There probably aren't many bloggers who can say that "I had than Pope Benedict at the bottom of my garden yesterday" but that is exactly what I can say!
Benedict started a "popemobile" ride through Birmingham from the Kings'Head in Bearwood, about 300 yards from where I sit now. I gather from eye witnesses that those lining the route were the curious rather than the faithful, many of whom - our Catholic friends among them - had been at Coften park since 5 am yesterday morning.
Benedict was in Birmingham to "beatify" John Henry Newman, a convert to Catholicism, apparently a first step to becoming a saint. I must say that I find this bit of our Catholic friends' theology a little suspect, especially when they claim they can pray for "miracles" through the Blessed J H Newman. I think praying through our Lord Jesus is a more effective and more scriptural channel.
One miracle that would have been worth prayer was the support of the Cardinal Newman Secondary School here in Bearwood, but this just didn't happen. Just like many Methodists the Catholics looked to the middle class suburbs and the school closed a few years back.
However much I disagree with much of what the Blessed J H Newman did, I owe him a great debt of gratitude. His Apologia Pro Vita Sua remains for me one of the great testimonies of a man prepared to stand alone for his beliefs and to argue his corner. I read it as a young evangelical convert and was overwhelmed by the power of his argument and the courage with which he stated his case.
Newman doesn't need to have the trappings of sainthood to stand out as a man well worth reading today in our choppy waters of faith.
Michael, our preacher yesterday morning, speaking just as Benedict was traveling through Birmingham, reminded us that a Newman hymn had made its way into the Methodist Hymn and Psalms (231). He says nothing with which a Methodist can find issue:
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s Presence and His very Self,
And Essence all divine.
O generous love! that He, who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For man should undergo.
And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire
To suffer and to die.
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.![]()
Benedict started a "popemobile" ride through Birmingham from the Kings'Head in Bearwood, about 300 yards from where I sit now. I gather from eye witnesses that those lining the route were the curious rather than the faithful, many of whom - our Catholic friends among them - had been at Coften park since 5 am yesterday morning.
Benedict was in Birmingham to "beatify" John Henry Newman, a convert to Catholicism, apparently a first step to becoming a saint. I must say that I find this bit of our Catholic friends' theology a little suspect, especially when they claim they can pray for "miracles" through the Blessed J H Newman. I think praying through our Lord Jesus is a more effective and more scriptural channel.
One miracle that would have been worth prayer was the support of the Cardinal Newman Secondary School here in Bearwood, but this just didn't happen. Just like many Methodists the Catholics looked to the middle class suburbs and the school closed a few years back.
However much I disagree with much of what the Blessed J H Newman did, I owe him a great debt of gratitude. His Apologia Pro Vita Sua remains for me one of the great testimonies of a man prepared to stand alone for his beliefs and to argue his corner. I read it as a young evangelical convert and was overwhelmed by the power of his argument and the courage with which he stated his case.
Newman doesn't need to have the trappings of sainthood to stand out as a man well worth reading today in our choppy waters of faith.
Michael, our preacher yesterday morning, speaking just as Benedict was traveling through Birmingham, reminded us that a Newman hymn had made its way into the Methodist Hymn and Psalms (231). He says nothing with which a Methodist can find issue:
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God’s Presence and His very Self,
And Essence all divine.
O generous love! that He, who smote,
In Man for man the foe,
The double agony in Man
For man should undergo.
And in the garden secretly,
And on the Cross on high,
Should teach His brethren, and inspire
To suffer and to die.
Praise to the Holiest in the height,
And in the depth be praise;
In all His words most wonderful,
Most sure in all His ways.
