Newman Miracle Authenticated

The Holy Father this morning approved a decree of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, authenticating a miraculous cure attributed to the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. This means that his beatification will take place relatively soon, although no announcement has yet been made as to whether the beatification will take place in Rome or in England, or as to who will preside at the celebration.

Comments from Archbishop Vincent Nichols here

More on the cure here, and more news when we have it.

A message for Vocations' Sunday

Charles Randall (resident at Newman Hosue 2000-1) tells the story of his conversation with God, and offers some good advice to anyone in the process of discerning their vocation.

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Sharing my vocation story is becoming quite a feature of my life at the moment! Earlier in the week I was asked to share with a group of young offenders why I have decided to put myself forward for the Catholic priesthood, and now I have been given the opportunity to write a short piece for the Newman House blog. At present, I am working as a chaplaincy volunteer at a young offenders institute, having left my career behind at Christmastime in order to put myself forward as a postulant with a religious order in September. It is my hope here to help someone else who might be asking themselves whether or not God is calling them to the priesthood or religious life.
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In my own experience, it was the persistence of the idea of priesthood in my own thoughts which not only encouraged me to explore how I might become a priest, but ultimately presented me with a choice: Live indefinitely with this persistent idea (which at first I was able to suppress and then evade, but which gradually became near to all-consuming), or put the idea to the test. Some priests I have spoken to wanted to be priests from an early age. I didn't. When I first saw that I might be called to the priesthood, I was not pleased about it. I think I said out loud “I'll do anything, BUT THAT.” Almost ten years later, I now embrace the priesthood as my vocation if that is God's will.
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If you feel called to the priesthood or religious life, it may be that the thought of embracing that calling repels you, or fills you with anxiety, resignation or apprehension, or with deep peace or great joy. Certainly in my own case I had to wait until my own feelings tended towards the latter end of that spectrum before I put the vocation to the test! Testing a vocation with no accompanying spiritual consolation whatsoever would be a senseless exercise. Likewise by no means is it necessary to feel absolute certainty before putting your head above the parapet. Doing something about a vocation will involve an investment of time, energy and prayer.
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My case may be extreme, but it took me nine years before I finally felt the time was ripe for me to tell my family what I hoped to do, and then my parish priest. My family, friends and colleagues have all supported and affirmed me on my path without exception, although I recognize that by the time I was ready to share my news with them, I could have come through rejection had I met with it; I would not have had the emotional resources to deal with it earlier along the way. For this reason I would advocate caution in who you share your thoughts with in the early stages of discernment of a priestly or religious vocation. Whilst all vocations will ultimately and rightly be about God, you, and others, in the early stages of discernment, it will be right for you and God to share with each other first. Then it will be right for you to receive guidance and support from people whose vocation it transpires is to help you on your journey!
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I would encourage you, if you think you may have a vocation to the priesthood or religious life, when you are ready, to seek out guidance. When I shared my thoughts with my parish priest, he advised me to make a retreat, and to seek out a spiritual director. I do not know if this is the standard procedure, but it has been right for me. I went to my parish priest to share my thoughts, in confidence, because I trusted him to advise me as to the best way forward. Find someone who you trust, whether a priest, religious, or prayerful lay person, whom you know could advise you pastorally and practically as to your vocation and the next steps. My parish priest had someone in mind to be my spiritual director, to prepare me and guide me during my discernment, to help me deepen my prayer life, and to suggest retreats, pilgrimages and 'come and see weekends' with religious orders and at seminaries.
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In a practical sense, having not yet entered formal training for the priesthood, I am at the beginning of my journey. Though my personal discernment began a while ago, now the Church will be discerning with me. I now hope the road leads to priesthood, but even then ordination will be yet another beginning, in the same sense that a marriage celebration is a beginning: a moment especially graced, but with a prelude of courtship and a lifetime of living to follow. Sacramental mile-stones such as ordination or marriage are special springboards, to be looked forward to with great joy, but they are not 'the moment when my life will really get off the ground.' What I am inviting you to consider is that, whether God is calling you to priesthood, the religious or married life, or to lay single-hood, your vocation journey has begun. In fact, you are right in the thick of it now!

Exam Time! Prayer before exams

The library of Newman House is the main hub of activity at the moment - all deathly silent but highly productive. Some residents are walking about with that fierce look of concentration that can only mean one thing: exams!


To help support our students in this time, we have three spiritual gifts to offer


1. A Votive Mass of our Lady Seat of Wisdom, on Monday 11th May at 5.30pm.




The intentions of all those writing exams will be offered, in union with the prayers of our special patron, our Lady Seat of Wisdom.

2. An exams intentions diary in the Chapel

anyone is free to write down their names and the exams for which they want prayer support on any particular day. These will be prayed for at each Mass during the week.


3. A prayer to help along the way. This is the wonderful prayer of St Thomas Aquinas.

Ante Studium.

Creator of all things,

True source of light and wisdom,
Origin of all beings,

Graciously let a ray of your light

Penetrate into the darkness

Of my understanding.

Take from me the double darkness

In which I have been born,

An obscurity of sin and ignorance.

Give me a keen understanding,

A retentive memory,

And the ability to grasp things

Correctly and fundamentally.

Grant me the talent

Of being exact in my explanations

And the ability to express myself

With thoroughness and charm.
Point out the beginning,

Direct the progress,

And help the completion.

I ask this through Christ, Our Lord.
Amen.

Best wishes to all who are studying for exams!

The 11th Archbishop of Westminster

The Holy Father has appointed the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Birmingham, to succeed H.E. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as the eleventh Metropolitan Archbishop of Westminster.

Vincent Nichols was born in Crosby, Liverpool, on 8 November 1945. He studied for the priesthood at the Venerable English College in Rome from 1963 to 1970, gaining licences in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained priest in Rome on 21 December 1969 for the Archdiocese of Liverpool.

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He then studied an MA degree in theology at Manchester University between 1970 and 1971. In 1971 he was appointed assistant priest in St Mary’s Parish, Wigan and chaplain to the Sixth Form College and St Peter’s High School. In 1974 he studied at Loyola University in Chicago and was awarded an M.Ed. In 1975 he was appointed to St Anne’s parish in Toxteth, Liverpool with particular responsibility for education.

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In January 1980 he was appointed director of the Upholland Northern Institute, where he was responsible for the in-service training of the clergy, pastoral and religious education courses. He was also a member of Archbishop’s Council with responsibility for pastoral formation and development in the diocese.

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In January 1984, he was appointed general secretary of the Bishops’ Conference in England & Wales. From 1989 to 1996 he was moderator of the Steering Committee of the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland.

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Mgr Vincent Nichols was appointed auxiliary bishop to Westminster, with responsibility for North London, on 24 January 1992.

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In 1994 he became a member of the Finance Advisory Committee of the National Catholic Fund of the Bishops’ Conference. In 1995 he became a member of the Bishops’ Conference Committee for the Roman Colleges and in 1996 he was appointed Episcopal Liaison of the Bishops’ Conference for the National Conference of Diocesan Financial Secretaries. He has also been a member of the Joint Commission of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences and the Conference of European Churches (Protestant); vice president of the Bible Society and a member of the board of the Christian Academy for European Development at Louvain.

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In 1998 Bishop Nichols was appointed chair of the Bishops’ Conference department for Catholic Education and Formation and also chair of the Catholic Education Service. He represented the European bishops at the November 1998 Synod of Bishops from Oceania and appointed by the Holy See to the Synod of Bishops for Europe in September 1999 as a special secretary.

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In 2000, Bishop Nichols was appointed Archbishop of Birmingham.

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In 2001 Archbishop Nichols was appointed chair of the management board of the Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

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In 2005, he provided the commentary for the worldwide BBC coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II and the Installation of Pope Benedict XVI.

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In 2008 he was appointed President of the Commission for Schools, Universities and Catechesis of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE)

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He has written two books to date: 'Promise of Future Glory', and ‘Missioners’ published in the United Kingdom.

Our prayers are with him as he prepares to take up his new mission.

source: www.rcdow.org.uk

The Sacred Triduum at Newman House

Holy Thursday

Mass of the Lord’s Supper
7.30pm
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Good Friday

Celebration of the Lord’s Passion
3pm
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Holy Saturday

The Easter Vigil
8pm
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Easter Sunday
Mass

10.30am ONLY.
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If you would like to join the choir for any of these celebrations please contact chris@universitycatholic.net

Cardinal reflects on his nine years in Westminster

In a Pastoral Letter for the fifth Sunday of Lent, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor has reflected on his nine years as Archbishop of Westminster.

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The Pastoral Letter, the last he will deliver to parishes in the Diocese of Westminster as Archbishop of Westminster, was read out at the 216 parishes in the diocese over the weekend of 28– 29 March 2009.

Full text, and audio

Source: RCDOW

What Lent means to me

This occasional series of reflections written by residents and Alumni continues with this piece by Irma Kurniawan.

To me, Lent is a time to make the right choices and live them with courage and faith.
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Whenever I am faced with a dilemma, God does not spoon-feed me with the right decision to make, but He will give me all the collateral tools to be able to listen to my conscience and make a choice that will bring me closer to Him. And Lent is precisely the time to use these tools. It is the time to stop whenever I see myself doing things that do not glorify God, to seek help and advice from fellow Christians or Church authorities, and most important of all, to sit before God and pray, asking for hope.
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Lent, for me, is the time to make the right choices that will allow me in what I do, to glorify God, and live those choices. To me, it’s like a time to make some serious resolutions. I'm not referring to single resolutions such as waking up at 6.30am everyday, or doing more exercises. While these are good and real examples of how one might manifest their fundamental decisions into practical routines (and one should always aim to do this), I am referring to more holistic resolutions in shaping my daily life to place myself, my thoughts, my actions, and my desires before God, in order to worship and please Him. Of course in reality, this becomes manifested in making decisions in small things such as finishing that one last task that I have to do today rather than procrastinate.
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And most of all, Lent is the time to ask for His compassion and love, and strength to live out those resolutions.

Raising Lazarus

At first glance it might seem strange to look around the chapel today and then to hear this Gospel reading. We have covered the Crosses and images, and begin to commemorate what is traditionally known as ‘Passiontide’, yet we have this long passage describing the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
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We are still in the cycle of baptismal Gospels, the third Scrutiny of the Elect takes place, and the journey towards Baptism is nearing its culmination.
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In the Gospel today, we see that the Lord does not go to Lazarus immediately after his death. He is making a point: Lazarus is left long enough in the tomb so that when Jesus acts in this extraordinary way, it will be all the more powerful. No-one will be able to say ‘Very clever, but he wasn’t really dead.’ Jesus satisfies the Rabbinical authorities, fulfilling what the law demanded - but transforms its meaning.
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We have an incidence of what scholars call an ‘I am’ sayings in this Gospel. ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ Again, this is an extraordinary claim. Even in first century Judaism it was fairly commonplace for people to talk of the resurrection of the dead (with the well-known exception of the Sadducees), but for Jesus to identify his own person, his own being, with this concept is startling.

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We might expect Jesus to lay his hands upon Lazarus, anoint him, maybe. He does nothing of the sort. Last week we saw how he took the earth (adama) and applies it to the man’s eyes in order to ‘complete’ the creation of the man born blind. Today we are looking to the creation narrative once again. God said ‘let there be…’, and so there was. Jesus said ‘Lazarus, here! Come out.’ Jesus himself is enough to raise Lazarus from the dead, because he is the very Word spoken by the Father.
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Jesus acts in extraordinary ways, with extraordinary deeds: in doing so, he raises our expectation of what is ‘ordinary’. It is a matter of course for us to say during the Creed ‘We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.’ This is not just a metaphor for heaven. It is something more complete, more challenging, more transforming than simply ‘going to another place.’
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The raising of Lazarus takes place before the glorification of Jesus. To the eyes of those observing this event, it is Lazarus, as he was, who is raised. To the eyes of those who see from our side of the Paschal Mystery, it tells of a different hope: the body will be transformed. This is the promise of Baptism, because we are washed in the living water that flows from the side of the risen Christ.
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And so onwards, towards Jerusalem.
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CJC

Events for the week 15 to 22 March

All events take place in Newman House unless otherwise stated

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Tuesday, 17 March

• 6.00 pm - 9.00 pm - Eucharistic Adoration followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
• 7.oo pm - CathDocs

Dr Catherine Jackman will talk about her personal experience of working as a health professional on the Arundel and Brighton diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes

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Wednesday, 18 March

• 3.00 pm - a visit to Westminster Cathedral

Meet at the Cathedral

Please contact Sr Mary

• 2.00 pm - at King's Strand Campus, Room: 332 (S3.32)

Unreasonable atheists or Unthinking theists: is there an alternative?

Session 4: Morality, Conscience and Free Will

• 3.30 pm - Tea with Chaplains
• 7.30 pm - OASIS:

"Principles of Moral Theology" by Fr Tim Finigan

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Thursday, 19 March

• 8.00 pm -

"The Old Testament through New Eyes" - Studying the Bible

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Friday, 20 March

• 6.00 pm - Stations of the Cross

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Sunday, 22 March

• 10.30 am - Holy Mass followed by Bar Lunch
• 7.30 pm - Holy Mass

Lent with St Benedict

Br Cedd Mannion OSB reflects upon the teaching of St Benedict on the keeping of Lent.

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Lent is an important time for all Christians. This is perhaps especially true for monks, as St Benedict dedicates a whole chapter of his Rule for Monasteries to the keeping of Lent (click here to read). Chapter 49 suggests that during Lent the whole community should try to ‘keep its manner of life most pure and to wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times.’ This might suggest three aspects of Lent which Benedict sees as crucial.
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Firstly, the emphasis in ‘washing away … the negligences of other times’ is not upon making life difficult through some unbelievably penitential practice, but upon trying to be honest with ourselves; trying to identify those areas of our lives which – if we are honest – often get in the way, and prevent us being fully alive to ourselves, to our neighbours and to God. For Benedict, this principally meant things like ‘indulging evil habits’ and ‘scurrility’, and he suggests that we take on some measure of fasting, for example, to learn self-control and to create some space for God.
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Secondly, in ‘keeping our manner of life most pure’, we try to draw closer to God – the one thing necessary – and invite him to take up the space we have found. The two most important methods suggested by St Benedict for this are prayer and lectio divina, when we speak to God of our needs, and allow him to speak to us. This ‘purity of heart’ is an important monastic (and Christian) goal.
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Finally, Benedict does not offer his advice to individual monks, but to ‘the whole community’, and this is important. If Lent is to draw us closer to God, it will be something that we undertake together. It is important, then, that we pray for the fruitfulness not only of our own Lent, but also that of the whole community to which we belong, so that (as Benedict says) we may all ‘look forward to holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing.’ (RB49:7)