St John Henry Newman and Carmel

‘Between 1833 and 1838, about fifty years before Thérèse’s entry into the Carmel, Newman, whilst still an Anglican, announced from the pulpit of St Mary’s in Oxford—practically word for word—the message that the great Carmelite saint [Therese of Lisieux] saw as her own message: the message of the way of the little child:

“And thus it is that a child is a pledge of immortality; for he bears upon him in figure those high and eternal excellences in which the joy of heaven consists: childhood is the perfect image of Christianity.”’

This passage from the writings of a well-known German Catholic thinker, Erich Przywara, was penned in the 1950s, and it seems very appropriate for today’s feast of St John Henry Newman.  It should be noted for the benefit of Carmelites that Przywara was a friend of Edith Stein.

Intercessions:

B, struggling with brain cancer, and his wife A

Im, a young mother in the throes of a long cancer treatment