Walking to Littlemore

Last night I participated in the annual Night Walk from the Oxford Oratory to Littlemore to mark the 169th anniversary of Bl. John Henry Newman's reception into the Catholic Church. This is the tenth consecutive year that I have done the walk, and I always find it a spiritually rewarding as well as an enjoyable occasion.

It appears now to be mandatory that if we have a procession I am required to wear a yellow safety jacket as a marshal. As last year I was the whipper in at the back - I think I ought to take lessons from my friends in the Christ Church Beagles...

We began as usual at the Oxford Oratory and walked via sites associated with Newman - Trinity College, St Mary's Church, Oriel College, the site of the Angel Inn where Bl. Dominic arrived soaking wet from travelling on the roof of the stage coach in 1845, the site of old St Clement's Church where Newman was assistant curate in the 1820s, and reflected at Greyfriars on his lament for the loss of Catholicism in the University of his day by contrast with the era of Duns Scotus. We also paused at the two houses at Rose Hill on the way to Littlemore occupied by his mother and sisters in the 1830s.

At Littlemore we had a Holy Hour in the modern church of Bl.Dominic Barberi led by Fr Hancock, the parish priest, before processing to the College.

Bl. John Henry Newman and Bl. Dominic Barberi in 1845

A bronze relief by Faith Tolkien in Littlemore church made in 1995

Image: newmanfriendsinternational.org

There is an intersting piece about this meeting of Bl. Dominic and Bl. John Henry, their reaction to one another and the latter's memories of the Passionist in the post from the website of the Friends of Newman International which can be seen here.

"The door opened and what a spectacle it was for me to see at my feet John Henry Newman begging me to hear his confession and to admit him into the bosom of the Catholic Church!"

Words of Bl. Dominic Barberi






The reconstructed fireplace in the Library at The College in Littlemore where John Henry Newman knelt to greet the Passionist Father Dominic Barberi.

Image:reginamag.com 








The Library at Littlemore today

Image: newmanfriendsinternational.org

Newman’s bedroom restored to as it was when he lived there.

Newman’s writing desk is preserved in the Library. It was on this surface that Blessed Dominic Barberi celebrated the Mass in the chapel after Newman’s reception. Newman never wrote on it again and kept it inverted after the Mass.

Images:1catholicsalmon.com 

 

The Chapel in the College

Image:newmanfriends international 

At the conclusion of our pilgrimage we were able to venerate a relic of Bl. John Henry in the chapel before receiving a very welcome cup of tea from the Sisters of the Work, who care with great devotion for the College and provide a generous and very spiritual welcome for visitors. If you have not already visited this remarkable place, or encountered Newman at the hinge event of his life, I would urge you to do so.

Walking with Bl. John Henry and Bl Dominic to Littlemore

Last night, and for the ninth year in succession, I did the night walk to Littlemore to commemorate the journey of Bl.Dominic Barberi there on October 8th 1845 to receive Bl. John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church. It is always an occasion I enjoy and it combines the narrative of Newman's conversion with places he knew and a chance to reflect on one's own, faltering, spiritual progress.

Here are a set of expandable photos of our journey last night, taken by a friend and which she has kindly forwarded to me to use on this blog: 

As seems to happen whenever the Oratory organises a public procession I get appointed as a marshal with the privilege of wearing a yellow safety jacket - the Provost, Fr Daniel, said to me at the end of the evening that if I am ever canonised the yellow jacket will be one of my attributes...

For many of thjos eon this walking Pilgrimage this was their first visit under any circumstances to Littlemore, and in many ways it is a very good occasion on which to see the College for the first time.

I have to admit that I set off on the walk in a not especially holy frame of mind - my Yorkshire grumpiness was having an outing - but I did find that as we progreesed through the city centre and suburbs and prayed the rosary that sensation began to fade and I had considerably greater peace of mind at the end of the evening than in the earlier stages.

Our route took us from the Oratory to Trinity College, where Newman was a an undergraduate, St Mary's Church, of which he was Vicar, Oriel College, where he was a Fellow, past the site of the Angel inn where Bl.Dominic alighted from the stage coach that wet October evening 168 years ago to be met by John Dalgairns, and past the site of St Clement's church where Newman served his first Anglican curacy. Passing Greyfriars we stopped at Rosemount where Mrs Newman and his suisters lived from 1833 to 1836, and the cottages they used in 1830-33 as a summer retreat and base for nursing the 1831 cholera victims in Littlemore.

We had a candlelit procession from the house occupied by the Sisters of the Work at Rose Hill, and singing "Lead Kindly Light" walked into Littlemore to a Holy Hour with meditations drawn from Newman's writings before the Blessed Sacrament in the modern church of Bl. Dominic Barberi. Finally we went to the College for our final narrative reflection in the library and then veneration of the relic of Bl. John Henry in the restored chapel where he was received on October 9th, and made his first Catholic communion on October 10th 1845.

Reception at Littlemore

This evening I attended the reception of two friends from my Pusey House days into the Catholic Church and the Ordinariate at the church of Bl. Dominic Barberi at Littlemore. Daniel and Alexandra Lloyd were received by Fr Andrew Burnham, who had performed their wedding the other year. Daniel was briefly the assistant curate at Stony Stratford, having been ordained as an Anglican deacon last summer.

It was a great pleasure to join with other friends and the regular congregation at the Saturday vigil Mass to welcome them into full peace and communion, and in the context of their reception and being at Littlemore all the more moving to sing the hymns The Church's one foundation and Firmly I believe and truly. In his homily Fr Andrew stressed the historic significance of the event, this being one of the very first receptions of members into the Ordinariate, and how appropriate it was to do so at Littlemore.

At the reception afterwards I was able to ask Fr Burnham for his First Blessing, which I had been unable to receive at Fr Burnham's First Mass

The evening was a good indicator of the vitality of support for the Ordinariate, which plans to establish a group in Oxford with the Lenten catechetical period leading to other receptions at Easter.

Please pray for Daniel and Alex and all those preparing to be received into the Ordinariate, and for the Ordinary and his clergy.

Bl.Dominic Barberi greeting Newman. Bl.Dominic Barberi has just come in from the wet and cold. It is late at night on October 8th 1845 and he is trying to dry himself in front of the fire at the College in Littlemore. Newman is on one knee requesting of Dominic Barberi that he be received into the Church. A relief by Faith Tolkien in the Church of Bl.Dominic Barberi Image: Communigate