explains to the soul of Gerontius that the very sight of God will gladden the just soul immensely while it purifies it.

Demons tempt the human soul but they are impotent in causing it to do evil. The soul must endure these temptations and repeatedly turn to God.

In the dialogue between the soul and the angel we learn about the particular judgment and how to prepare to meet Christ by living as God's children.

Each guardian angel created ages ago by God has been given a human being to care for and to guide on his way to heaven.

Newman imagines the soul of Gerontius outside the limits of time and space in the life hereafter, and how its Guardian Angels comes to lead it to Christ.

Gerontius' friends pray for their dying friend. He experiences fear at the closeness of death and the thought of the Devil, but is strengthened by a priest.

The Dream of Gerontius is a poem about the experience of man who is dying, his request for prayers, and the help of his angel as he goes to his judgment.

Newman urges Christians to repent but as an Anglican he did not know that the ordinary means of forgiveness of sins after Baptism is sacramental Confession.

Through Baptism man has a new birth. Although he suffers the consequences of original sin, he receives the grace of the Holy Spirit to live as God's son.

As God's children we advance to the truth by experience of error; we succeed through failures. We seem to be walking to heaven backwards but indeed advance.

As sinful men and women we have a need to be cleansed and renewed often. We are not forgiven once and for all.

Newman asserts that to be a Christian calls for more than honesty, justice and temperance; it means to seek Christian perfection in Christ’s footsteps.   The Spiritual Mind, Part 3 To be a Christian is more than what most people believe it to be. They say they do not harm others; they are kind and […]

The Spiritual Mind, Part 2 by Fr. Juan Vélez The Christian should act out of the good habit of loving God, rather than out of fear of sinning, even though the latter may at first play a part in his decisions.   People often ask whether some action or other is a sin. Blessed Newman […]

The Spiritual Mind, Part 1 by Fr. Juan Vélez Blessed Newman teaches that a Christian must examine the motives for his thoughts and actions, and must learn to master his heart, doing things for the right motive which is to obey God’s will.   The Spiritual Mind, Part I Those of us who are baptized […]

Self-Denial, the Test of Religious Earnestness, Part 3 by Fr. Juan Vélez Jesus bids us to take up our cross daily. We must be careful, however, of the danger of self-deception by doing things for our own praise. Self-denial in daily life is the chief duty and test of whether we are living as Christ’s […]