At the Spiritual Life Center this July

I'll be one of the presenters at the Spiritual Life Center's Summer Symposium 2017, Thursday, July 13 through Saturday, July 15:

"Conversion and Conscience: Freedom, Will, and Truth in the Human Quest for Meaning"

The Summer Symposium is an opportunity for presenters and participants to gather for prayer, celebration, and intellectual exchange. The symposium begins with a keynote banquet, and continues with two full days consisting of morning prayer, Holy Mass, and lectures in four pillar content areas (Doctrine, Spirituality, Literature, and Catholic Living).

This year’s theme is "Conversion and Conscience: Freedom, Will, and Truth in the Human Quest for Meaning" and will feature lectures by Dr James Madden, professor of philosophy at Benedictine College, Fr. Thomas Hoisington, priest in residence at St. Mary's Parish in Garden Plain, Fr. Joshua Lollar, priest at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Lawrence, and Stephanie Mann, local author of "Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured the English Reformation."

The life of Christ provides us with a model for obedience: In the person of Jesus, human will was perfectly aligned with divine will. But, with lives filled with distraction and cross-pressures, and minds filled with confusion and doubt, how are we to follow in his example? How can we overcome the dissenting voices around us, and the sinful impulses within us, which tempt us to follow the example of the world, rather than the example of our Lord? Utilizing Christological, philosophical, and historical perspectives, this symposium will provide insights into ways our forebears have pursued authentic human liberty by focusing on the transcendent, even in the midst of persecution.

I'll be talking about "St. Thomas More: Conscience and Martyrdom" and "Blessed John Henry Newman: Conscience and Conversion", on Saturday. At the Thursday evening keynote banquet, I'll give a brief talk on the Pre-Raphaelite painting, "The Awakening Conscience" by William Holman Hunt. More info to come soon.

Newman and the Light of the World

From Three Minutes with Newman. This meditation made me think immediately of The Light of the World by William Holman-Hunt:

He stands at the door and knocks to any who will open to him. But those who open to him, Newman says, have no occasion for boasting. Just as the Jews did not earn God’s grace, neither have the Gentiles after them; and just as the Jews were rejected in rejecting him, so are the Gentiles at similar risk:

And if God cast off His own people, the Jews, so, much more, will He cast off any other people who cast off Him. Hence the same St. Paul says, “If some of the branches (Rom. xi. 17-21) (that is, the Jews) be broken (off), and thou (that is, a man of some other nation) art ingrafted in them (instead), and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree; boast not … Because of unbelief they were broken off; but thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear. For, if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest He spare not thee.”

At this Newman’s meditation takes a personal turn. Immediately he remembers the spiritual heritage of his own country, and moved with pity and regret at her waywardness, writes:

This misery has happened to this country, to our own England; God chose it and blessed it for near a thousand years; it rebelled, lost faith, and He cast it off out of His Church.

As Americans we share his concern for our own country, having also neglected the grace it received at its founding. Newman ends by praying for mercy on his homeland:

“…it was by Thy unmerited grace, we acknowledge it, O Lord, that this country of ours was so many centuries ago brought into the true fold, and gifted with the knowledge of Thy Truth and the grace of Thy Sacraments. Alas! how things have changed since then! The people was small then and of little account; now it stands highest among the nations of the earth. Then it was obscure and poor—now it has amazing wealth and pre-eminent power; but then it was great in Thy sight, and now on the contrary it is little, for it has lost Thee. O my God, what doth it profit, though we gain the whole world and lose our own souls?…O, look not upon our haughtiness and pride; look not upon our contempt of truths invisible; look not upon our impurity; but look upon Thy own merits; look upon the wounds in Thy hands; look upon Thy past mercies towards us; and, in spite of our wilfulness, subdue our hearts to Thee, O Saviour of men, and renew Thy work in the midst of the years, in the amidst of the years re-establish Thou it.

“Subdue our hearts” he prays, because it is in the nature of grace to overwhelm. We need only crack open the door to let our Lord’s love come bounding through. We pray with Newman, subdue our hearts Lord, and the hearts of our neighbors and countrymen, that we would return and abide in you.

More about The Light of the World at Keble College here and at St. Paul's Cathedral here.