All Things British

With the trip less than a week away, I am finally figuring out exactly what I will be packing. The toughest decision by far was deciding upon what music, books, and television shows to put on my iPad.

When John Lennon and Paul McCartney were young, they would spend time hanging out together near a cemetery in Liverpool. In this cemetery, there is a tombstone with the name "Eleanor Rigby" engraved on it. A few yards away from that, there is another tombstone with the "McKenzie" written on it. Any Beatles fan should instantly begin humming the first few notes of their famous song...

I've read so many books by British authors and listened to many British musicians over the years without thinking about what was the inspiration for their creative works. Besides just going on the trip to experience the religious aspects of England, I am looking forward to taking in the sights and sounds of the culture to better appreciate the country which produced so many great artists over the years.

William Shakespeare. J.R.R. Tolkien. Alfred Hitchcock. The Beatles. The list could go on and on.

I decided to download the novel "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh and the television show "Downton Abbey." I might as well take advantage of this trip and immerse myself in all things British. 

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! Here is a poem Bl. John Henry Newman wrote entitled "Christmas without Christ."

"How can I keep my Christmas feast
In its due festive show,
Reft of the sight of the High Priest
From whom its glories flow?

I hear the tuneful bells around,
The blessèd towers I see;
A stranger on a foreign ground,
They peal a fast for me.

O Britons! now so brave and high,
How will ye weep the day
When Christ in judgment passes by,
And calls the Bride away!

Your Christmas then will lose its mirth,
Your Easter lose its bloom:
Abroad, a scene of strife and dearth;
Within, a cheerless home."

Gumdrops and Cardinals

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating the tree, which we always do on my parents’ wedding anniversary.  Like most families, we have amassed a large and diverse collection of Christmas ornaments.  Most of the ornaments have a story connected to it so every year I get to find out new stories.

This very human desire, to be connected to our past, to find out why exactly we do things the way that we do them, is a major part of Blessed John Henry Newman’s life.  He and the rest of the Oxford Movement were trying to reconnect what they were doing as Anglicans to what the Church has always done, and this desire would end with his conversion to Catholicism.

I’m looking forward to visiting the ancient pilgrimage sites like Canterbury, the sites of the imprisonment and martyrdom of the English Martyrs, the places where Newman lived and worked, and seeing Charing Cross. Through exposure to these places, I will be able to understand and connect to my faith in a new and different way.  

Once we’ve connected, though we have a duty to bring the faith to others.  I feel extremely blessed that as the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis gears up for the Rediscover initiative and the universal Church celebrates the Year of Faith, this program has decided to focus on Bl. Newman and his connection to the new evangelization.  At the heart of the new evangelization is the call to connect on a personal level with Christ and to make the story of salvation our own.

-John Powers

Who is Cardinal Newman?

When I was an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, I would often go to the Newman Center for Mass. I  would often wonder why it was called a Newman Center since it is a non-traditional way to name a Catholic building or church. Being the young man I was, I didn't even think twice of running a search on the internet for the origins of this name. Little did I know then that I would someday be traveling to England to study the works and life of the man whose name we honor on most universities throughout this country. 

John Henry Newman lived for much of the 19th Century in England. He grew up as a non-Catholic and was ordained an Anglican priest at the age of 24. He was a prominent clergyman in his day, so it shocked the country when he decided to convert to Catholicism at the age of 44. Newman was named a Cardinal of the Church later on in his life.

He wrote extensively both before and after his conversion. Some people are even speculating that he may even be named a Doctor of the Church in the future. Newman was beatified in 2010 during a Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI. 

There is so much more to learn and say about this man, but I will leave you all with this excerpt from a poem Newman wrote:

"Praise to the Holiest in the height
And in the depth be praise;
In all his words most wonderful,
Most sure in all his ways!" 

-T.J. McKenzie