Journeying With Newman

Zachariah Heritage, a novice at the Birmingham Oratory, looks at the humour of Cardinal Newman.

Saint Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory, was the saint who kept a jokebook close at hand to soothe his spiritual ecstasies; who shaved off half his beard and went around Rome to make a fool of himself; who refused to be made a cardinal, but kept the red hat he was sent and used it for practical jokes. Yet John Henry Newman himself was no stranger to humour:

"In Saint Philip and in Newman, this humour was one of the sweetest fruits of humility: a sense of lowness, as sinners, but sinners who have been redeemed, and who now have a joyful trust in God. We see this most clearly as Newman reflects upon his old age. He variously describes himself as an old ‘cart-horse’ or as a ‘musical snuff box’, ‘a very little rheumatic and a little lame’, ‘a bird with clipped wings’. But this would not trouble him, he said, ‘if I don’t aspire to long or high flight’."

Chris Altieri, the Rome Bureau Chief for the Catholic Herald, describes the Church as "in a rough patch".

Covering the Catholic Church as a journalist - working at the heart of Mother Church in Rome - Chris has the gruelling and often thankless task of finding the facts behind the stories and presenting Vatican news clearly and honestly.

John Henry Newman knew God has a specific plan for all of us, but how can we put our best foot forward in our mission?

"In good times and in bad, the answer is right before us. 'Lead, kindly light,' Newman famously prayed – and the light that leads us never fails, though often it shows us the way mere inches at a time.

"Newman was no stranger to controversy, nor to trial and even great desolation. The Church of his day was not less plagued with faithlessness than is our own...

"...The great thing, in times like these, is to look to the little things: Confident in Christ’s final victory over death, secure in the knowledge that His Church shall triumph, we plug away."

Father Francis Gavin was born and raised in Dublin and is a priest of the Birmingham Oratory. He is perfectly placed, therefore, to offer today's reflection on Newman and Ireland.

When we talk about Newman and Ireland, we usually dwell on his time in Dublin when he worked to establish a Catholic University there. While the university didn’t succeed quite as Newman had wished, the discourses which Newman gave during this time, and which were later collected together as The Idea of the University, have proved seminal.

Fr Francis reflects on Newman's time in Ireland and, interestingly, the impact his Irish sojourn had on him as a man, and how he slowly revised his opinion and understanding of Ireland and its people. 

"As a native Dubliner it is with no small pleasure that I announce that if you wish to see a church which Newman built you will have to cross the Irish Sea and visit the University Church on St. Stephen’s Green. This is a hidden gem built by John Hungerford Pollen according to the wishes of Newman, who was then Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. "

Today we're looking at Newman's famous hymn Lead Kindly Light and God's protection in the face of adversity. Fr Michael Halsall is a priest of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. A former Anglican minister, Fr Michael spent six years as a Chaplain in the British Army, serving on front line operations in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. It was this latter deployment that Lead Kindly Light took on a new significance.

Attached to an Artillery regiment, supporting soldiers spiritually and pastorally, who were tasked with breaking down hostilities between the warring factions, he describes his arrival in January 1996, in sub-zero temperatures, as "a descent into hell". Villages were still burning, people were displaced, having suffered some of the worst atrocities since the Second World War.

Fr Michael posted a copy of Newman's hymn on the wall of his makeshift room in a converted factory:

"After days on the road each week I would return and reflect on Newman’s words - particularly on the first verse as a prayer and thanksgiving for protection.

"Much of our travelling and encounter with soldiers was often in the dark in those short mid-winter days, when they had finished their patrols and had some food. I remember leading a service at one of our gun battery positions outside in the snow, and in the pitch darkness by the AS90 gun emplacement. Soldiers often have a strong sense of the spiritual when life becomes precarious, and more so as three of our men did not make it home, but were killed whilst on patrol."

Who better to talk about John Henry Newman and the debate around faith and reason than the Theologian of the Papal Household?

Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych OP has served the Pontifical Household since 2005 – covering the pontificates of both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

Fr Giertych gives us an academic yet accessible reflection.

"Newman stressed the autonomy of faith and of the rational mind, insisting that the two are not to be confused. Believers engage with God because they have been moved by Him and they need to preserve the purity of this graced relationship. Faith accepts the divine Word as the supreme light and guidance. Philosophical reason has its dignity but also its limits and so it should not encroach upon faith, imposing its own standards."

"... The true Christian does not scan the mysteries of faith according to rational criteria accepting only those that are deemed to be valid. The Christian does the reverse. The totality of what God has revealed enjoys primacy, and then practical life is measured by the unique criterion that is the received divine mystery."

Today, on the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we have a special 'Journeying With Newman' podcast reflecting on this great feast day.

Dr Rebekah Lamb, a lecturer in Theology and the Arts at St Mary's School of Divinity in the University of St Andrews, has long-nurtured a personal devotion to Newman - since attending the Toronto Oratory. Here Rebekah talks about what John Henry Newman had to say about Mary in his meditations and devotions.

Fr Simon Gaine OP is a Dominican friar, based at Blackfriars in Oxford.  He became a Catholic while an Oxford undergraduate, encouraged by the writing and example of John Henry Newman. His focus today is on the Holy Spirit - or the Holy Ghost as the spirit was known in Newman's time.

"In his teaching on the grace of the Holy Spirit, Newman still speaks powerfully to us, showing us how the work of theology can point beyond conventional divisions to restate the truth of Catholic tradition anew. Of all the gifts of grace God gives us, the presence of the Spirit is the first."

Many of our contributors have a strong personal connection with John Henry Newman. Today's reflection comes from Dr Victoria Newman Seed, a lecturer in philosophy currently working at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.

"As a young lecturer named Newman I was intrigued by the work of the Venerable Newman, as he then was, particularly on conscience, but what truly captivated me, and has kept me his devoted acolyte, is Newman’s ability to make the same truths he discussed in his essays real, compelling and beautiful in his poetry and hymns."

Walking in the footsteps of John Henry Newman today, literally, is Will Lamb - an Anglican priest and vicar of the university church in Oxford, St Mary's, where Newman was the vicar from 1828 to 1843.

The quotation from Newman's work that is the focus of this podcast comes from one of his university sermons - a sermon preached at St Mary's - on a passage from Luke's Gospel focussing on the Virgin Mary.