These words come from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's homily at Cofton Park when the then-Holy Father declared Newman 'Blessed'.

In this podcast, he examines John Henry Newman's teaching on Divine Providence and Human Agency.

This reflection for our 'Journeying with Newman' series was given in French and translated into English.

Dr. Andrew Meszaros is a lecturer in Systematic Theology at Ireland’s Pontifical University, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. His focus falls today on Newman's Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.

"The power of Newman’s prose comes, in part, from the cumulative weight that accrues from all his examples of how the various elements of the Christian tradition all stand and fall together… Newman reminds us that to pick one aspect of Christianity, and reject another is tantamount to a false Christianity.

"And conversely, we should remember that all that we believe and do as Catholics is in some way related to the core of our faith. Nothing authentically Catholic is insignificant."

"[The Church] is glorious in her cherishing of truth: we cannot, we must not, ever allow ourselves to do less than honour her. Her story is a great one. Saints and martyrs, heroes and heroines, great missionary endeavours, glorious art and music, the foundations of modern sciences and of the great universities… and much, much more.

"We cannot, we must not, dismiss or ignore all of this, muddled though it all is – and muddied too by cruelty and injustice, by human sin and error.

"In John Henry Newman, we find a passion for truth that we should follow. It is his greatest single gift to us."

Fr Morrone looks at the famous “Biglietto” Speech John Henry Newman gave in Rome when he learned he was to be elevated to the rank of Cardinal.

"Newman reminds us that if we deny truth, faith is reduced to a private sentiment, or to a fundamentalist vision without relevance - ineffectual for our societies.

"Consequently, life choices run the risk of being determined by the tastes and modes of public opinion, governed in turn by her ever-changing masters."

Elizabeth is looking at Sermon 16 of Cardinal Newman's Parochial and Plain Sermons. It examines 'The Church Visible and Invisible'.

"Newman emphasised throughout his writings that the church is comprised of both of our Earthly Church - made up of the Magisterium, the laity - and what Newman calls the Schola Theologorum - which is best described as theologians throughout history who helped to investigate and interpret divine revelation.

"The church is comprised of both living sinners and saints, those in purgatory, and those already blessed with the beatific vision - the saints. So often we think of our reality as what we experience through our senses, however, our actual experience of the Church goes much deeper. As Newman reminds us, we are in communion with the saints whose experience of God helps to reveal God's love to us today.

"Newman's words are encouraging to me because they act as a constant reminder that the Trinitarian God is always present and active in the church through the continuously invigorating words of the saints."

Saint Philip Neri, founder of the Oratory, was the saint who kept a jokebook close at hand to soothe his spiritual ecstasies; who shaved off half his beard and went around Rome to make a fool of himself; who refused to be made a cardinal, but kept the red hat he was sent and used it for practical jokes. Yet John Henry Newman himself was no stranger to humour:

"In Saint Philip and in Newman, this humour was one of the sweetest fruits of humility: a sense of lowness, as sinners, but sinners who have been redeemed, and who now have a joyful trust in God. We see this most clearly as Newman reflects upon his old age. He variously describes himself as an old ‘cart-horse’ or as a ‘musical snuff box’, ‘a very little rheumatic and a little lame’, ‘a bird with clipped wings’. But this would not trouble him, he said, ‘if I don’t aspire to long or high flight’."

Covering the Catholic Church as a journalist - working at the heart of Mother Church in Rome - Chris has the gruelling and often thankless task of finding the facts behind the stories and presenting Vatican news clearly and honestly.

John Henry Newman knew God has a specific plan for all of us, but how can we put our best foot forward in our mission?

"In good times and in bad, the answer is right before us. 'Lead, kindly light,' Newman famously prayed – and the light that leads us never fails, though often it shows us the way mere inches at a time.

"Newman was no stranger to controversy, nor to trial and even great desolation. The Church of his day was not less plagued with faithlessness than is our own...

"...The great thing, in times like these, is to look to the little things: Confident in Christ’s final victory over death, secure in the knowledge that His Church shall triumph, we plug away."

When we talk about Newman and Ireland, we usually dwell on his time in Dublin when he worked to establish a Catholic University there. While the university didn’t succeed quite as Newman had wished, the discourses which Newman gave during this time, and which were later collected together as The Idea of the University, have proved seminal.

Fr Francis reflects on Newman's time in Ireland and, interestingly, the impact his Irish sojourn had on him as a man, and how he slowly revised his opinion and understanding of Ireland and its people. 

"As a native Dubliner it is with no small pleasure that I announce that if you wish to see a church which Newman built you will have to cross the Irish Sea and visit the University Church on St. Stephen’s Green. This is a hidden gem built by John Hungerford Pollen according to the wishes of Newman, who was then Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland. "