Two hundred years ago, on 13 June 1824, the young Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, who today the Church celebrates as a saint, made his way down the High and St. Aldate’s with his surplice and his MA hood, to be made a deacon of the Church of England in Christ Church Cathedral, the former medieval nunnery and shrine to St. Frideswide until Thomas Wolsey chose it to become Cardinal College in 1525.
In the summer of 1824, John Henry Newman preached his very first sermon shortly after being ordained as a deacon. He would go on to preach myriad sermons of enduring value. Generations of Christians have been and continue to be nourished by both his Parochial and Plain Sermons and University Sermons, as well as sermons from his Roman Catholic period. Two-hundred years later, we gathered together not only to commemorate the beginning of St. Newman’s preaching ministry, but also to explore and reflect on the wider topic of “Newman as Preacher” at the very churches in which he preached. This intimate, on-site conference featured three public keynote lectures along with other spiritually-enriching activities.
In Munich in the 1990s, a previously unknown manuscript of an unpublished book about John Henry Newman written fifty years earlier surfaced. It was subsequently published in German (Der Geopferte, 2004) and has now been translated into English as John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed (Ignatius Press, 2024). The author was Ida Friederike Görres (1901–1971), a once-famous Catholic author known especially for her hagiography.
For many, it is easier to be caught up in the academic, fiscal, or calendar years than the liturgical year that indicates the ultimate frame of our lives. In my case, this is especially true during Lent. This year, I came across a pithy meditation of Newman’s, “A Short Road to Perfection”, which I hope can reframe the way I understand Lent and discipleship more generally.
Festivals of Faith: Sermons for the Liturgical Year, by St. John Henry Newman, edited by Melinda Nielsen, presents an impressive and carefully arranged collection of Newman’s homilies.
If our charge as Christians is to be holy in all that we do, what does this way of life look like in today’s world? This question is not easily answered simply by looking to past examples.
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