Oh, great....
it seems that a good portion of my sidebar has vanished. I'll have to spend some blogging time rebuilding it, so posts may be sparse.

Help !
Half of my blog is still missing ! I notified Blogger, but they haven't gotten back to me yet.

On January 19th, 1837...
Venerable John Henry Newman wrote to his sister Jemima, on matters literary....

Tell Miss M. that I fear I must decline the place in her poetical collection. I never can write except in a season of idleness. When I have been doing nothing awhile, poems spring up as weeds in fallow fields.

I have been reading 'Emma.' Everything Miss Austen writes is clever, but I desiderate something. There is a want of body to the story. The action is frittered away in over-little things. There are some beautiful things in it. Emma herself is the most interesting to me of all her heroines. I feel kind to her whenever I think of her. But Miss Austen has no romance—none at all. What vile creatures her parsons are! she has not a dream of the high Catholic ethos. That other woman, Fairfax, is a dolt—but I like Emma.

I have nearly finished Southey's 'Wesley,' which is a very superficial concern indeed: interesting of course. He does not treat it historically in its connexion with the age, and he cannot treat it theologically, if he would ... I do not like Wesley—putting aside his exceeding self-confidence, he seems to me to have a black self-will, a bitterness of religious passion, which is very unamiable. Whitfield seems far better.

The Feast of St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar , Bishop and Founder
is today. There is information on him here.
It is also the feast of St. Henry of Uppsalla, Bishop and Martyr.

Half of my blog is missing !
What gives ?

David and Jonathan
by Venerable John Henry Newman

"Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the
love of women."

O heart of fire! misjudged by wilful man,
Thou flower of Jesse's race!
What woe was thine, when thou and Jonathan
Last greeted face to face!
He doom'd to die, thou on us to impress
The portent of a blood-stain'd holiness.

Yet it was well:—for so, 'mid cares of rule
And crime's encircling tide,
A spell was o'er thee, zealous one, to cool
Earth-joy and kingly pride;
With battle-scene and pageant, prompt to blend
The pale calm spectre of a blameless friend.

Ah! had he lived, before thy throne to stand,
Thy spirit keen and high
Sure it had snapp'd in twain love's slender band,
So dear in memory;
Paul, of his comrade reft, the warning gives,—
He lives to us who dies, he is but lost who lives.

Lazaret, Malta.
January 16, 1833.

The Feast of Blessed Joseph Vaz, C.O., Priest
is today. There is information on him here, courtesy of the Oxford Oratory.
Prayers for his canonization would be most welcome. Here is a form which could be used:

O God of infinite goodness ! Full of confidence in Your kindness and the mercy which You showed to Your faithful servant, Blessed Joseph Vaz, we humbly implore You to inspire Holy Church to take into consideration the meritorious life and apostolic works of this servant of God and to grant to him the full honors of the altar and public devotion, if this be for Your greater glory and for our salvation, so that imitating his virtues and placing ourselves under his patronage, we will reach eternal glory. Amen.

O God, through the intercession of Blessed Joseph Vaz, grant me the grace of (name your request here).

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Prayers for the country he evangelized would also be welcome, as it seems that moves are being made to make things uncomfortable for anyone there who is not Buddhist..

It is also the feast of Pope St. Marcellus I, Martyr.

If it were not Sunday...
today would be the feast of St. Paul the Hermit, St. Macarius of Egypt, Priest, and St. Arnold Janssen, S.V.D., Priest and Founder.
It is also the anniversary of the ordination of Fr. David Abernethy of the Pittsburgh Oratory to the priesthood. Ad multos annos, Fr. David !