Three Offices of Christ (Newman) perceptive Newman Reader

Dear William,

Thank you.   

The best Reader and invites me into learn more form John Henry N.

Before that I browsed our library and found the Volume of Subjects of the Day. Not surprising some of the pages relevant had not yet been cut. And the great asset now is to find the Online available Newman Reader. 

At the moment we have family guest at the Retreat House, and later have the lectio divina on JHN to my heart's content! 

www.nunraw.blogspot.co.uk |

domdonald.org.uk 

COMMENT:   

----- Forwarded Message -----

http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/09/
blessed-john-henry-newman-on-conversion/

From: William W ....
To: Fr Donald ...  
Sent: Thursday, 10 January 2013, 14:03
Subject: Re: [Blog] Three Offices of Christ (Newman) 

Dear Father Donald,

 

I always draw something special from Newman's words! In the sermon you have placed on the Blog, the words that fascinated me are those that illustrate so brilliantly Christ's sacrifice on the cross, through the analogy of a soldier. At first I frowned at such an analogy, that is until I read these words: 

 

"2. Take another instance. How much is there to admire and revere in the profession of a soldier.... He not only is strong, but he is weak. He does and he suffers. He succeeds through a risk. Half his time is on the field of battle, and half of it on the bed of pain. And he does this for the sake of others; he defends us by it; we are indebted to him; we gain by his loss; we are at peace by his warfare."

 

Thank you for this gem which I will always remember.

 

With my love in Our Lord,

William

 

PS. Newman's clarity of thought and his writing are so very fine! I would share with you a passage I quoted at the RCIA's introduction to the meaning of life and the existence of God:

 

“I am far of course from denying that every article of the Christian Creed is beset with intellectual difficulties; and it is simple fact, that, for myself, I cannot answer those difficulties. Many persons are very sensitive of the difficulties of Religion; I am as sensitive of them as any one; but I have never been able to see a connexion between apprehending those difficulties, however keenly, and multiplying them to any extent, and on the other hand doubting the doctrines to which they are attached. Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt, as I understand the subject; difficulty and doubt are incommensurate. Of all points of faith, the being of a God is, to my own apprehension, encompassed with most difficulty, and yet borne in upon our minds with most power."

From: Fr Donald <domdonald@sacmus.org>
To: williamwardle2bp@btinternet.com
Sent: Wednesday, 9 January 2013, 21:34

Subject: [Dom Donald's Blog] Christmas Season Day 17 The Three Offices of Christ (Newman) Night Office from the Monastic Lectionary.

Second Reading: From a sermon by Cardinal John Henry Newman
 (Sermons bearing  on the Subject of the Day, Sermon V. “pp.52-62)

Sermon 5. The Three Offices of Christ    

"Full of grace are Thy lips, because God hath blessed Thee for ever. Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou most mighty, according to Thy worship and renown." Ps. xlv. 3, 4.

[Note] {52} OUR Lord is here spoken of in two distinct characters. As a teacher,—"Full of grace are Thy lips;" and as a conqueror,—"Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh;" or, in other words, as a Prophet and as a King. His third special office, which is brought before us prominently at this season, is that of a Priest, in that He offered Himself up to God the Father as a propitiation for our sins. These are the three chief views which are vouchsafed to us of His Mediatorial office; and it is often observed that none before Him has, even in type or resemblance, borne all three characters. Melchizedek, for instance, was a priest and a king, but not a prophet. David was prophet and king, but not a priest. Jeremiah was priest and prophet, but not a king. Christ was Prophet, Priest, and King.

He is spoken of as a prophet by Moses, as a prophet {53} like, but superior, to himself.—"A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear." And Jacob had already described Him as a king, when he said, "Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be." Balaam, too, speaks of Him as a conqueror and great sovereign.—"There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel ... Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion." And David speaks of Him as a priest, but not a priest like Aaron.—"Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek;" that is, a royal priest, which Aaron was not. And again, the very first prophecy of all ran, "He shall bruise thy head (that is, the serpent's), and thou shalt bruise His heel." [Acts vii. 37. Gen. xlix. 10. Numb. xxiv. 17, 19. Ps. cx. 4. Gen. iii. 15.] He was to conquer through suffering.

Christ exercised His prophetical office in teaching, and in foretelling the future;—in His sermon on the Mount, in His parables, in His prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. He performed the priest's service when He died on the Cross, as a sacrifice; and when He consecrated the bread and the cup to be a feast upon that sacrifice; and now that He intercedes for us at the right hand of God. And He showed Himself as a conqueror, and a king, in rising from the dead, in ascending into heaven, in sending down the Spirit of grace, in converting the nations, and in forming His Church to receive and to rule them. ...................

Newman Reader — Works of John Henry Newman
Copyright © 2007 by The National Institute for Newman Studies. All rights reserve  

-- Posted By Fr Donald to Dom Donald's Blog on 1/09/2013 09:34:00 PM