Preview: Henriëtte Bosmans and "Lead, Kindly Light" in 1945

I had never heard of Henriëtte Bosmans until earlier this month! And I certainly did not know that she had composed a work for soprano and either piano or orchestra based on Saint John Henry Newman's poem "Lead, Kindly Light"--and that it had premiered in 1945, thus 80 years ago. With that date, however, I knew this was a topic for our Son Rise Morning Show 2025 Anniversary series. 

Therefore, on Monday, September 22, I'll be on the air at my usual time around 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central to discuss this anniversary and its background. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Bosmans was born in Amsterdam on December 6, 1895 (130 years ago); her father was Catholic and her mother was Jewish--and her father died when she was six months old. It was a musical family as her father had been the principal cellist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and her mother, Sarah Benedicts, was a piano teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

Henriëtte studied piano with her mother and other instructors at the Conservatory and taught piano herself; then she began her concert and composing careers as this website explains:

Bosmans debuted as a concert pianist in 1915 in Utrecht. She performed throughout Europe with among others Pierre Monteux, Willem Mengelberg and Ernest Ansermet. She gave 22 concerts with the Concertgebouw Orchestra alone between 1929 and 1949. She played one of her own compositions at a concert in Geneva in 1929. In 1940, one of her compositions was performed in concert by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, with Ruth Posselt as the soloist. In 1941, Posselt again performed work by Bosmans, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The BBC Music Magazine recounts a terrible event in her life even as she was forbidden from publishing or performing her works because her mother Jewish and because Henriette refused to cooperate with the Nazi cultural authorities in occupied Netherlands:

One day, in a climate of constant threat, the worst happened: Sara was arrested by the Gestapo. Taken to the Westerbork transit camp, the last stop for many before they were deported and murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Sobibor, her fate seemed sealed.

Bosmans went to the Gestapo HQ in Amsterdam to plea for her mother’s life, apparently confronting the officers. She also turned to Willem Mengelberg, conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, to ask his help. Astonishingly, five days after arriving at Westerbork, Sara was freed and sent back to Amsterdam.

The same article explains how she turned from composing for the piano, cello, and other stringed instruments after the end of World War II and to composing for the voice, including Newman's "Lead, Kindly Light":

Her creative spirit was rekindled by the end of the war. ‘Oppression is crushed and freedom begins,’ cries her liberation song Daar Komen de Canadezen (Here come the Canadians). She dedicated both this and Gebed (Prayer) to Jo Vincent, a famous Dutch soprano who had appeared at the Proms [in England]. In 1945, Vincent appeared in Amsterdam with the Concertgebouw and Sir Adrian Boult to sing Lead, kindly light, Bosmans’s setting of a hopeful English text by Cardinal Newman.

The date of that concert was November 3, 1945, just six months after the liberation of The Netherlands on May 5 when the Germans officially surrendered at the demand of the Royal Canadian Regiment (thus the song about the Canadians coming!). 

Unlike the hymn settings by John Bacchus Dykes (Lux Benigna), William Henry Harris (Alberta), David Evans (Bonifacio), Charles H. Purday (Sandon), or Arthur Sullivan (Lux in Tenebris), this is a work for a professional vocalist with either orchestral or piano accompaniment. The piano score is marked throughout as "Adagio sostenuto" for the keyboard and either "piu tranquillo" or "poco animato" for the soprano soloist, so it is delicate and subdued, in spite of its hopeful ending.

Henriëtte died on July 2, 1952. May she rest in the peace of that Kindly Light.

Saint John Henry, pray for us!

Image Source (Public Domain): Photograph of Henriëtte Bosmans (1917) by Jacob Merkelbach (1877-1942)

Book Review: Lead Kindly Light: Essays for Ian Ker

One thing reading this book has done is help me decide what to read next. While I'll continue to dip in to read a chapter from Mary Katherine Tillman's John Henry Newman: Man of Letters, after reading the penultimate essay in this book New Years Eve, Stephen Morgan's "The Combat of Truth and Error: Newman and Chesterton on Heresy", I know I'll pick up Matthew Levering's Newman on Doctrinal Corruption next.

I have too many stars beside the 18 essays and articles in Lead Kindly Light to discuss them all. Of course, I appreciated the three biographical offerings in the first section, "Along the Way of Life: Reminiscences", especially Bishop James Conley's, since he was our pastor at both the Newman Center at WSU and at Blessed Sacrament.

Of "The Trinity of Cardinals", I enjoyed hearing the "voice" of Cardinal Pell so clearly in his contribution, adapted from his Saint Thomas More Lecture in Oxford in November of 2021.

All four essays in the "Some Devotional Theology" section were excellent: Father Geissler, FSO on Newman's appreciation of the great charisms of Saint Paul, Father Beaumont, CO, on Newman's patron as an Oratorian, St. Philip Neri; Sister Dietz, FSO (another Newman scholar Bishop Conley brought to Wichita, and who returned to give a Newman Lecture at Newman University several years later; she also met me, my late husband Mark and the late Father William Carr at one of the fountains on St. Peters's Square in 2002 to lead us to the bus for a visit to the Newman Centre of the Spiritual Family the Work in Rome!!) on Newman's growth in belief and devotion to the Holy Eucharist; and Father Jones, OP, tracing Newman's exploration of Mary, the Mother of God, as the New Eve.

In the "Man of Letters" section, the only essay I thought lacked a certain focus was Father James Reidy's on Newman and Henry James, explaining how both Newman and James were ambivalent about the virtues of the "gentleman" and how a gentleman practices those virtues with all their limitations. I was already familiar with Edward Short's works on Newman and Gibbon from other sources (Newman and History, for example). Andrew Nash corrects another canard about Newman that it was only once Newman became a Catholic that he wielded the weapon of satire with his pen. And, speaking of satire, Serenhedd James surveys how the magazine Punch treated Newman through the years.

Both articles in the "Contributions to the Academy" section (Andrew Meszaros on "A Philosophical Habit of Mind: Newman and the University" and Paul Shrimpton on "Newman and the Idea of a Tutor") helped me understand Newman's Idea of a University and his vision for a university tutor better. I think too often Newman's famous vision of a university is taken merely as a plea for a "liberal arts education", but Meszaros reminded me that an important part of Newman's work is to form a habit of mind and an ability to think about issues clearly. Meszaros' seven principles on which to found a philosophical habit of mind are very helpful. For examples, the first three:

1. Reality is intelligible.

2. The intellect is made for reality and capable of knowledge of the whole.

3. Truth does not contradict truth. (see pages 258-259

Paul Shrimpton's essays reveals how Newman wanted a tutor--at both Oriel in Oxford and the Catholic University in Dublin--to guide his students individually in their studies, helping each student in the way the particular student needed; more guidance for slower students, teaching them how to study, hear lectures, read and write academically, etc., while more adept students needed encouragement in other ways. Perhaps they needed help to avoid what Newman even had to repent of, valuing intellectual excellence above all else, even moral excellence and growth.

I've already mentioned how Stephen Morgan's essay encouraged me to pick Levering's book next--for certainly "doctrinal corruptions" are a form of heresy, are they not?--but the late Father Dermot Fenlon's bracing "De-Christianizing England: Newman, Mill, and the Stationary State" is also a great reminder of how Newman's lifelong battle against liberalism, which always becomes a form of tyranny even as it pretends to toleration and diversity, offers us a guide in our century for remaining true to nature, reality, and the Catholic Faith which helps us understand them. I only regret that my decision to read Levering's book next puts off my reading of Fenlon on Cardinal Pole. But I've already moved my Newman holy card/bookmark to the next book; the die is cast!

Highly recommended as both a tribute to Father Ian Ker, may he rest in peace, and Saint John Henry Newman, may he pray for us! 

Please note that I purchased this book at Eighth Day Books.

130 Years Ago Today: Saint John Henry Newman

Saint John Henry Newman died on August 11, 1890.

Note, however, that his feast is celebrated on October 9, the anniversary of his coming in to the one fold of Christ. The great follower of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Clare of Assisi is celebrated on August 11 and she is a very popular saint! Since his canonization last year the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has not added his feast as an optional memorial to the Liturgical/Sanctoral Calendar (Saint Denis, Bishop, and Companions, Martyrs and Saint John Leonardi, Priest are currently the optional memorials to the Weekday this year).

Newman had been in failing health since the end of 1889; he was nearly blind (having memorized two votive Masses so he could offer Mass privately) and had indeed said Mass the last time on Christmas day that year. Unable to read the Breviary, he prayed the Rosary unless another Oratorian read the Office to/with him.

Two days before Newman died his niece Grace Longford, the only child of his estranged sister Harriett visited him. Newman had not seen her since she was three years old, because Harriet had cut off all contact with him after he became a Catholic on October 9, 1845. 

Adds a certain human poignancy to his feast day, doesn't it? reminding us of all he sacrificed for the truth: Friends, family, reputation, livelihood, and home.

The Newman Reader offers a collection of contemporary press comments on Newman's death. One highlight is from the The Times of London:

A great man has passed away; a great link with the with past has been broken. Thus enviably closes a most noteworthy life; a life that in itself sums up in the best and most attractive way one side of the religious life of the century. At ninety years of age, full of years, full of honour, but not of honours, in the obscurity of his almost private home, the great man receives the last summons and quietly obeys. A most interesting chapter of our history closes his death, and a life which bears strange testimony to the permanence of certain types in human nature becomes a part of the past. Once more the world is reminded of the degree in which respect and love still attach to the saintly life, when it is coupled with one or another kind of intellectual leadership. Cardinal NEWMAN is literally the last of his generation. Many of his old friends and colleagues he has long survived; others have but lately passed away; but he, to all appearance the most fragile of all, has remained till now. . . .

The writer of this meditation on Newman's life and death was not only thinking of the past--he was looking to the future! And we are fortunate to know the answer: Yes!

Will NEWMAN'S memory survive in the estimation of his country? Will his books maintain it? That is a question which may be asked today, but which the future only can answer. Of one thing we may be sure, that the memory of his pure and noble life, untouched by worldliness, unsoured by any trace of fanaticism, will endure, and that whether Rome canonizes him or not he will be canonized in the thoughts of pious people of many creeds in England. The saint and the poet in him will survive. "Lead, kindly Light," is already something better than a classic; the life at Littlemore and at Edgbaston will engrave itself deep into the memory of all to whom religion and lofty human character are dear.

Several other press notices mentioned "Lead, kindly Light" in their praise of Newman's legacy:

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on;
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on;
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.

So long Thy pow’r has blest me, sure it still
Wilt lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Speaking of poetry, the Pre-Raphaelite poet Christina Rossetti wrote a sonnet titled Cardinal Newman on the occasion of his death:

"In the grave, whither thou goest."

O weary Champion of the Cross, lie still:
  Sleep thou at length the all-embracing sleep:
  Long was thy sowing day, rest now and reap:
Thy fast was long, feast now thy spirit's fill.
Yea, take thy fill of love, because thy will
  Chose love not in the shallows but the deep:
  Thy tides were springtides, set against the neap
Of calmer souls: thy flood rebuked their rill.
Now night has come to thee--please God, of rest:
  So some time must it come to every man;
  To first and last, where many last are first.
Now fixed and finished thine eternal plan,
  Thy best has done its best, thy worst its worst:
Thy best its best, please God, thy best its best.

Thirty years ago, Pope St. John Paul II wrote an official letter to the Archbishop of Birmingham, Maurice Couve de Murville, remarking on the centenary of Newman's death:

At the approach of the first Centenary of the death of John Henry Newman and in response to your kind invitation, I gladly associate myself with the celebrations that mark this event in England and indeed in many countries throughout the world. The memory of the great Cardinal’s noble life and his copious writings seem to touch the minds and hearts of many people today with a freshness and relevance that has scarcely faded with the passing of a century.

The Centenary year coincides with the beginning of a period of profound change in world events. This period has begun with new prospects for genuine freedom and signs of a renewed awareness of the need to build life, both individual and social, on the solid foundation of unfailing respect for the human person and his inalienable God-given dignity. To all searching minds in this present historical context, Newman’s voice speaks with a timely message.

Newman’s long life shows him to have been an ardent disciple of truth. The unfolding of his career confirms the single-heartedness of his aims as expressed in the following words which he made his own: "My desire hath been to have Truth for my chiefest friend, and no enemy but error" (J. H. Newman The Via Media, London 1911, vol. 1, pp. XII-XIII). In periods of trial and suffering he persevered with confidence, knowing that time was on the side of truth.

Newman’s quest for the truth led him to search for a voice that would speak to him the authority of the living Christ. His example holds a lasting appeal for all sincere scholars and disciples of truth. He urges them to keep asking the deeper, more basic questions about the meaning of life and of all human history; not to be content with a partial response to the great mystery that is man himself; to have the intellectual honesty and moral courage to accept the light of truth, no matter what personal sacrifice it may involve. Above all, Newman is a magnificent guide for all those who perceive that the key, the focal point and the goal of all human history is to be found in Christ (Cfr. Gaudium et Spes, 10) and in union with him in that community of faith, hope and charity, which is his holy Church, through which he communicates truth and grace to all (Cfr. Lumen Gentium, 8).

That same year, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger made a presentation in Rome commenting on Newman's influence in his life and especially on Newman's presentation of conscience and authority:

Newman had become a convert as a man of conscience; it was his conscience that led him out of the old ties and securities into the world of Catholicism, which was difficult and strange for him. But this way of conscience is everything except a way of self-sufficient subjectivity: it is a way of obedience to objective truth.

The second step in Newman's lifelong journey of conversion was overcoming the subjective evangelical position in favour of an understanding of Christendom based on the objectivity of dogma. In this connection I find a formulation from one of his early sermons to be especially significant today:

"True Christendom is shown... in obedience and not through a state of consciousness. Thus, the whole duty and work of a Christian is made up of these two parts, Faith and Obedience; "looking unto Jesus' (Heb 2: 9)... and acting according to His will.... I conceive that we are in danger, in this day, of insisting on neither of these as we ought; regarding all true and careful consideration of the Object of faith as barren orthodoxy, technical subtlety... and... making the test of our being religious to consist in our having what is called a spiritual state of heart...".

In this context some sentences from The Arians of the Fourth Century, which may sound rather astonishing at first, seem important to me: "...to detect and to approve the principle on which... peace is grounded in Scripture; to submit to the dictation of truth, as such, as a primary authority in matters of political and private conduct; to understand... zeal to be prior in the succession of Christian graces to benevolence".

Throughout the last day of his 2010 visit to Scotland and England (September 19), Pope Benedict XVI commented on various aspects of Newman's life during the Beatification Mass and at each of the concluding events.

Saint John Henry Newman, pray for us!

From the propers for his feast in the Catholic Dioceses of England and Wales on October 9:

O God, who bestowed on the Priest Blessed John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fulness of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

At Sea, June 16, 1833: "The Pillar of the Cloud"

LEAD, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom          
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—          
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor pray'd that Thou          
Shouldst lead me on.
I loved to choose and see my path, but now          
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still          
Will lead me on,
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till          
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

John Henry Newman wrote these words as he headed home from his sojourn in Sicily, after enduring a dangerous fever. Fr. Juan R. Velez writes about Newman's poetry in general and specifically about the poetry he wrote during his Mediterranean trip with the Froudes and to Sicily.

Newman at Grandpont House in Oxford

I met with a rep from Scepter Publishers a couple of weeks ago and he gave me a copy of a book of essays published by Grandpont House in Oxford (England). John Powers asked me to read and review it. The essays were published after a series of presentations on John Henry Newman leading up to his beatification by Pope Benedict XVI in September 2010: Grandpont Papers 2: The Legacy of John Henry Newman: Essays for the Beatification.

Before I write more about the volume, let me introduce you to Grandpont House and give some more background on the presentations:

According to its website--source of the photo above--"Grandpont House is a late-Georgian building constructed over a branch of the Thames, overlooking Christ Church Meadows in central Oxford. Since 1959 it has acted as a venue for academic, cultural, outreach and religious activities for students and others. Like many other such university centres throughout the world, its establishment was inspired by St Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei."

The centre just completed a series of lectures on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien during Hilary term and Trinity term, which included presentations by Walter Hooper and Stratford Caldecott--"To mark the anniversaries of Lewis and Tolkien – fifty and forty years ago respectively – six seminars will take place at Grandpont House with a view to exploring different aspects of the two scholar-writers. These seminars are not primarily intended for English literature specialists, but aim to engage a general public who are interested in a whole range of topics from ecology to political systems, story-telling to film, philosophy to theology. Each speaker will talk for around 45 minutes, followed by discussion and dialogue—and if something of the convivial atmosphere of the Inklings is rekindled, so much the better." I hope I can get a review copy of those lectures too!

The seminars adapted for the Grandpont Papers took place in May, June, and July of 2010, and this bulletin from Opus Dei gives us details about the speakers and their topics:

In the months leading up to the beatification of John Henry Newman (held in Birmingham, on September 19), Grandpont House university residence organized a cycle of seminars on the writings of the English cardinal. The sessions were directed to the university population of Oxford who wanted to learn more about Newman’s thought.

The first seminar, entitled “Newman and the Laity,” was held on May 22. Msgr. Richard Stork spoke about Newman’s vision of the role of the laity in the Church and in society. Professor Paul Shrimpton then discussed Newman’s ideas on the formation of the laity. He put special emphasis on approach taken at the “Catholic University” that Newman founded in 1854, and at the “Oratory School,” also founded by Newman in 1859.

The sessions on Saturday, June 19, centered on “Newman and Humanism.” Rev. James Pereiro spoke about reason and faith in the Cardinal’s thought and the influence of Aristotle’s ethics. Professor Shrimpton looked at Newman’s vision for the university. Following the thought of the new Blessed, he said that the university should be aimed not a imparting a specific body of knowledge, but rather at the development of a balanced and mature human personality.

The last of the seminars, on “Newman and Conscience,” took place on Saturday, July 17. The first speaker, Fr. Peter Bristow, said that one of Newman’s principal contributions to religious thought was the emphasis placed on the role of conscience in Christian life. This is a recurrent theme in his works and letters, especially in his well-known “Letter to the Duke of Norfolk.” The concluding session was given by the spokesman for Newman’s beatification, Jack Valero, who talked about “Newman and Communication.” Valero highlighted the influence of Newman’s writings on the young Joseph Ratzinger, and on the German student Sophie Scholl and other members of the “White Rose” student movement, some of whom lost their life in opposing Nazism.

Those are three great Newmanian topics: the Laity, Humanism (reason and education), and Conscience! The volume concludes with a reprint of Pope Benedict XVI's Homily at the Beatification of John Henry Newman in September 2010. The other contents are:

Introduction by James Mirabel, Director of Grandpont House

Newman's Idea of the Laity by Monsignor Richard Stork

Newman and the Formation of the Laity by Dr. Paul Shrimpton

"Lead Kindly Light": Reason and Faith by Father James Pereiro

Newman's Pastoral Idea of A University by Dr. Paul Shrimpton

Newman's Teaching on Conscience by Father Peter Bristow

Communicating Newman in the Media by Jack Valero

I'm familiar with the content of most of these essays, of course; Monsignor Stork creatively uses three of Newman's marks of true development to survey Newman's passion and concern for the formation of a laity "who know their religion, who enter into it, who know just where they stand, who know what they hold and what they do not, who know their creed so well that they can give an account of it, who know so much of history that they can defend it. . . . an intelligent, well-instructed laity".  I particularly appreciated Professor Paul Shrimpton's analysis of Newman's Idea of of A University because of the focus in his first essay on how Newman wanted the Irish University and the Oratory School to help form the laity for their proper roles in society. Shrimpton addresses Newman's efforts to establish a community of learning and formation; his balance of the instruction and formation students would receive--lectures and tutoring; instruction and counselling; order and recreation--Newman had a definite vision. Unfortunately, the bishops in Ireland began to see the need for a seminary, not a college, and Newman's idea of a university was never completely implemented.

Thinking of Newman as an Aristotelian was a bit of a stunner, but Father James Periero also references Bishop Butler's Analogies, which was more familiar to me. Newman's teaching on conscience is very familiar to me, and Father Bristow really brings out that both the Popes and Newman knew what conscience really meant. Newman had to defend true conscience against even Gladstone's misunderstanding of Pope Pius IX's anathema against "so-called freedom of conscience." That form of freedom of conscience, not the classic Catholic sense, was mere self-will. The final essay just demonstrates how hard it is to portray a Victorian saint in the modern media--Mr. Valero covers several "controversies" in the mix of stories about Newman from his sexuality to his teaching on conscience.

This is a very successful volume of essays, delivered in the place on earth Newman loved the best, where he hoped to be like snapdragon, forever growing on the walls--and in a way he is, now more than ever.

To get your own copy, please check with the Grandpont website on the Library tab--again, I hope Grandpont Papers 3 or 4 is the collection of essays on Lewis and Tolkien. (Images from the website used by permission.)

Happy Birthday to Blessed John Henry Newman

In honor of Blessed John Henry Newman's birthday on February 21, 1801, here is a great video from Corpus Christi Watershed, produced for his beatification by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. I think this is the best melody and arrangement of "Lead, Kindly Light" (aka "The Pillar of the Cloud") that I have ever heard--it brings out the drama and the crucible of conversion. The composer's name is Kevin Allen.

Corpus Christi Watershed produced more videos before Newman's beatification, working with the Birmingham Oratory:

Newman Archivium Project
St. Philip Shrine Chapel
The Cardinal’s Personal Chapel
The Oratory Church and Prayer
Birmingham Oratory Church
Cardinal Newman’s Library
The Oratory Library and Learning
The Cardinal’s Room
Cardinal Newman Portrait Restoration
The Oratory Clock
The Cardinal’s Effects
Rednal • A Silent Film