Blessed John Henry Newman and the Liturgy

In our continuing series preparing for the canonization of Blessed John Henry Newman, Matt Swaim (I presume) and I will talk about Newman and the Liturgy this morning around 7:50 Eastern DST/6:50 Central DST on the Son Rise Morning Show.

Newman and the Oratorians made several contributions to the revived liturgical life of Catholics in 19th century England and the Oratorians in Birmingham, London, Oxford, etc, continue those traditions today:

After becoming a Catholic, Newman soon went to Rome for education and ordination as a Catholic priest, returning to England to establish St. Philip Neri’s Oratory in Birmingham and in London--and hoping for one in Oxford. While the Church of England had experienced many changes and controversies in liturgical practice since its founding in the sixteenth century, Catholics had not been able to practice their faith or worship freely from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I until Emancipation in 1829.

The Catholic Mass had been illegal; it was a felony to attend Mass; it was an act of treason for a Catholic priest to be in England and a felony for a layman or woman to assist a Catholic priest in any way—there are more than a hundred canonized or beatified martyrs to testify to the dangers of being a Catholic in England from 1559 to 1829. With the re-establishment of the hierarchy in England in 1850, Catholics began building cathedrals, churches and chapels and worshipping freely again.

Newman’s Oratories contributed to this renewal of Catholicism in England—in both London and Birmingham they began the tradition of sung High Mass on Sunday with excellent choirs and musicians and of sung Vespers on Sunday evenings—traditions that are observed now also at the Oxford Oratory. Newman favored classical styles of architecture and music. In this he stands in opposition to one of the great architects of the nineteenth century, Augustus Welby Pugin who favored, nay required, the Gothic style of architecture and Gregorian chant.

Newman believed that the classical (or Byzantine revival) style of building for a church was more appropriate for the preaching of the Gospel and line of sight for the congregation to the Altar and the Tabernacle. The oratory churches of London and Birmingham are both in the Baroque style but were built after Newman’s death (the Birmingham Oratory is called the Little Rome)—but in the church for the Catholic University in Dublin, Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, we can see what Newman desired in church architecture—the church is in the basilica style and was designed under Newman’s direction by John Hungerford Pollen, Senior. (Image Credit) 

Notice that the line of sight to the Altar and the Tabernacle are clear and direct; the pulpit is placed above the congregation for ease of sight and hearing.

He favored the Mass settings written by Mozart, Haydn, Cherubini, Hummel, and his favorite Beethoven—we should remember that Newman was a talented musician himself, playing the violin. Of course, this was before Pope St. Pius X revived Gregorian chant and polyphony in Tra le sollecitudini.

Newman and his fellow Oratorians, particularly Edward Caswall and Frederick Faber, wrote and translated hymns for congregational singing. We sing Faber’s “Faith of Our Fathers” and “There’s Wideness in God’s Mercy”, while Edward Caswall’s translations of St. Thomas Aquinas’ O Salutoris Hostia and Tantum Ergo are often used today at Benediction and Caswall’s translation of the Stabat Mater is sung at Stations of the Cross. . . .From Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius, two great hymns are excerpted: “Praise to the Holiest in the Height” and “Firmly I Believe and Truly”. He translated many of the hymns of the Roman Breviary for congregational singing (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers).

Toward the end of his life, Newman started losing his eyesight and in preparation for not being able to read the words of the Mass, he memorized two votive Masses (the antiphons, collects, prayers, and readings in addition to the Ordinary of the Mass); he celebrated Mass for the last time on Christmas Day, 1889. Instead of reading the Breviary, he prayed the Rosary.

As a preacher in the Church of England, he was famous for the quiet power of presentation, without any rhetorical flourish or emphasis, beyond the pause. Father John McCloskey describes his written Anglican sermons as meditations for a retreat—and he wrote 1,000 of them during those 20 years.

Newman changed his method of delivering homilies as a Catholic priest: instead of written sermons to be read, he prepared notes for more extemporaneous homilies (the Brothers of the Oratory published his sermon notes after his death).

What Newman found in the Catholic Church, the one true fold of Christ, as he called her after his conversion, was the fullness of what he and his Oxford Movement companions had sought to establish in the Church of England. What he had to defend—the ritual form of public worship, and the liturgical and sanctoral year, etc—before, Newman could celebrate fully now. . . .

Next Monday, the Monday of Holy Week, we'll discuss one of Newman's great Parochial and Plain Sermons, in which he urged his congregation "to raise [their] hearts to Christ, and to have keen feelings and piercing thoughts of sorrow and shame, of compunction and of gratitude, of love and tender affection and horror and anguish, at the review of those awful sufferings whereby our salvation has been purchased."