John Henry Newman - Meditations on Mary, Our Mother

S t. John Henry Cardinal Newmans conversion to the Catholic Church in 1845 needs little by way of introduction. Most Catholics who know anything at all about Newman are familiar with his journey from Anglicanism to Rome. What may surprise them is the key role that devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary played in that conversion.

Apart from the Papacy, devotion to Mary is perhaps the greatest stumbling block for the majority of Protestants. Yet, Newman had already developed a devotion to Mary and a defense of some Catholic doctrines on the subject even while he was still a Protestant. This requires some context.

In Newmans day, the liberal movement in theology was particularly strong. This liberalism rejected dogmatic principles as the basis of religion because they were independent of individual judgment. For early 19th century liberalism, the individual along with his interpretations and experiences was the standard of judgment in religion. In the early 20th century, this system of thought made its assault on the Catholic world, and received a new name: Modernism.

Nothing could be further from Cardinal Newmans thought, both as an Anglican and later in life as a Catholic. Newmans religion, as an Anglican, was based on the principle of dogma, that there are revealed truths to which the believer must adhere. These were the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, Predestination, and the Lutheran Apprehension of Christ (justification by faith). As time went on, Newman rejected the last, but he would remain steadfast with the first three throughout his life, even as a Catholic.

His acceptance of the Incarnation is the most important for his developing views on Mary. Christ became incarnate in time through a womanwho was this woman? Could she really be an insignificant figure? Moreover, as a student of history, Newman was well aware of early Christological controversies and early heresies in regard to the Incarnation. He was able to see clearly that they all received their death-blow when the Council of Ephesus had declared her to be TheotokosMother of God. The contrast in the Fathers between the old Eve and Mary as the new Eve made the matter quite clear, and served as a foundation for his developing and accepting further Marian doctrine, although he was still a Protestant. He even had no fear of proclaiming, as an Anglican minister, to his Anglican audience:

Who can estimate the holiness and perfection of her, who was chosen to be the Mother of Christ? If to him that hath, more is given, and holiness and Divine favor go together (and this we are expressly told), what must have been the transcendent purity of her, whom the Creator Spirit condescended to overshadow with His miraculous presence? What must have been her gifts, who was chosen to be the only near earthly relative of the Son of God, the only one whom He was bound by nature to revere and look up to; the one appointed to train and educate Him, to instruct Him day by day, as He grew in wisdom and in stature? This contemplation runs to a higher subject, did we dare follow it; for what, think you, was the sanctified state of that human nature, of which God formed His sinless Son; ? (Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. ii, Sermon 12)

As his Marian doctrine and devotion grew, Newman ran up against a great road-block. In general, as the Tractarian controversy raged, and he was dissatisfied with the rejection of what he saw as historic Christianity by his own Church. He began to have a greater love, even longing for Rome, the mother of English Christianity. He felt, however, that whereas he had a logical, dogmatic based view of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholics went too far and said too much. Time, reading and prayer, however, would convince him otherwise, and he was able to say in his letter to the Anglo-Catholic Dr. Pusey (who had many of the same objections Newman once had):

Only this I know full well now, and did not know then, that the Catholic Church allows no image of any sort, material or immaterial, no dogmatic symbol, no rite, no sacrament, no Saint, not even the Blessed Virgin herself, to come between the soul and its Creator. It is face to face, solus cum solo, in all matters between man and his God. He alone creates; He alone has redeemed; before His awful eyes we go in death; in the vision of Him is our eternal beatitude.

Thus, Newmans journey to the Church can said to have been guided by Our Lady, toward the kindly light which he was to rest in.

In honor of his canonization, this present volume draws together Newmans Marian writings into an anthology, and organizes them topically. We have drawn both from works that are doctrinal and apologetic, as well as devotional meditations, so as to show both sides of Newmans character. On the one hand, his profoundly logical, deep, and intellectual bearing, and on the other, the profound love that permeated his heart. Together, they show the great depths of Marian doctrine from the Churchs treasury with which Newman has so powerfully permeated his own pages. In some places we have made minor edits for archaic language, as well as to tailor the readings for the purpose of this anthology.

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Holy the womb that bore him,
Holy the breasts that fed,
But holier still the royal heart
That in His passion bled.