成人快手

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with writer and broadcaster Mark Dowd

Good morning.

England has a new saint. Yesterday in Rome, John Henry Newman, a nineteenth century scholar and theologian renowned for his writings on conscience and doctrine was canonized by Pope Francis. Prince Charles was one of the tens of thousands who attended the joyous event in St Peter麓s Square.

I owe a lot to John Henry Newman, not least of all for his epic poem The Dream of Gerontius, taken up and set to music by Sir Edward Elgar. This choral work tells the story of a man鈥檚 journey from his death bed to his judgment before God. I first heard this work at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester as a teenager with the Halle Orchestra and chorus and it has never ceased to set the hairs on the back of my neck on end. Yet Gerontius had a totally inauspicious debut on the music scene.

The Birmingham premiere in 1900 was a wretched trial for the composer. The chorus simply weren鈥檛 up to it. The conductor, Hans Richter only got the full score on the eve of the first rehearsal and on the big night two of the three soloists were deemed to be in poor voice. A despondent Elgar commented afterwards : 鈥淚 have allowed my heart to open once 鈥� it is now shut against every religious feeling and every soft, gentle impulse forever.鈥�

If only Elgar could have seen at that moment, how his great work in the fullness of time would come to occupy its rightful place as a choral masterpiece. He was simply lacking perspective.

God, how often we get trapped in our pockets of anxiety and despair. Give us your grace and help us hold on to the 鈥渂ig picture鈥濃��trusting in your goodness and knowing that 鈥渁ll shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.鈥�

Amen