Vigils Reading

A reading from

ST JOHN HENRY NEWMAN

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Great is the difference between sincere and insincere Christians, however

like their words may be to each other. All men and women, even after the gift of

God’s grace, sin: God’s true servants profess and sin, – sin, and are sorry; and

hypocrites profess and sin, – sin, and are sorry. Thus the two parties look like each

other. But the word of God discriminates one from the other by this test, – that

Christ dwells in the conscience of one not of the other; that the one opens his heart

to God, the other does not; the one views Almighty God only as an accidental guest,

the other as Lord and owner of all that he is; the one admits Him as if for a night, or

some stated season, the other gives himself over to God, and considers himself

God’s servant and instrument now and for ever.

Not more different is the intimacy of friends from mere acquaintance; not

more different is it to know a person in society, to be courteous and obliging to him,

to interchange civilities, from opening one’s heart to another, admitting him into it,

seeing into his, loving him, and living in him; – than the external worship of the

hypocrite, from the inward devotion of true faith; approaching God with the lips,

from believing on Him with the heart; so opening to the Spirit that He opens to us,

from so living to self as to exclude the light of heaven…

Do you, then habitually thus unlock your hearts and subject your thoughts to

Almighty God? Are you living in this conviction of His Presence, and have you this

special witness that that Presence is really set up within you unto your salvation,

that is, that you live in the sense of it? Do you believe, and act on the belief, that His

light penetrates and shines through your heart, as the sun’s beams through a

room? You know how things look when the sun’s beams are on it, – the very air then

appear full of impurities, which, before it came out, were not seen. So is it with our

souls. We are full of stains and corruptions, we see them not, they are like the air

before the sun shines; but though we see them not, God sees them: He pervades us

as the sunbeam.

Our souls, in His view, are full of things which offend, things which must be

repented of, forgiven, and put away. He, in the words of the Psalmist, “has set our

misdeeds before Him, our secret sins in the light of His countenance.” This is most

true, though it be not at all welcome doctrine to many. We cannot hide ourselves

from Him; and our wisdom, as our duty, lies in embracing this truth, acquiescing

in it, and acting upon it. Let us then beg Him to teach us the Mystery of His

Presence in us, that, by acknowledging it, we may thereby possess it fruitfully…

Let us submit ourselves to His guidance and sovereign direction; let us come to

Him that He may forgive us, cleanse us, change us, guide us, and save us.