SPIRITUAL JOURNEY OF NEWMAN, THE

In the spring of 1864, a series of articles signed with the illustrious but almost forgotten name of John Henry Newman appeared in the London Press. Thus a masterpiece of religious autobiography, the Apologia Pro Vita Sua, was born. Anglicans and Catholics alike suddenly realized that they had interred too quickly this genius and convert of Oxford. Bypassing polemics, Newman spoke in this work of his spiritual journey. Today, thanks to his intimate journals, letters, and unpublished papers, we have access to the prayer-centered spirituality which sustained him and can only be called “Newmanian.” But his thought and prayer can be mastered only within the context of his personal history and such a history is incomprehensible if we look only at the surface of events. It is their interior mystery which reveals their significance. Even had Newman been the only one to really understand this mystery, assuredly Archbishop Honoré has revealed it to us here in all its originality. Newman was a master of the interior life and no one, since Augustine, has expressed the truth about his own personal relationship with God with greater joy, nor has anyone since Francis de Sales witnessed to the demands of spiritual abandonment with greater love.

About the Author: Jean Honoré, Archbishop of Tours and a member of the Committee which prepared the Catechism of the Catholic Church, completed his studies at the Institut Catholique de Paris and was awarded a doctorate in Theology. He has published several highly acclaimed works on Newman.