Blessed John Henry Newman, Priest

Blessed John Henry Newman was a fighter, as all the saints were, as you and I are called to be from our Baptism, and by the grace of our Confirmation. ‘A fight [said Newman] is the very mark of a Christian. He is a soldier of Christ; high or low, he is this and nothing else.’ Christians have a work to do in this world, and also a spiritual war to wage.
In all his preaching, he exhorts his hearers with vigilance and intelligence to resist it. There is ‘an eternal enmity [Newman says] between the Church and the world … Beware lest the world seduce you … And you will be seduced most certainly, unless you watch and pray that you enter not into temptation’.
John Henry Newman was received into the Church in the month of our Lady and her Rosary. Under God, she is our chief help in spiritual warfare. ‘Her Son will deny her nothing that she asks; [writes Newman] and herein lies her power. While she defends the Church, neither height nor depth, neither men nor evil spirits, neither great monarchs, nor craft of man, nor popular violence, can avail to harm us; for human life is short, but Mary reigns above, a Queen forever.’ Her Immaculate Heart will triumph over the father of lies. Her Son and God has overcome the world.