Thoughts on Saint John Henry Newman

 

Today is the feast day of Saint John Henry Newman, beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict, canonized by Pope Francis in 2019, and just last year declared by Pope Leo a Doctor of the Church, that is, a teacher whose writings are a sure reference point for Catholic doctrine. His feast day, October 9, commemorates the day he was received into the Catholic Church in 1845. After his conversion, he was ordained a priest and later made a Cardinal of the Church. He took as his motto the Latin phrase, cor ad cor loquitur, heart speaks to heart.

Cardinal Newman was a theologian of great ability, a preacher of unusual gifts, and a sensitive pastor of souls. At the beatification, Pope Benedict noted that even his motto shows his chief pastoral concern to be the call to holiness, a holiness “experienced as the profound desire of the human heart to enter into intimate communion with the Heart of God.”

Intimate communion with God is the very stuff of a White House retreat. St. Ignatius instructs us in the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, while meditating on the life of Christ, to ask for an “intimate knowledge of our Lord, who became man for me, so that I may love him more ardently and follow him more closely.” Intimate communion with the Heart of God.

No retreatant comes to White House with all the answers or with a perfectly lived life. We enter into retreat seeking the face of God, desiring to draw closer to God, to experience renewal in our faith or healing from the wounds of daily life. In some cases, our retreatants come in need of profound spiritual transformation. Whatever we need, whatever we seek on retreat, it begins with opening our hearts and allowing the Word of God, the Word made flesh, Jesus himself, to enter in. The heart of Christ speaking to my heart. My heart speaking to his.

Cor ad cor loquitur. Heart speaks to heart.

St. John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.

Thoughts on petitionary prayer

 

Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 11:5–13

Friends, our Gospel offers a wonderful promise of answered prayer: “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Petitionary prayer is one of the most fundamental ways that we raise our minds and hearts to God. It is also the most common form of prayer in the Bible. Every major scriptural character—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Solomon, Ezra, Nehemiah, Peter, James, Paul, and John—prays in this way; they all ask God for things.  There is something, of course, primal and elemental about this kind of prayer: “O God, please help me! O Lord, save my child!” If we could place a net capable of catching prayers as they waft their way to heaven from hospitals and churches, we would corral millions upon millions of them. Finally, the paradigmatic prayer that Jesus taught us—the Our Father—is nothing but a series of petitions, and Jesus urged his followers, again and again, to persevere in prayer.  Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the Lord's Prayer

 

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

Luke 11:1–4

Friends, our Gospel today gives us an opportunity to reflect on the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer for the Christian journey. I want to consider three of the prayer’s petitions. “Father, hallowed be your name.” We’re not implying that God should make his name holy (as though it isn’t); we’re praying that we might make it holy for us, that God might be honored above all. Everything else in the spiritual life flows from this prioritization. “Your Kingdom come.” God’s kingdom refers to God’s way of ordering things. Jesus’s teaching and his manner of life give us a very good idea of what this kingdom would look like: peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, walking the path of compassion.   “Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” How central to the teaching of Jesus is forgiveness. And how central to the suffering of the world is the incapacity to forgive, both on the smallest, most intimate level and on the grandest geopolitical scale.  How wonderful and how deeply challenging that at the very heart of the prayer that the Son of God taught us is a petition to be given the grace to forgive. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on the greatest commandment

 

Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 10:25–37

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus affirms a scholar’s identification of the greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” All of religion is finally about awakening the deepest desire of the heart and directing it toward God; it is about the ordering of love toward that which is most worthy of love. But, Jesus says, a necessary implication of this love of God is compassion for one’s fellow human beings. Why are the two commandments so tightly linked? The best response is the simplest: because of who Jesus is. Christ is not simply a human being, and he is not simply God; rather, he is the God-man, the one in whose person divinity and humanity meet. Therefore, it is finally impossible to love him as God without loving the humanity that he has, in his own person, embraced. Those who know Christ Jesus, fully divine and fully human, realize that the love of God necessarily draws us to a love for the human race. They grasp the logical consistency and spiritual integrity of the greatest commandment. Bishop Robert Barron

Thoughts on prayer

 

Mercy Supplants Bitterness

From: The Road to Peace

Prayer is leading every sorrow to the source of all healing: it is letting the warmth of Jesus' love melt the cold anger of resentment; it is opening a space where joy replaces sadness, mercy supplants bitterness, love displaces fear, gentleness and care overcome hatred and indifference. But, most of all, prayer is the way to become and remain part of Jesus' mission to draw all peoples to the intimacy of God's love.

Reflection Question: How has prayer drawn you to Jesus' mission to draw all people to the intimacy of God's love?

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. - Micah 7: 18

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was a priest, professor, and spiritual writer. He authored over 40 books on the spiritual life and spent his final years at L'Arche Daybreak, a community for people with intellectual disabilities. Drawing from his own journey of vulnerability and faith, he invites seekers into deeper intimacy with God, themselves, and others.

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Thoughts on Guardian Angels

 

Today, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. Assigned to help humans from birth to death, these special angels watch over us, praying and interceding for us before God.   Because they are spiritual beings, their presence is not discernible by human sight, yet they often protect us from physical harm without our awareness. Above all, they are very active in helping us to resist temptation to prevent us from falling into sin.   Protecting us from spiritual attacks is the vital work of our guardian angels. Always by our side, they faithfully assist us daily and at the end of our lives. St. John Bosco said, “Ask your angel to console and assist you in your last moments.”

We encourage you to read our special page dedicated to the Feast of the Guardian Angels, where we answer questions such as: What do guardian angels do? What powers do angels have? Can you pray to someone else’s guardian angel? How many angels does God have in Heaven? On the page, we also offer a free eBook, My Guardian Angel: My Constant Companion, featuring prayers and quotes to honor your guardian angel and deepen your appreciation for his devout service.

VISIT THE PAGE

We hope this page and eBook will help increase your love and devotion for your heavenly helper.   In Christ,   Your EWTN Family

More thoughts on gratitude

 

The Pruning Hands of God

From: Spiritual Formation: Following the Movements of the Spirit

Gratitude is not a simple emotion or an obvious attitude. It is a difficult discipline in which I constantly reclaim my whole past as the concrete way God has led me to this moment and is sending me into the future. It is hard precisely because it challenges me to face my painful moments – experiences of rejection and abandonment, feelings of loss and failure – and gradually to discover in them the pruning hands of God purifying my heart for deeper love, stronger hope, and broader faith.

Reflection Question: What aspects of your past do you need to reclaim as part of God's leading you to this moment?

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. - Psalm 100: 4

Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) was a priest, professor, and spiritual writer. He authored over 40 books on the spiritual life and spent his final years at L'Arche Daybreak, a community for people with intellectual disabilities. Drawing from his own journey of vulnerability and faith, he invites seekers into deeper intimacy with God, themselves, and others.

More Books by Henri Nouwen

Explore the Daily Meditations

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