Our Saviour gave this warning when He was leaving this world,-leaving it, that is, as far as His visible presence is concerned. He looked forward to the many hundred years which were to pass before He came again. He knew His own purpose and His Father’s purpose gradually to leave the world to itself, gradually to withdraw from it the tokens of His gracious presence. He contemplated, as contemplating all things, the neglect of Him which would spread even among his professed followers;
“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” Rev. 22:20.
When our Lord was going away, He said He would quickly come again; yet knowing that by “quickly” He did not mean what would be at first sight understood by the word, He added, “suddenly,” or “as a thief.” “Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments…!” [Rev. 16:15.] Had His coming been soon, in our sense of the word, it could not well have been sudden.
“Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” – Eccles. 9:10.
Solomon’s advice that we should do whatever our hand findeth to do with our might, naturally directs our thoughts to that great work in which all others are included, which will outlive all other works, and for which alone we really are placed here below—the salvation of our souls. And the consideration of this great work, which must be done with all our might, and completed before the grave, whither we go, presents itself to our minds with especial force
PPS Vol. 5, 24 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” – Ephes. 6:10.
We know that there are great multitudes of professed Christians, who, alas! have actually turned from God with a deliberate will and purpose, and, in consequence, are at present strangers to the grace of God; though they do not know, or do not care about this. But a vast number of Christians, half of the whole number at least, are in other circumstances. They have not thrown themselves out of a state of grace, nor have they to repent and turn to God, in the sense in which those must, who have allowed themselves in wilful transgression, after the knowledge of the truth has been imparted to them. Numbers there are in all ranks of life, who, having good parents and advisers, or safe homes, or religious pursuits, or being without strong feelings and passions, or for whatever reason, cannot be supposed to have put off from them the garment of divine grace, and deserted to the ranks of the enemy.
The place where Blessed John Henry Newman was received into full communion with the Catholic Church on 9th October 1845
“… there it has been that I have both been taught my way and received an answer to my prayers…”
Bl. John Henry Newman to W.J. Copeland, 10th March 1846
Littlemore is approximately three miles away from the centre of Oxford and was a hamlet in Newman’s time. When Newman became Vicar of the University Church of St. Mary’s in 1828, he accepted along with this task, the pastoral care of Littlemore which had been part of the parish for many centuries.
Newman, Teacher of Conscience
Fr. Hermann Geissler FSO
On the 19th of September 2010 Pope Benedict XVI beatified the famous English theologian John Henry Newman. During his Christmas audience with the Roman Curia, on the 20th of December 2010, the Holy Father spoke again of Newman and his affinity to our times, highlighting his understanding of conscience. As the Pope explains, the word conscience has come to signify in contemporary thought: “that for moral and religious questions, it is the subjective dimension, the individual, that constitutes the final authority for decision. … Newman’s understanding of conscience is
We know, my brethren, that in the natural world nothing is superfluous, nothing incomplete, nothing independent; but part answers to part, and all details combine to form one mighty whole. Order and harmony are among the first perfections which we discern in this visible creation; and the more we examine into it, the more widely and minutely they are found to belong to it.
Dear Newman Friends!
When Pope Francis gave an audience to the media representatives three days after his election as the successor of Peter, he said: “How I would like a Church which is poor and for the poor!“ (16 March 2013). In his programmatic Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium he mentions the reasons for his choice: “Each individual Christian and every community is called to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor,
Sr. Mary-Birgit Dechant, F.S.O.
“Our faith in Christ, who became poor, and was always close to the poor and the outcast, is the basis of our concern for the integral development of society’s most neglected members” (Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium, N. 186).
These words of Pope Francis in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium can rightly and easily be applied to the work and life of Blessed John Henry Newman and especially to his work among the poor of Littlemore. Using Newman’s
My God, I adore you for taking on yourself the charge of sinners; of those, who not only cannot profit you, but who continually grieve and profane you. You have taken on yourself the office of a minister, and that for those who did not ask for it. I adore you for your incomprehensible condescension in ministering to me. I know and feel, O my God, that you might have left me, as I wished to be left, to go my own way, to go straight forward
