Taking an interest in Newman?
  • Randolph Nichols
    Posts: 398
    Having come as a teenager to Catholicism via the high church Episcopalian route, it is natural so many years later I should be curious how - or if - most American Catholics have acknowledged the canonization of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Though one would expect the Ordinariate parishes to be celebrating, I wonder if mainstream Catholics have taken much notice.

    One of the surprises at the beginning of my career in church music was that so few Catholics, especially those on search committees, thought it an asset that I came from an Anglican background. I soon learned to delete that part of my history from the resumé. (Having a graduate degree from Harvard Divinity even played less well.) Suspicions stemmed of course from abiding anti-English feeling among the Boston Irish. “Westminster Cathedral was built with stolen Irish lumber,” I remember one choir member bitterly complain.

    But the ill-feeling had deeper roots, at least back then, and many felt Anglicans were the worst kind of convert, given to a prissy, smug air of superiority that included an overtone of economic privilege. At best, among the more educated there was at least the feeling Episcopalians who crossed the Tiber had a heightened sensitivity to the aesthetic dimensions of worship, be it word, gesture or music and an appreciation of the history that nurtured them. But in the years following Vatican II, those were not qualities with timely appeal.

    But have the times changed? Are your parish communities really taking an interest in the elevation of Newman to sainthood? Are homilies based on the thought of Newman being preached? Have groups been formed to discuss Newman’s writings? Level with me.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Randolph,

    Today is becoming even more important in England. It's the anniversary of the miracle of the sun, the feast of St. Edward the Confessor (which is a 3rd class feast everywhere else, but celebrated (so TomJaw says) as a solemnity in England. Now it's the canonization day of St. John Newman.

    I'm not in England, but I've decided to resist the temptation to play a fantasy on Gilbert and Sullivan's "For it's greatly to his credit" at the end of Mass today.
    St. John Newman is the patron of (inter alia) Catholic centers on college campuses and the website pblosser.blogspot.com.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    http://www.westminstercathedralchoir.com/cmsAdmin/uploads/ml191013.pdf

    He is first class in Westminster and second class almost everywhere else. Under the old rubrics dI cl. with octave in Westminster and dII almost everywhere else. We of course had the Mass of St. Edward with visiting polyphonic choir. As for the new rite (with its idea of Solemnities) I have no idea!
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,372
    OF - St Edward the Confessor is a Feast in the Dioceses of Westminster and Southwark, a Solemnity in the City of Westminster, but in the national calendar only an optional memorial.
    My parish priest (Diocese of Liverpool) has a particular attachment to St John Henry Newman, and quotes him in sermons probably more frequently than any other non-biblical source (despite having been raised in Cork).
    Thanked by 2tomjaw CHGiffen
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,184
    I'm not one to say as my Pastor is a Brit and loves Newman....as much as I do. He crossed the Tiber in 2006. I know he had planned to speak about it today but diverticulitis prevented him from being at Mass today. We are planning a number of sessions on meeting the new saint. People in my part of Florida are clueless about Newman, though the local high school is named for him. Time and learning will help. I am planning on talking about him at school this week.
    Thanked by 2Randolph Nichols CHGiffen
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,945
    "I wonder if mainstream Catholics have taken much notice."

    Good to wonder. In the States, I'd say not many. There's been a lot of coverage in Catholic media, but Catholic media plays to a barbell curve of interest. It's a pretty rare non-papal saint whose canonization would garner attention in the mainstream that's not into that media. Like Theresa of Calcutta. Would need to be someone whose saintly life was covered in the secular media within the last generation or so.
    Thanked by 1Randolph Nichols
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    All the Ordinariates have been abuzz about Newman's canonisation. It is difficult to imagine that anyone wouldn't be focused on it. But then, there are other canonisations which receive little attention from some of us, but more attention from others. Of course, a new saint is always cause for excitement, but, naturally, some are of greater interest to given individuals and groups than others. Who can not take great store in such a man as Newman, whose probing mind led him to renounce the church which had nursed him and which he had dreamed of returning to its Catholic roots. Alas, it was not to be - Newman, like us of the Ordinatiates, had come to see the futility of such efforts. It was an arduous (and unlikely) journey (the more so in those days) from Anglican priest and Oxford don to Catholic cardinal. I, for one, think that he should be named a Doctor of the Church. I recommend his Apologia pro Vita Sua, his spiritual biography, to anyone who wants really to know him. I read this work in the late '70s and it was highly instrumental in my own crossing of the Tiber.

    At Walsingham we have had a month of lectures and study groups about Newman. They will be ongoing. This Sunday we had the following liturgical observances which featured hymns and texts by Newmann -


    Solemn High Mass and Solemn Te Deum -
    11.15am

    Organ Voluntary - on Deus tuorum militum - - - Improvisation
    At the Procession - Hymn: 'O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High' - - - Deus tuorum militum

    The Introit - Iustus est Domine - - - Tone VII (Anglican Use Gradual)
    Kyrie - Mass of the Quiet Hour - - - George Oldroyd
    Gloria - Missa Sancta Maria Magdalena - - - Healey Willan

    Psalm XCVIII - Cantate Domino - - - Chant, Sir John Goss
    Alleluya and Verse - Domine exaudi - - - Tone VI (AUG)

    The Nicene Creed - - - Recto tono
    The Prayers of the Faithful - - - Byzantine chant

    At the Offertory -
    The Antiphon - Oravi Deum meum - - - Tone II (AUG)
    The Anthem - Beati quorum via - - - Charles Villiers Stanford

    Sanctus - Mass of the Quiet Hour - - - George Oldroyd
    Memorial Acclamation - 'O Saviour of the world' - - - Mode VIII
    The Our Father - - - Mode VII
    Agnus Dei - Mass of the Quiet Hour - - - George Oldroyd

    At the Communion -
    The Antiphon - Vovete - - - Tone I (AUG)
    Anthem - 'Holy is the True Light' - - - William H. Harris
    Hymn - 'Lead, Kindly Light' - - - Sandon

    Solemn Te Deum - - - Chants, E.G. Monk and Wiliam Croft

    Hymn - 'Praise to the Holiest in the Height' - - - Newman
    Organ Voluntary - on The Agincourt Hymn - - - Improvisation

    ___________________________________

    Solemn Choral Evensong -
    4.00pm

    Organ Voluntary - Fantasie in G-Minor (BWV 542-1) --- J.S. Bach
    Introit - 'Complete Thy Work, O Lord' - - - Calvert Shenk
    Preces - - - Bernard Rose

    For the Office Hymn - 'And Did Those Feet in Ancient Times' - - - Jerusalem
    Psalm VIII - Domine, Dominus noster - - - Chant, Sir Richard Elgar
    Psalm LXXXIV - Quam dilecta! - - - Chant, Sir C.H.H Parry

    Magnificat - Evening Service in C - - - Sir C.V. Stanford
    Nunc Dimittis - Evening Service in C - - - Sir C.V. Stanford

    The Prayers and Suffrages - - - Bernard Rose

    The Anthem - 'Prayer for a Holy Rest' ('O Lord Support Us') - - - David Briggs

    The Marian Anthem - Salve Regina - - - William Byrd
    Hymn - 'Firmly I Believe and Truly' - - - Halton Holgate
    Organ Voluntary - Fugue in G-Minor (Bwv 552-2) - - - J.S. Bach

    ____________________________________

    Reception in the Parish Hall
    5.30pm

    ____________________________________

    Next Sunday will also be a celebration of Newman - Bishop Lopes and Fr Hough, the rector, will return from Rome with Newman relics. We will sing another Te Deum at the conclusion of high mass.


    Thanked by 4tomjaw Incardination Randolph Nichols CHGiffen
  • Heath
    Posts: 934
    I work at a Newman Center. We had a week long celebration leading up the canonization, including a podcast episode on his life and thought, a special Oct. 9 EF Mass, a lecture and homilies preached about him at daily Masses. All my choirs chose at least one of his texts for a musical setting. Our principal Mass included the following:

    Complete Thy Work, O Lord (Shenk)
    O Lord, Support us (Proulx)
    Lead, Kindly Light (LUX IN TENEBRIS, a marvelous melody by A. Gregory Murray)
    Thanked by 4Incardination M. Jackson Osborn Randolph Nichols CHGiffen
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,372
    Just in case you can't find Dom Gregory Murray's tune among all the others of the same name it is no.191 on page 144 of this pdf of the Westminster Hymnal https://www.ccwatershed.org/media/pdfs/16/03/07/16-45-38_0.pdf
    Thanked by 5Heath Randolph Nichols M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen kevinf
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