Blog – Page 7 – International Centre of Newman Friends

5 Oct 2016

9th October – Feast of Blessed John Henry Newman

$Newman\'s writing desk$
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

9 Aug 2016

The Glories of Mary for the Sake of Her Son

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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.

8 Jul 2016

Newman and Littlemore – his love for the poor

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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

23 Apr 2016

The Paraclete, the Life of My Soul!

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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

5 Mar 2016

A Second Spring in the Third Millennium

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On Monday, 29th February, the former home of Blessed John Henry Newman in Littlemore, Oxford known simply as The College, was the setting for a lecture on and reading of Newman’s historic Second Spring Sermon. In the same room in which Newman kept his library while living there, Newman enthusiasts gathered from Oxfordshire, Birmingham and as far away as Sussex. Sister Bianca Feuerstein FSO, member of The Spiritual Family The Work who are the custodians of The College, welcomed the group who filled the library. Mr Esme Howard, a Trustee of the charity that operates The College, served as Master of Ceremonies.

26 Feb 2016

Dangers to the Penitent

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Sermon 4 (Subjects of the Day)

30th October 1842

“O tarry thou the Lord’s leisure; be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.” – Ps. 27:16.

No state is more dreary than that of the repentant sinner, when first he understands where he is, and begins to turn his thoughts towards his Great Master whom he has offended. Of course it is tempered with comfort and hope, as are all acts of duty; and on the retrospect, far from being distressing to dwell upon, it will be even pleasant. But at the time it is a most dreary state. A man finds that he has a great work to do, and does not know how to do it, or even what it is, and his impatience and restlessness are as great as his conscious ignorance; indeed, he is restless because he is ignorant. There is great danger of his taking wrong steps,

23 Jan 2016

Many Called, Few Chosen.

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Sermon 18. (Septuagesima.)

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” – 1 Cor. 9:24.

Nothing is more clearly brought out in Scripture, or more remarkable in itself than this, that in every age, out of the whole number of persons blessed with the means of grace, few only have duly availed them of this great benefit. So certain, so uniform is the fact, that it is almost stated as a doctrine. “Many are called, few are chosen.” Again, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” And again, “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat … Strait is the gate,

6 Jan 2016

St. Paul’s Gift of Sympathy

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we also may be able to comfort those who are in any distress, by the exhortation wherewith we also are exhorted by God.” 2 Cor. i. 3, 4.

There is no one who has loved the world so well, as He who made it. None has so understood the human heart, and human nature, and human society in its diversified forms, none has so tenderly entered into and measured the greatness and littleness of man, his doings and sufferings, his circumstances and his fortunes, none has felt such profound compassion for his ignorance and guilt, his present rebellion and his prospects hereafter, as the Omniscient. What He has actually done for us is the proof of this. “God so loved the world, as to give His Only-begotten Son.” He loved mankind in their pollution, in spite of the abhorrence with which that pollution filled Him.

18 Dec 2015

The Reverence Due to the Virgin Mary

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“From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” Luke 1: 43

Today we celebrate the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary; when the Angel Gabriel was sent to tell her that she was to be the Mother of our Lord, and when the Holy Ghost came upon her, and overshadowed her with the power of the Highest. In that great event was fulfilled her anticipation as expressed in the text. All generations have called her blessed.