Newman on Holy Orders
October 26, 2009, 6:24 am
Posted by Robert P. Imbelli
In the most recent issue of Emmanuel Magazine, the “editorial” includes a quote from Cardinal Newman:
So again, they who enter Holy Orders promise they know not what, engage themselves they know not how deeply, debar themselves of the world’s ways they know not how intimately, find perchance they must cut off from them the right hand, sacrifice the desire of their eyes and the stirrings of their hearts at the foot of the Cross, while they thought, in their simplicity, they were but choosing the quiet easy life of “plain men dwelling in tents.”
The editor, Paul Bernier, SSS, admits he does not have the quote’s original provenance. Can any Newmanians be of assistance in that regard?
Its the sermon on “The Ventures of Faith”, Parochial and Plain Sermons IV, no. 20. Preached on Feb 21, 1836, Newman’s 35th birthday.
Fr. Imbelli,
It’s from Parochial and Plain Sermons, Volume 4, Sermon 20, The Ventures of Faith. 3rd paragraph from the end.
http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume4/sermon20.html
To find the source of quotations, select a significant segment, put it in quotes, and then do a google search for the string.
The method is quick but there’s a cost – you won’t come across serendipitous discoveries while making otherwise fruitless examinations of dusty volumes.
Joseph and Patrick,
Ex aequo (what’s six seconds among friends!)
Patrick, thanks for the tip: you can see that, like Newman (at least in this), I’m still at fountain pen stage.
But I too delight in “serendipitous discoveries.”
“To find the source of quotations, select a significant segment, put it in quotes, and then do a google search for the string.”
… and thus does the magician reveal the pocket concealed inside his sleeve :-)
(I was awed by your Newman scholarship, Patrick, until you punctured the balloon :-). Inasmuch as Fr. O’Leary hasn’t confessed to any technological assistance, I’m still officially in awe of his mastery of the Newman corpus :-). But am completely in agreement with your point about serendipitous discoveries – the things we find while searching for something else.)
It’s a thought-provoking quote. I think the same could be said about those who take marriage vows.
There is a website that has all things Newman, including his complete works (except for the “Letters and Diaries” it seems) and a fine search-engine to his works: http://www.newmanreader.org/
I put that Newman site on my favourites list, to be spared the indignity of googling henceforth!
The quote stuck in my mind since I first read it long ago — it’s a little depressing.
I now see that the post is a (diabolically?) clever way of distracting us from discussing how clerical salaries needed to support the families of Anglican priests make further steps to reunion impossible. Of course, to adopt Newman’s view would be incredibly naive in our sophisticated times.
It’s worth noting that in 1836 Newman was still an Anglican priest. I’m not sure what that says about this particular quotation.
Matt,
What impresses me in reading the “Parochial and Plain Sermons” (all, of course, products of his Anglican days, which he allowed to be re-printed as a Catholic, if I am not mistaken) is Newman’s acute sense of the cost of discipleship.