My Mission, Mine Alone

On Which They Are Gazing

Before Those Greater Splendors

May People Not See Me

'Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance 
wherever I am. Fill my heart with Your Spirit 
and Your life. Penetrate my being and take 
such hold of me that my life becomes a radiation 
of Your own life. Give Your light through me and remain in me in such a way that every soul I 
come in contact with can feel Your presence in me.

'May people not see me, but see You in me.'

                     John Henry Newman

But An Atom

Simply Shine

No One Drinks Cordials From Morning To Night

My Heart Goes After Shadows

'My God, how far I am from acting 
according to what I know so well!
I confess it, my heart goes after shadows.
I love everything better than communion with You.
I am ever eager to get away from You.
Often I find it difficult even to say my prayers.
There is hardly any amusement I would not 
rather take up than set myself to think upon You.
Give me grace, O my Father, 
to be utterly ashamed of my own reluctance!
Rouse me from sloth and coldness 
and make me desire You with my whole heart.
Teach me to love meditation, 
sacred reading and prayer.
Teach me to love what must 
engage my mind for all eternity.'

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman


Painting: Laurits Andersen Ring, in US public domain due to age

But Truth Will Prevail in the End

'Error may flourish for a time, 
but truth will prevail 
in the end. 
The only effect of error 
ultimately 
is to 
promote truth.'

Blessed John Henry Newman









Painting: Chełmoński, Cross in a blizzard

The Path to Unbelief

'This is the path which leads to death: 
Men first leave off private prayer;
then they neglect 
the due observance of the Lord's day;
then they gradually let slip 
from their minds the very idea 
of obedience to a fixed law;
then they actually allow 
themselves things which 
their conscience condemns; 
then they lose the direction 
of their conscience, which, 
being ill used, 
at length refuses to direct them.
And thus, being left by 
their true inward guide, 
they are obliged to take 
another guide, their reason, 
which by itself knows little 
or nothing about religion;
then their blind reason 
forms a system of right or wrong 
for them, as well as it can,
flattering to their own desires,
and presumptuous 
where it is not actually corrupt.
No wonder 
such a scheme contradicts Scripture, 
which it is soon found to do; 
not that they are certain to perceive this themselves;
they often do not know it, 
and think themselves still believers in the Gospel,
while they maintain doctrines which the Gospel condemns.
But sometimes they perceive that their system is contrary to Scripture; 
and then, instead of giving it up, they give up Scripture, and profess themselves unbelievers.  
Such is the course of disobedience, beginning in slight omissions, and ending in open unbelief.'

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Painting by Blonskaya, in US public domain due to age (PD-US)

Oh My Lord, What a Day

                               'Oh my Lord, what a day
                               when I shall have done once and for all with all sins,
                               and shall stand perfect and acceptable in Your sight,
                               able to bear Your presence, nothing shrinking from Your eye,
                               not shrinking from the scrutiny of angels and archangels,
                               when I stand in the midst and they around me.

                               'Oh my God, though I am not fit to see or touch You yet,
                               still I will ever come within Your reach,
                               and desire that which is not yet given me in its fullness.' 

                               Blessed John Henry Newman

                                         Painting:  Thomas Cooper Gotch, The Awakening

A Pledge of Immortality

'A child is a pledge of immortality, 

for he bears upon him in figure 

those high and eternal excellences 

in which the joy of heaven consists, 

and which would not thus be shadowed forth 

by the all-gracious Creator,

were they not one day to be realized'  

John Henry Cardinal Newman 


Painting:  Hermann Knopf Gut bewachter Schlaf, in US public domain due to age

I Have My Mission

'God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission - I may never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.'   

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Painting:  William Strang, Cynthia, 1917

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network Monthly Linkup

A Mystery...

'A revelation is religious doctrine viewed on its illuminated side;

a mystery is the selfsame doctrine viewed on the side unilluminated.'

John Henry Cardinal Newman   

Painting:  Peter Paul Rubens, Night Scene

This post is linked to Catholic Bloggers Network

But an Atom

'Eternal incomprehensible God,

 I believe, and confess, and adore Thee,

 as being infinitely more wonderful, resourceful,

and immense than this universe which I see.

I look into the depths of space

in which the stars are scattered about...   

But all, all that is in these worlds, high and low,

 are but an atom compared with the 

grandeur, the height and depth, the glory

 on which Thy saints are gazing

            in their contemplation of Thee.'          

                                                           

John Henry Newman 

NASA Hubble photogaph

According To...

 

"Mysteries in religion are measured

by the proud according to their own capacity;

by the humble, according to the power of God.

The humble glorify God for them.

The proud exalt themselves against them."

Cardinal John Henry Newman



Painting: JamesTossit, Il guérit les boiteux

Joy Shadowed Forth

"A child is a pledge of immortality, for he bears upon him in figure those high and eternal excellences in which the joy of heaven consists, and which would not thus be shadowed forth by the all-gracious Creator, were they not one day to be realized."     John Henry Cardinal Newman  

Painting: Karl Witkowski, Happy Days, 1909 

Those Greater Splendors

'Heaven is at present
out of sight,
but in due time,
as snow melts
and discovers what it lay upon,
so will this visible creation
fade away
before those
greater splendors
which are behind it.' 
                            

John Henry Cardinal Newman

 

photos by Nancy Shuman 

A Call Which Takes Place Now

"In truth we are not called once only, but many times; all through our life Christ is calling us. He called us first in Baptism; but afterwards also; whether we obey His voice or not, He graciously calls us still. If we fall from our Baptism, He calls us to repent; if we are striving to fulfill our calling, He calls us on from grace to grace, and from holiness to holiness, while life is given us.  Abraham was called from his home, Peter from his nets, Matthew from his office, Elisha from his farm, Nathanael from his retreat; we are all in course of calling, on and on, from one thing to another, having no resting-place, but mounting towards our eternal rest, and obeying one command only to have another put upon us. He calls us again and again, in order to justify us again and again...

We are slow to master the great truth, that Christ is, as it were, walking among us, and by His hand, or eye, or voice, bidding us follow Him. 

We do not understand that His call is a thing which takes place now...." 
                                                                                                      (John Henry Newman)

All With Hues of Faith

"With Christians, a poetical view of things is a duty -

we are bid to color all things with hues of faith,

to see a divine meaning in every event,

and a superhuman tendency."  

(Cardinal John Henry Newman)

(painting: Seaside, JamesTissot)