Blessed John Henry Newman

Today we will make an exception and have some quotes from someone other than Fr Doyle. Today was a special day for our Holy Father as he beatified John Henry Newman, a priest and scholar to whom he has had devotion for many years. He is also important for Dublin and indeed for Dalkey, Fr Doyle’s home parish. Blessed John Henry Newman lived in Dublin for 7 years and founded what is now known as University College Dublin. For a time he lived in Dalkey, quite near the Doyle family home. So, while I have been unable to find any of Fr Doyle’s writings which refer to Newman, there is still some tenuous link.

Indeed, there are similarities between the writings of Fr Doyle and Blessed John Newman. For this special post, I have decided to take the important theme of self-denial. Of course, self-denial and mortification are not the totality of the spiritual life nor are they the single most important thing, but they are still an essential component of the spiritual life. For some, Fr Doyle’s self-denial was rather controversial, so it might be intetresting to see what the newest Blessed in the Church has to say about all of this.

Excerpts from Newman’s homily The Duty of Self-Denial

It is our duty, not only to deny ourselves in what is sinful, but even, in a certain measure, in lawful things, to keep a restraint over ourselves even in innocent pleasures and enjoyments…

…I hope I have made it clear, by these instances, what is meant by Christian self-denial. If we have good health, and are in easy circumstances, let us beware of high-mindedness, self-sufficiency, self-conceit, arrogance; of delicacy of living, indulgences, luxuries, comforts. Nothing is so likely to corrupt our heart, and to seduce us from God, as to surround ourselves with comforts,—to have things our own way,—to be the centre of a sort of world, whether of things animate or inanimate, which minister to us. For then, in turn, we shall depend on them; they will become necessary to us; their very service and adulation will lead us to trust ourselves to them, and to idolize them. What examples are there in Scripture of soft luxurious men! Was it Abraham before the Law, who wandered through his days, without a home? or Moses, who gave the Law, and died in the wilderness? or David under the Law, who “had no proud looks,” and was “as a weaned child?” or the Prophets, in the latter days of the Law, who wandered in sheepskins and goatskins? or the Baptist, when the Gospel was superseding it, who was clad in raiment of camel’s hair, and ate the food of the wilderness? or the Apostles, who were “the offscouring of all things”? or our blessed Saviour, who “had not a place to lay His head”? Who are the soft luxurious men in Scripture? There was the rich man, who “fared sumptuously every day,” and then “lifted up his eyes in hell, being in torments.” There was that other, whose “ground brought forth plentifully,” and who said, “Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years;” and his soul was required of him that night. There was Demas, who forsook St. Paul, “having loved this present world.” And, alas! there was that highly-favoured, that divinely-inspired king, rich and wise Solomon, whom it availed nothing to have measured the earth, and numbered its inhabitants, when in his old age he “loved many strange women,” and worshipped their gods.

Far be it from us, soldiers of Christ, thus to perplex ourselves with this world, who are making our way towards the world to come. “No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” This is St. Paul’s rule, as has already been referred to: accordingly, in another place, he bears witness of himself that he “died daily.” Day by day he got more and more dead to this world; he had fewer ties to earth, a larger treasure in heaven. Nor let us think that it is over-difficult to imitate him, though we be not Apostles, nor are called to any extraordinary work, nor are enriched with any miraculous gifts: he would have all men like himself, and all may be like him, according to their place and measure of grace. If we would be followers of the great Apostle, first let us with him fix our eyes upon Christ our Saviour; consider the splendour and glory of His holiness, and  try to love it. Let us strive and pray that the love of holiness may be created within our hearts; and then acts will follow, such as befit us and our circumstances, in due time, without our distressing ourselves to find what they should be. You need not attempt to draw any precise line between what is sinful and what is only allowable: look up to Christ, and deny yourselves every thing, whatever its character, which you think He would have you relinquish. You need not calculate and measure, if you love much: you need not perplex yourselves with points of curiosity, if you have a heart to venture after Him. True, difficulties will sometimes arise, but they will be seldom. He bids you take up your cross; therefore accept the daily opportunities which occur of yielding to others, when you need not yield, and of doing unpleasant services, which you might avoid. He bids those who would be highest, live as the lowest: therefore, turn from ambitious thoughts, and (as far as you religiously may) make resolves against taking on you authority and rule. He bids you sell and give alms; therefore, hate to spend money on yourself. Shut your ears to praise, when it grows loud: set your face like a flint, when the world ridicules, and smile at its threats. Learn to master your heart, when it would burst forth into vehemence, or prolong a barren sorrow, or dissolve into unseasonable tenderness. Curb your tongue, and turn away your eye, lest you fall into temptation. Avoid the dangerous air which relaxes you, and brace yourself upon the heights. Be up at prayer “a great while before day,” and seek the true, your only Bridegroom, “by night on your bed.” So shall self-denial become natural to you, and a change come over you, gently and imperceptibly; and, like Jacob, you will lie down in the waste, and will soon see Angels, and a way opened for you into heaven.