Seeking God with Saint John Henry Newman. Ryan J. Marr

kind of guidance through the memory of their witness. These are almost always saints, holy men and women whose writings have been identified by the Church as theologically sound and devotionally fruitful. Certainly, there is much to be gained by sitting across from a director who can provide a listening ear and immediate feedback. It’s also true, though, that we are unlikely to find a spiritual director who has attained the level of sanctity that was evident in the lives of such figures as Saint Thérèse of Lisieux or Saint Francis de Sales. Ultimately, it’s unnecessary to pit one method against the other. We should all seek out a spiritual director with whom we can meet on a regular basis, while seeking to learn as much as we can from the lives of the saints since we know that they were filled with the Holy Spirit in a profound way.

      The book you hold in your hands is an invitation to receive spiritual direction from one of the towering Catholic intellectuals of the nineteenth century: Saint John Henry Newman. Now, if you are worried that this book is going to be overly intellectual or impractical, I encourage you to stick with me, for Newman was much more than a thinker. He was a man of deep prayer, who exuded personal holiness and had a compassionate, priestly heart for those who came under his pastoral care. Newman’s thirty-one volumes of letters, many of them written to parishioners who sought out his counsel, are a monument to the far-reaching impact of his priestly ministry, and the concerns of this ministry remained always at the forefront of his thoughts. Certainly, Newman’s intellectual gifts were immense, but for him, they mattered only insofar as he was helping others to grow in faith, hope, and love.

      Newman was also one of the finest preachers of his day, and his sermons have produced thousands of conversions, some of these during his lifetime and many more in the intervening years since his death. His body of sermons contains a rich treasure of spiritual insights, and reflection on their content makes up the bulk of this book. A recurring theme in those sermons is the urgency of setting aside our selfish desires in order to do God’s will. In one of his most convicting treatments of this topic, “God’s Will the End of Life,” Newman contrasts what God wills for us with the way the vast majority of people live. He notes that, if you peer into the lives of most modern persons, you will find an underlying lukewarmness when it comes to the things of God. Many of us “do not bargain to be rich or to be great; but we do bargain, whether rich or poor, high or low, to live for ourselves, to live for the lust of the moment, or, according to the doctrine of the hour, thinking of the future and the unseen just as much or as little as we please.”⁴

      Notice, here, that Newman does not focus on grave wrongdoings but highlights a far more common spiritual malaise, that of apathy or lack of attention to spiritual realities. For many of us, our sins will never be the stuff of tell-all biographies. The greater danger, rather, is that we will be lulled to sleep by the comforts of this life, mistaking material comfort for a sign of divine approval and viewing the sacrifices that Christ calls us to make as either unnecessary or, worse, as an intrusion upon the life that “I have made for myself.” Newman says it is a “shocking thought” to consider that “the multitude of men are living without any aim beyond this visible scene.”⁵ From a spiritual vantage point, so many of us are like frogs swimming in a pot of water that is slowly being brought to a boil. Even though our well-being is becoming more precarious by the moment, we fail to recognize it because we have become so accustomed to our surroundings, and we figure that things will always remain just as they are right now. Newman’s writings, if one takes the time to meditate upon them, can serve as a much-needed wake-up call for those of us who might be prone to approaching life on those terms. Saint John Henry Newman has had an enormous impact on my faith, and my goal in these pages is to channel just a fraction of his wisdom for the sake of others who might be looking for a charge to their spiritual lives.

       How to Read This Book

      To get the most out of this book, you will want to maintain as reference points two mottoes that Newman adopted as guiding principles in his life. The first is “Life is for action.” For Newman, this motto was a reminder that to accomplish great things, we sometimes have to venture beyond what we can prove at any given time. Our culture tends to value skepticism. It’s commonly asserted that one should not accept as true what cannot be proven with absolute certainty. Newman, however, recognized that if we waited until every intellectual hurdle was cleared away before we acted, we would never accomplish anything: “Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences,” he wrote; “we shall never have done beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our foundations. … Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for everything, we shall never come to action: to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith.”⁶ Here I must address a possible misunderstanding. When Newman mentions being motivated by faith, he does not have in mind taking a blind leap or acting contrary to reason. Faith is not unreasonable, but neither can it be constrained within the limitations of reason. When it comes to following God’s call, sometimes we are forced to act prior to having all of our difficulties resolved, and then it is only after acting — after practicing obedience — that the reasons of faith begin to make sense to us.

      As Newman says, “Ten thousand difficulties do not [add up to] one doubt.”⁷ Though it’s important to struggle with the difficulties that faith raises for us, they need not, should not, prevent us from acting or cause us to descend into a hopeless state of doubt. Again, life is for action. To accomplish great things, we must make “ventures of faith … [yet] without the absolute certainty of success.”⁸ Newman continues: “This, indeed, is the very meaning of the word ‘venture;’ for that is a strange venture which has nothing in it of fear, risk, danger, anxiety, uncertainty.”⁹ So, as you read this book, if you find yourself struggling with doubts or anxiety, keep in mind Newman’s counsel. Resolve not to allow doubts or fear of failure to prevent you from a venture of faith, “for nothing would be done at all, if [we] waited till [we] could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”¹⁰ Like Abraham, we have to be willing to journey to an unfamiliar place if we are to discover all that God has prepared for us to accomplish. If Newman’s spiritual wisdom is going to bear fruit in your life, you must be willing to act on the convictions that well up within you before you necessarily see the whole picture.

      Another motto that Newman adopted and held dear was “Holiness before peace.” On the surface, this second motto can appear confusing. Are not holiness and peace both vital aspects of life in Christ? Why prioritize one (holiness) over the other (peace)? To understand what Newman had in mind with this motto, we have to grasp precisely how he was using the term “peace.” “Peace” can refer to a fruit of the spirit (see Gal 5:22). This kind of peace is always good and should be pursued by all Christians, regardless of their circumstances. “Have no anxiety about anything,” Paul exhorts the Christians at Philippi, “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6–7). Supernatural peace is promised to us in Scripture, so when this peace is lacking, we should renew our efforts to cast all of our anxiety upon God (see 1 Pt 5:7).

      But there is another way that we use the word “peace,” and that is as “the absence of conflict.” While acknowledging that Christians are called to live at peace with their neighbors, Newman also saw that the desire for peace can sometimes be used as an excuse for avoiding necessary conflict. For example, we may remain quiet about our faith in certain circles because we fear losing friends who do not share our convictions. Or perhaps we cut corners at work and sacrifice our integrity for the sake of keeping a job. In such instances, we are opting for “peace” — the absence of conflict — over holiness.

      Of course, we have to be prudent in deciding when and how to witness to the Gospel. I have met some Christians who assume that they are being persecuted like the prophets just because others happen not to like them.¹¹ This is a mistaken mindset: We shouldn’t go out of our way to step on others’ toes. But we should recognize that being faithful to what God is calling us to will inevitably involve some level of conflict with the power brokers of this world. As Our Lord said to his disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world,