On October 12, 1845...
Venerable John Henry Newman attended Sunday Mass for the very first time.

On this date in 1856, Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., preached a sermon, of which the following notes survive:

The Maternity of Mary

1. INTROD.—There is no feast of our Lady which comprehends so much as this. It is a sort of central feast. It connects all that is taught about her in one.

2. A number of feasts look towards it—the [Immaculate] Conception, Birth, Purification, Visitation, Nativity. Her becoming a mother is the scope in which they end. For this all her graces, etc., because she was to be the Mother of God, and a temple set apart for Him.

3. What is meant by being the Mother of God? Mother of the Person of the Son—God's blood—God's flesh, etc., and so God's Mother.

4. So high an office required a due preparation, as St. John the Baptist or the apostles, but much more.

5. And the reward and power [were in] proportion. Monstra te esse Matrem.

6. And thus we are brought to that other set of doctrines included in the Maternity. For she is our mother as well as God's. And thus this feast becomes not only one of the most wonderful, but of the most soothing.

7. Two natures in Christ—so she was mother of Him who was God as well as man. 'Behold I and my children,' etc., Heb. ii. 13.

8. Hence, 'Behold thy Son—[Behold] thy Mother,' John xx.

9. Here is its connection with the seven dolours. Her first birth without pain; her birth of us with pain.

10. It became her who was to be a mother to us, to be so far like other mothers as to have pain.

11. On the constant, unwearied affection of a mother's love; (on many not having experienced it) but nothing extinguishes it. The father gives up the son, brothers despair of him, but she remains faithful to the end, hopes against hope, does not mind slights, ingratitudes, etc.

12. Here you have the maternity of Mary. You cannot weary her, she never reproaches, etc. Therefore do we pray her to help us in the hour of death, for she will not leave us.

13. Especially as men get old and lose their earthly relations and those who knew them when young.

14. Who are our constant friends but our guardian angel, who has been with us since our youth, and Mary, who will be with us to the end?

Jamie has yet more posts on the Essay.