Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman

Today Pope Benedict beatified Cardinal Newman.  While writing a short piece on Newman this week, I found myself particularly engaged with two aspects of his work.  Firstly his ‘Theology of Conscience’ which holds that while the individual’s conscience should be informed by papal authority it is the conscience itself that is primary.  I also admire Newman’s insistence that faith is a matter of both the head and the heart.  His works fused the objective and the subjective elements of faith, resulting in a dynamic theology and beautiful prayers, poetry and prose.   One of my favourites:

“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 know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next...   

I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. 

He has not created me for naught.  

I shall do good, I shall do His work...  

Therefore I will trust Him.   

Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.   

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him.   

If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him.   

He does nothing in vain.  

He knows what He is about.   

He may take away my friends.   

He may throw me among strangers. 

He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me 

-- still He knows what He is about.”