(Published in the diocesan e-newsletter, Thursday 23 October 2025)

Newman and Gazing on God

The “breath and pulse of the spiritual life” were, for St John Henry Newman, prayer and reflection (Blehl, The White Stone, p137). Influenced,  in part, by the thought of Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, Newman taught that every Christian is called to discover God’s will in the ordinary events of each day. Newman emphasised that the significance of our daily experiences gradually unfolds over time, and always lead us to meet the gaze of a loving God, who longs for this encounter.

Newman, explores the theme of personal revelation in a moving homily entitled: A Particular Providence Revealed in the Gospel, where he reminds us, with great tenderness, that:

“God beholds thee individually, whoever thou art….He hears thy voice, the beating of thy heart and thy very breathing. Thou wast one of those whom Christ offered up His last prayer and sealed it with His precious blood.” (Parochial and Plain Sermons III, 9)

Whatever set of given circumstances we find ourselves in, Newman believed they are, in some way, important for our own salvation and that of those around us. This is because God is to be found at the centre of all that happens to us, as St Ignatius stressed in his famous Examen of Conscience, which Newman had found helpful. As a result, he writes, with free flowing, total trust and conviction:

“God knows what my greatest happiness is, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the way by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other…O my God, I will put myself without reserve into thy hands. Wealth or woe, joy or sorrow, friends or bereavement, honour, or humiliation, good report or bad report, comfort, or discomfort. Thy presence or the hiding of thy countenance, all is good if it comes from Thee. Thou art Wisdom and Thou art love – what can I desire more” ?

No wonder the phrase of St Frances de Sale - ‘Heart Speaks to Heart’, which Newman adopted as his motto as a Cardinal, meant so much to him. It was, so clearly, autobiographical.

Newman recognised that we need to mentally, ‘walk around’ the ‘scenery’ of our lives, and believe that behind it, waiting to be discovered, is  the risen Lord who transforms the ecology of the natural and human world as one common home. Jose Morales sums up John Henry’s saintly method as follows:

“Newman lived with his mind in heaven but his feet on the ground.” (Jose Morales, Ideal of Holiness, p146).

Fr Peter Conley