Father Dominic, the Passionist…
…Father Dominic, the Passionist, is coming here to-night on his way to Belgium – He does not know of my intentions, but I shall ask of him the charitable work of admitting me to what I
Secret Faults
“Who can understand his errors? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.” Psalm 19: 12.
Strange as it may seem, multitudes called Christians go through life with no effort to obtain a correct knowledge of themselves. They are contented with general and vague impressions concerning their real state; and, if they have more than this, it is merely such accidental information about themselves as the events of life force upon them. But exact systematic knowledge they have none, and do not aim at it.
Sins of Ignorance and Weakness
“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” Heb.10: 22.
Among the reasons which may be assigned for the observance of prayer at stated times, there is one which is very obvious, and yet perhaps is not so carefully remembered and acted upon as it should be. I mean the necessity of sinners cleansing themselves from time to time of the ever-accumulating guilt which loads their consciences. We are ever sinning; and though Christ has died once for all to release us from our penalty, yet we are not pardoned once for all, but according as, and whenever each of us supplicates for the gift. By the prayer of faith we appropriate it; but only for the time, not for ever. Guilt is again contracted, and must be again repented of and washed away. We cannot by one act of faith establish ourselves for ever after in the favour of God. It is going beyond His will to be impatient for a final acquittal, when we are bid ask only for our daily bread.
Fasting a Source of Trial
“And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward an hungered.” Matt. 4: 2.
The season of humiliation, which precedes Easter, lasts for forty days, in memory of our Lord’s long fast in the wilderness. Accordingly on this day, the first Sunday in Lent, we read the Gospel which gives an account of it; and in the Collect we pray Him, who for our sakes fasted forty days and forty nights, to bless our abstinence to the good of our souls and bodies.
Newman’s Mariology and his personal development
Sr. Lutgart Govaert FSO
“If Mary is the Mother of God, Christ must be literally Emmanuel, God with us. And hence it was, that, when time went on, and the bad spirits and false prophets grew stronger and bolder, and found a way into the Catholic body itself, then the Church, guided by God, could find no more effectual and sure way of expelling them than that of using this word Deipara, ‘Mother of God” against them; and, on the other hand, when they came up again from the realms of darkness, and plotted the utter overthrow of Christian faith in the sixteenth Century, then they could find no more certain expedient for their hateful purpose than that of reviling and blaspheming the prerogatives of Mary, for they knew full well that, if they could once get the world do dishonour the Mother, the dishonour of the Son would follow close. The Church and Satan agreed together in this, that Son and Mother went together”.
Pope Benedict XVI on Newman
Newman was a high profile intellectual and a man of luminous spirituality.
Benedict XVI’s Homily in Viterbo/Italy during his pastoral visit on September 6th.
Homily by Most Rev Dr. Philip Boyce, OCD – at Mass for the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of The Oratory School
Westminster Cathedral, 2nd May 2009
It is fitting to recall and to give thanks for past benefits of which we are the beneficiaries down to the present day. That is particularly appropriate on the occasion of an anniversary of jubilee. Our celebration today has precisely this purpose: we commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the foundation of The Oratory School by John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Pope Benedict XVI Recognizes Miracle: Cardinal Newman to be Beatified
Pope Benedict XVI recognised the healing of Deacon Jack Sullivan in 2001 as a miracle resulting from the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God John Henry Newman.
read more in …
The Cardinalate of John Henry Newman
Snider Carlo
1. Newman on the eve of his elevation to the office of cardinal
The elevation of John Henry Newman to the dignity of the office of cardinal can be seen as the apotheosis of his sorely tried life. Thus, one ought to attribute to him the full and definitive rehabilitation of the thinker-theologian, subjected to mysterious accusations, malevolent insinuations and systematic criticism for many years. One need only consider the drastic judgement of Monsignor Talbot, Chamberlain to Pius IX, and one of Newman’s most implacable adversaries. He was principally responsible for the diffidence within Roman circles shown to the convert and for the measures taken following upon this attitude, including those which impeded him from returning to Oxford. [1] Talbot wrote to Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster,[2] hoping to find a sympathetic ear: “Dr. Newman is the most dangerous man in England.”
No state of things comes amiss to a Catholic priest; he has always a work to do, and a harvest to reap.
Were it otherwise, had he not confidence in the darkest day, and the most hostile district, he would be relinquishing a principal note, as it is called, of the Church. She is Catholic, because she brings a universal remedy for a universal disease.