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A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Sarah Teather, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK

Good morning.

Today is the Feast of St John Henry Newman.

I have a beautiful charcoal drawing of Newman that hangs on the wall of my office at the Jesuit Refugee Service. The drawing was done by an A-level student and given to me by a school in my constituency when I was an MP. It hung first on the wall of my Ministerial office, out of the eye line of visitors but directly in mine, providing a visible reminder of Newman’s teaching on conscience as an echo of the voice of God in the heart.

My introduction to Newman though came through Elgar’s extraordinary rendering of his poem in The Dream of Gerontius. The orchestral build up to the Soul’s meeting with God and that exhilarating chorus, Praise to the Holiest, with its perilously difficult quiet soprano entry on a top A… that remains one of my favourite musical climaxes of all times. It probably also shapes my imagination about the afterlife more than any other piece of art.

Newman’s faith journey was full of challenge. Though he is revered and loved now as a Catholic saint, he suffered rejection and suspicion at the hands of both the church he left and one he joined. He would later describe how this period of trial had been critical to him learning to surrender his life to God.

Perhaps his most moving writings were at the end of his life, as he described his journey with God, who takes us as we are, entering the heart and working with it, while changing it. This he says, is the triumph of his Grace.

Enter our hearts Lord, and let the depths of your heart speak to the deepest place in ours, that your words may lead us on into your eternal light.

Amen

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