On March 11, 1879...
the following letter was sent to Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O.:

CHARISSIME ET REVERENDISSIME PATER,
Quod Te, Reverendissime in Christo Pater, Pontifex Maximus inter Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinales nuper adsciverit, et fama nobis undique innotuit et animos nostros quam maxima lætitia affecit. Tanti enim Te facimus, tantum amamus, tamque arcto inter se Angliæ et Neapolis Congregationes amoris vinculo junguntur, ut honorem tuum, Pater Charissime, veluti nostrum computemus.

Quapropter Tibi Neapolitanæ Congregationis Oratorii nomine de dignitate jure meritoque delata valde gratulor; idque eo libentius elatioribusque rationibus facio, quo Te dignum plane Divi Philippi Nerii filium hujusmodi honores parvi pendere scio. Verum hoc mihi animo inest, ideo Providissimum Deum his diebus Te ad tantam dignitatem evexisse, ut bono Ecclesiæ suæ, in Anglia præsertim, mirifice consulat: maximasque Deo ago gratias quod ad uberiores fructus in Ecclesia colligendos Beati Patris Philippi filium optimum adhibere dignatus est.

Talia animo agentes tum ego tum omnes meæ Congregationis Patres Deum obtestamur, ut Te magis ac magis sua gratia cumulet. Ego autem tuas omniumque tuæ Congregationis Patrum preces specialiter enixeque efflagitans, Tibi, Reverendissime Pater, magno obsequio æque ac mentis affectu scias me devinctum esse volo.

Reverentiæ Tuæ
Addictissimus et Amantissimus,
P. ALPHONSUS CAPECELATRO,
Præpositus.

He responded:

PATER CHARISSIME ET REVERENDISSIME,
Vetera tua erga me beneficia et fraternitatis in S. Philippo pignora, Colendissime Pater, tum tua ipsius, tum illa quibus Congregatfo Neapolitana et singuli ejus Patres annis præteritis nos cumulaverunt, jam novo charitatis documento coronasti, in illa acceptissimâ Epistolâ quæ scripta in Tuo et Tuorum nomine hodie ad me venit.

Gratissimo et effusissimo animo Paternitates omnes vestras amplector et foveo, qui me vetulum tam sincerâ benevolentiâ et sympathiâ hoc tempore in mernoriâ vestrâ habuistis, cum Sanctissimus Pontifex me in tam sublimem dignitatem inopinata et admirabili benignitate evehere sibi proposuit.

Precamini pro me, dulcissime Pater, et omnes Patres tui, ut curriculum vitæ meæ, jam prope emensum, faustè et feliciter conficiam, in fide et spe bonâ et charitate quæ operit multitudinem peccatorum.

Reverentiæ Tuæ
Observantissimus et Amantissimus,
JOANNES HENRICUS NEWMAN.
Præp.

The translations follow:

VERY DEAR AND VERY REV. FATHER,
We hear on all sides, to our very great joy, that the Holy Father has announced his intention to number you among the Cardinals of the Roman Church. We esteem you so highly, and love you so warmly, and a bond so close connects the English Oratory with that of Naples, that we look on all honour done to you, as our own.

Wherefore, in the name and on behalf of the Naples Congregation of the Oratory, I very cordially congratulate you on the dignity so duly and so deservedly conferred on you; and I do this the more readily, and from still higher motives, because I know that you, as becomes a worthy son of St. Philip, set small store by honours of this kind, for their own sake. But I feel very deeply that God, in His ever wise and watchful Providence, has raised you to this great dignity for the good of the Church, and especially in England; and I rejoice greatly and bless Him that He has vouchsafed to call so good a son of St. Philip to gather into His Church a still more abundant harvest.

With these thoughts and feelings both I and all the Fathers of our Congregation implore God to multiply more and more His grace upon you; and I very especially and earnestly ask your prayers, and those of the Fathers of your Congregation, and hold myself bound to you, very Rev. Father, by every tie of reverence and loving regard.

Your Reverence's
Most Devoted and Affectionate
ALFONSO CAPECELATRO,
Provost.

VERY REV. AND DEAR FATHER,
You have now, by the very welcome letter which I have today received, written in your own name and in that of your Community, put the crown to the long series of kindnesses and tokens of brotherhood in St. Philip, which your Congregation and its several Fathers have shown us all along in the years that are past.

I embrace you all and cherish you with grateful heart for remembering me, an old man and infirm, with such cordial kindness and sympathy, now that the Holy Father has proposed, with unlooked for and wonderful goodness, to raise me to a dignity so high.

Pray for me, my dear Father, you and all your Fathers, that I may well and happily end my course, now so nearly run out, in faith and hope and in the charity which covers the multitude of sins.

Your Reverence's
Most Devoted and Affectionate
JOHN H. NEWMAN.
Provost

The Feast of St. Eulogius of Cordoba, Priest and Martyr
is today. There is information on him here.
It is also the feast of Blessed Thomas Atkinson, Priest and Martyr.

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Link: The Commonly Confused Words Test written by shortredhead78 on Ok Cupid

Quiz courtesy of Rebecca.

The Christian Carnival...
is up. (As this Carnival is not Catholic, not all of the posts may be compatible with the Church's teaching.)

Does anybody know...
what has happened to the St. Blog's parish page and Gerard Serafin's website ?

The Feast of St. Frances of Rome,Widow and Foundress
is today. There is information on her here.
It is also the feast of St. Catherine of Bologna, P.C., Virgin, and of St. Gregory of Nyssa, Archbishop.

The Catholic Carnival...
is up.

The Feast of St. John of God, O.H., Founder
is today. There is information on him here. To any Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of God out there, blessed feast day !

On March 7, 1849...
Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., wrote a letter to a friend, who was considering being received into the Catholic Church:

As to my Essay [on Development] you mistake in one minor matter,—it is not the argument from unity or Catholicity which immediately weighs with me, but from Apostolicity. In that book is asked why does its author join the Catholic Church? The answer is, because it is the Church of St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose. Vid. the passage about St. Athanasius and St. Ambrose coming from Treves to Oxford. And it is an argument natural to weigh with me who have so many years been engaged in the meditation of early Church History—and it is as natural that the difficulties I had felt, and the difficulties I there answer, should be difficulties of doctrine, since I have studied in Church History the history of doctrine more than anything else. You may recollect too that the one idea which for years was before me, was, "the Anglican Church corresponds to the Semi-arians, corresponds to the Monophysites"—It is contained in the letter I wrote to Robert in Autumn of 1841; it had been in my mind as early as summer 1839. I never shook it off—how could I? when to every reader of Church History it is so plain. Nothing is more day-clear than this, that unless there never was a Church and heretics round it, the Anglican Church is a loco, in the position of one of those early sects. This again I kept saying—I think I wrote to Keble, "I am far more certain that the Anglican Church is in loco haereseos, than that the Roman corruptions are not developments." No one can maintain the Anglican Church from history, (whatever they may try to do on the ground of doctrine)—and those who speak against my Essay as inconclusive, most of them, do not see its drift.

The Feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs
is today. There is information on them here.
It is also the feast of St. Teresa Margaret Redi, O.C.D., Virgin and of Blessed John Ireland, Priest and Martyr, Blessed John Larke, Priest and Martyr, and Blessed German Gardiner, Martyr . Blessed John Ireland was the chaplain to a better-known martyr.

From Parochial and Plain Sermons
by Venerable John Henry Newman

He among the sons of Jesse, whom Samuel thought to be the destined king of Israel, was of imposing countenance and stature; not like David, a youth, ruddy indeed, and handsome, but one whom the Philistines might despise. Samuel and Goliath, a prophet of God and a heathen giant, both judged by what met their eyes. Samuel, when he saw the manly form and face of Eliab, said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him." And God answered him, "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." And Goliath, when "he looked about and saw David," "disdained him, for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance." And to him David answered for himself; "The Lord saveth not with sword and spear, for the battle is the Lord's ." [1 Sam. xvii. 42, 47.] Even then, as in the latter days, the weak were strong, and the strong weak; the first last, and the last first; the mighty cast down from their seat, and the humble and meek exalted.

And much more now, when the Most High has hid Himself beneath a servant's form, and after ascending into heaven, sent His Holy Ghost as our invisible Guide and Comforter, now, far more than before, do we require to be warned, not to judge by what we see, but by what God has said. When His word and His outward world are at variance in the information they convey to us, it is our bounden duty to trust the revealed word, and not the visible world. Not that sight is not His gift, but that He has demanded of us as Christians, as a sort of poor return for His love to us, that when these two informants, one natural, the other revealed, oppose each other, we should trust for a little while the latter,—for a little while, till this world of shadows passes away, and we find ourselves in that new world, in which there is no contradiction between sight and hearing, but absolute unity and harmony in all things, for He is the light of it. But till then, it is our very profession, as children of the kingdom, to walk by faith not by sight. And hence many warnings are given us in the New Testament, against our forming absolute judgments of men and things, from what we see; to "judge nothing before the time, till the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God." Again, St. Paul says, "Do we look on things after the outward appearance? if any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's." And in like manner our Saviour, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." [1 Cor. iv. 5. 2 Cor. x. 7. John vii. 24.]

If it were not Sunday...
today would be the feast of St. Chrodegang of Metz, Archbishop, St. Agnes of Prague,P.C., Virgin , and St. Colette, P.C.C., Virgin and Foundress.

Music at Noon Mass
Processional Hymn: "Ah, Holy Jesus"
Recessional Hymn: "O Sacred Head, Surrounded"
NOTE: The choir was off today, since the students at the universities are on Spring Break.