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Radio 4 opening announcement:

Opening Announcement

Time now on 大象传媒 Radio 4 for Sunday Worship which comes from the Birmingham Oratory to mark the canonisation of Cardinal John Henry Newman in Rome later this morning.
The homily is given preached by the Provost, Father Ignatius Harrison, who also gives the welcome.

Fr Ignatius Harrison:
Welcome to the Birmingham Oratory in the heart of leafy Edgbaston.
We鈥檙e a Roman Catholic community of priests and brothers in the Archdiocese of Birmingham.听
This Cardinal Newman Memorial Church is named after its founder, who today will be canonised and made a Saint.
By the time you hear this service most of the priests and brothers taking part will be in Rome, gathered with many from around the world in St Peter鈥檚 Square marking this momentous event that we have been anticipating for many years.听
In this service we will celebrate the life and legacy of John Henry Neman. As well as being a theologian, writer, educator and priest, he was also a poet, and our first hymn is part of his best-known and much celebrated portrayal of the soul making its journey to heaven, 鈥楾he Dream of Gerontius鈥� 鈥� 鈥楩irmly I believe and truly鈥�.

HYMN: Firmly I believe and truly (Shipston)听
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1 Firmly I believe and truly
God is Three and God is One;
and I next acknowledge duly
manhood taken by the Son.

2 And I trust and hope most fully
in that manhood crucified;
and each thought and deed unruly
do to death, as he has died.

3 Simply to his grace and wholly
light and life and strength belong,
and I love supremely, solely,
him the holy, him the strong.

4 And I hold in veneration,
for the love of him alone,
Holy Church as his creation,
and her teachings as his own.

5 Adoration ay be given,
with and through the angelic host,
to the God of earth and heaven,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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Father Ignatius:
Hail, Saint John Henry, kindly light pursuing
Out of all shadows, into truth's clear shining,
Faith without doubting, in the one fold only,
Of the Redeemer.
ALL: AMEN

Since his beatification in 2010, two miracles have been attributed to him, thus leading to his canonisation by Pope Francis.
Father Dominic Edwards will now talk more about the eventful life of Newman, which set in motion the events today.

Fr Dominic Edwards:
Here at the Oratory we are deeply aware of the legacy of Cardinal Newman. Born in 1801, he was a significant figure in 19th Century England, having been a high profile Anglican priest and leader of the Oxford Movement, which argued for many of the traditions of Catholicism to be returned to the Church of England.
Having decided to convert to Catholicism in 1845, he was sent to Rome, and discovered the model of community life pursued by the Oratorian sons of the 16th century St. Philip Neri. Newman was quickly ordained into the Catholic Church and on returning to Birmingham in 1848, founded this Oratory, the first in the UK, followed by London鈥檚 Brompton Oratory.
He was also dedicated to education and founded Ireland鈥檚 first Catholic University in Dublin.
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Newman continued to be a prolific writer and educator throughout his life but also dedicated much of his time to helping the local community.
John Henry Newman was made cardinal in 1879. He was much loved. When he died aged 89 more than 15,000 people lined the streets of Birmingham for his funeral.

Brother David Sprong will now read from one of Newman鈥檚 theological writings鈥�A Meditation on Trust in God.

Brother David Sprong:
God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.
Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.
If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain.
He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me.
Still, He knows what He is about.

Fr Dominic Edwards:
Music was and is still to this day an extremely important part of the worship at the Oratory. St Philip Neri was a great believer in the power of sacred music and John Henry Newman had a real interest and aptitude for music too.
People linked to the Cardinal such as Father Anthony Pollen or H B Collins, Choir Master听 at the Birmingham Oratory from 1915, were great practitioners of Renaissance music and contributed to the recovery of this style when other churches were mainly performing music from the 19th century.
Renaissance music has become a great part of the Birmingham Oratory's repertoire following Newman鈥檚 principals that liturgical music should be warm, spiritual and full of devotion. The two Renaissance pieces the choir will sing this morning, either side of a reading from John鈥檚 Gospel, are both settings from Song of songs, echoing the Oratorian devotion to God.
Newman would have known of Saint Philip Neri's patronage with the likes of Palestrina and Victoria, who themselves were aware of the Oratorian's interest in, and love, of the biblical text of Song of Songs, which was seen as an allegory of Christ鈥檚 love for the Church.
We will hear the choir sing Victoria鈥檚 Vidi Speciosam 鈥� 鈥淚 saw the fair one rising like a dove above the streams of water:鈥�, after which Brother David will read a passage from St John's Gospel.

CHORAL MOTET:听 Victoria - Vidi Speciosam Prima Pars
READING - Brother David Sprong:

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John.[Jn.15: 9-17]
Jesus said to His disciples: as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father鈥檚 commandments and abide in his love.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. This I command you, to love one another.听

CHORAL MOTET: Clemens - Ego flos campi

HOMILY 鈥� Father Ignatius Harrison
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit...

John Henry Newman is one of those people who had so many gifts and talents that it鈥檚 difficult to know where to begin.
Intellectually, he was a high-flyer, although that never got in the way of his pastoral care for the poor, the sick and the marginalised, to whom he devoted many hours of service, both as an Anglican and as a Catholic.
His theological legacy continues to inspire the Church. But it is perhaps on a more day-to-day level that most of us find him more accessible.
Newman was serene and measured in his speech, but certainly not cold-hearted.
In fact, he was a man of strong feelings. One of his spiritual achievements was the integration within himself of his love for God and his love of neighbour.
Newman loved God with the same heart and mind with which he also loved his fellow creatures.
His lifelong commitment to celibacy and chastity enriched his capacity for deep friendship with others, women and men.
His warm-heartedness is charmingly revealed in the attentive and affectionate letters he wrote to his closer friends.

In our world today, when genuine friendship can be hard to come by, Newman reminds us that human love at its best is a pointer towards that supreme love to which we are all called, whatever our state in life. That supreme love is our personal love for our Creator and Saviour. John Henry鈥檚 human affections were an integral part of his spiritual journey. His friendships brought him closer to God.

One of his many insights, perhaps even more useful to us in the future than when he was writing in the nineteenth century, was this: that all truth, including religious Truth and scientific truth, has but one single divine origin, the mind of God Himself.
Newman insisted that there need never be any conflict between the claims of Faith and the discoveries of science.
This was reflected in his ideas about university education, which at the time some people thought were dangerously liberal.
He wrote the following: 鈥楴arrow minds have no power of throwing themselves into the minds of others. They have stiffened in one position, as limbs of the body subjected to confinement, or as our organs of speech, which after a while cannot learn new tones and inflections.鈥�
He was also very aware that our knowledge of supernatural realities is not as precise or as sharp as many would like it to be.
As he wrote in one of his essays, 鈥樷�� religious truth is neither light nor darkness, but both together; it is like the dim view of a country seen in the twilight, with forms half extricated from the darkness, with broken lines, and isolated masses.鈥�

In addition to his intellectual capacity, his was also an artistic and imaginative temperament.
He enjoyed writing poetry, and one of his best-known poems is 鈥楾he Dream of Gerontius鈥�,听 memorably set to music by Sir Edward Elgar.
Parts of that poem are also familiar to us in two of Newman's听 best-loved hymns, which are sung this morning. We began this service with 鈥楩irmly I Believe and Truly鈥� and 鈥楶raise to the Holiest in the Height鈥� will draw our meditation to a close.
Personally he was a gifted musician. He composed, he played the violin and the viola, and he firmly believed that music had a special power of raising our hearts and minds to heaven above.
Newman鈥檚 life overall reveals him as much more than a man of knowledge.
I would prefer to describe him above all as a teacher of wisdom. For John Henry, the purpose of all learning was ultimately to bring us closer to our Maker, and he believed that learning without grace is empty.
For him, being a disciple of Christ meant trying to do better day by day.

For Newman the deepest of all Truth was that which comes to us in and through our own hearts, by which is meant the deepest and most personal level of our being. His well-known motto expresses this: 鈥楬eart speaks to heart鈥�.
This is the truth which speaks when human hearts are willing to open up to one another, and when our own heart is opened to the heart of Christ.
In an age like ours, when many people believe that right and wrong are whatever we care to make them, Cardinal Newman鈥檚 insight into the supernatural nature of conscience has great wisdom to impart.
In one of his sermons he wrote the following on conscience: 鈥樷�� its very existence throws us out of ourselves, and beyond ourselves, to go and seek for Him 鈥� whose Voice it is. As the sunshine implies that the sun is in the heavens, though we may see it not, as a knocking at our doors at night implies the presence of one outside in the dark who asks for admittance, so this Word within us, not only instructs us up to a certain point, but necessarily raises our minds to 鈥� an unseen Teacher:鈥�
Today in Rome, Pope Francis declares Newman to be a Saint, which is to say, a person who heroically pursued holiness in this life, and is now as close to God as it is possible to be, in heaven.
We pray that St John Henry Newman's example may inspire us to follow the kindly light of the Holy Spirit, as we make our own way to heaven, step by step.

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Hymn: Lead Kindly Light (Sandon)

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Lead, kindly Light, amid the gloom of evening.
Lord, lead me on! Lord, lead me on!
On through the night! On to your radiance!
Lead, kindly Light!
Lead, kindly Light, kindly Light!

1 The night is dark, and I am far from home, Direct my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
So lead me onward, Lord, and hear my plea. [Refrain]

2 Not always thus, I seldom looked for you,
I loved to choose and seek my path alone.
In spite of fear, my pride controlled my will,
Remember not my past, but lead me still. [Refrain]

3 So long your pow'r has blest me on the way,
And still it leads, past hill and storm and night!听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
And with the morn, those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost a while. [Refrain]
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PRAYERS
Fr Dominic Edwards:
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Let us pray. O God who bestowed on your priest Saint John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fullness of your truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
ALL: Amen.

Remember, also, most merciful and loving Father, all who are sick, hear us as we ask you to restore their health.
And we pray for those who are dying, may your presence be with them, and bring comfort to their families.
O God our heavenly Father, we thank you that you have brought us to the beginning of this day; defend us in the same by your mighty power; keep us safe from all perils and dangers; let us fall into no sin, but let all our doings be ordered by your governance, to do always what is righteous in your sight.
Grant that as we have now risen from the sleep of this past night, so also may our bodies rise again after the sleep of death, then to dwell with you for ever, in heaven. Through Christ our Lord.
ALL: Amen

And we pray for our politicians and leaders during these uncertain times.听
May they always seek the ways of righteousness, justice and mercy. Bring them wisdom and integrity in the days to come.

ALL:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done
on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Fr Ignatius: Our final motet is Mendelssohn鈥檚 Justus ut Palm, which is a version of the text听 'Happy and Blest are they' from Mendelssohn's Oratorio, St Paul.
The latin text used here was added by William Sewell, organist at the Oratory during Newman鈥檚 time. Newman was known to have heard Mendelssohn's oratorios when the composer performed them here in Birmingham.

CHORAL MOTET: Mendelssohn - Justus ut Palma (contrafactum)

Fr Ignatius 鈥� Closing words
Hail, Saint John Henry, be our intercessor; Pray we may follow, where you still are guiding; With God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Throned in high heaven. ALL: Amen

As we bring this service to a close, our thoughts are with those gathered in St Peter鈥檚 Square and with those whose lives were transformed by the miracles of Cardinal Newman. 鈥�
Praise to the holiest in the height 鈥� most sure in all his ways鈥�

HYMN:听 Praise to the holiest
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1 Praise to the Holiest in the height,
and in the depth be praise:
in all his words most wonderful,
most sure in all his ways.

2 O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
a second Adam to the fight
and to the rescue came.

3 O wisest love! that flesh and blood,
which did in Adam fail,
should strive afresh against the foe,
should strive and should prevail;

4 And that a higher gift than grace
should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence and his very self,
and essence all-divine.

7 Praise to the Holiest in the height,
and in the depth be praise:
in all his words most wonderful,
most sure in all his ways.
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BLESSING:
May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come down upon you, and remain with you always. Amen.

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ORGAN RECESSIONAL - Entree Pontifical - Marco Enrico Bossi

Closing Announcement
Sunday Worship came from The Birmingham Oratory.
The service was led by Father Dominic Edwards, and the preacher was Father Ignatius Harrison.
The Director of Music was Myriam Toumi and the organist Daniel Battle.听
The producer was Miriam Williamson. Next week Sunday Worship explores Christian support of adult victims of modern slavery, and comes live from Regent Hall Salvation Army in Central London.