Heart Speaks Unto Heart

These words were the motto for the Papal visit to the UK. Everyone is asking me about the Papal visit, but there isn't that much to tell. I got up early, I was cold...FREEZING actually. Then it rained. The Pope arrived and it stopped raining and the sun brilliantly shone on the crowds of thousands of people on the final day of their pilgrimage. God must realize how awful it is to have to wear white in the rain, so he let the sun come out just as the Pope came so he wouldn't catch a nice English cold.
As you can see from the pictures, we got fairly close to the altar, right near the choir. If you've ever been to a Papal Mass, you know what it felt like standing in the middle of all those people who believe and practice the same things you do. It was all like one great big Catholic Party celebrating Bl. John Henry Newman, our brother in Christ, being raised to the status of Blessed. The actual beatification part of the ceremony was rather short. The Archbishop requested that Cardinal John Henry Newman be beatified. The Pope considered this for a while (I mean, he ACTUALLY looked like he was thinking it over, just as if this was the first time he heard it) and then pronounced him Blessed. Short and sweet. Then we sang a bunch of hymns, joyfully. Then the Archbishop thanked the Pope and we went on with the regular order of the Mass.

Even though the crowd was that large, the liturgy was very intimate and holy. This was definitely the highlight of my trip.

Cheers!
--Mary

Cardinal John Henry Newman :)

Hello!

I just thought you might want to meet the guy who's going to get something in the middle of September...

John Henry Cardinal Newman

Born in 1801, baptised in the Church of England, Newman became a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford in 1822, an Anglican clergyman in 1825 and Vicar of the Oxford University Church in 1828.

The Anglican Newman was a pastor of souls, a University teacher, and a student of Christian history and theology. His studies were never purely theoretical. Informed by pastoral experience, they were above all shaped by his insight into the needs of the present.

Newman's point of reference was the Church of the Apostles and 'the Fathers', the great teachers of the first Christian centuries. At school he experienced the attractions of atheism, and all his life showed unusual sympathy with religious doubt. But also at school he underwent a conversion granting him an abiding sense of God's presence. At the same time, Newman acquired the conviction that Christianity is a doctrinal religion, and that doctrine and religious experience are in harmony, not opposed. In Christianity, Newman believed, mind and heart, dogma and experience, come together. With the doctrinal and sacramental faith unfolding in him from his conversion, Newman desired to revive Christianity for a culture descending into unbelief.

Teachings

Some of Newman's Anglican works retain startling relevance. In Arians of the Fourth Century (1833) he conveys through Christian history the very contemporary drama of the battle for orthodox Faith against politically-inspired compromise and apostasy. In his Parochial and Plain Sermons (1834-1843), against a background of nominal, demoralised Christinaity, he unfolds the Mysteries of Faith and awakens the depth and grandeur of the Christian life.

In the Tracts For The Times (1833-1841), Newman and his friends in the 'Oxford Movement' addressed the Church of England in the hope that it could be renewed in the Apostolic Faith. Gradually, it dawned on Newman that this was impossible. The Church of England could not embrace the truth Newman taught.

Embracing the Catholicism

1842-5 were his 'wilderness' years, out of the public eye, secluded in prayer and study. At Littlemore, outside Oxford, he worked on the still deeply influential Development of Christian Doctrine (1845). The book studies the ways in which Faith has unfolded in history; Newman saw an analogy with how Faith unfolds in individual minds, including his own. At last he was convinced that the Faith of the Apostles and Fathers was the Faith of Roman Catholicism. The Church of Christ was the Church of Rome. Embracing the Catholic Church as the 'One Fold of Christ' Newman was received at Littlemore by Blessed Dominic Barberi on 9th October 1845.

read the rest here... it gets really good :P