Newman would want us to honour Our Lady for his miracle

From Fr Michael G Murphy SIR – This weekend we will be celebrating the feast of the Assumption, which usually falls on August 15. The feast did fall on August 15 1790, the day on which a special bond was forged between the Catholic Church in England and in the United States. It was on that date that the first bishop in the United States, John Carroll, was ordained Bishop of Baltimore, Maryland, at St Mary’s, the Weld family Chapel in Lulworth Castle, Dorset.
When the then Archbishop of Baltimore, now cardinal, William Keeler, delivered the homily at the Mass marking the bicentenary of Bishop Carroll’s ordination in Lulworth Castle chapel on August 15 1990, he quoted “the distinguished historian Fr Robert F McNamara” who described the chapel as “the launching pad both sacramentally and culturally of the Catholic Church in the United States”. So conscious was Bishop Carroll, who had an abiding love of Our Lady, of the significance of the date of his ordination as bishop that he dedicated the first cathedral in the United States to the Assumption. It is now the exquisitely restored Basilica of the Assumption, Baltimore, which is also a national monument.
All of this came to my mind when reading the excellent article by Dwight Duncan on the miracle which lead to the forthcoming beatification of Cardinal Newman (Feature, August 7). However, there is one omission from that article, namely the date on which Deacon Jack Sullivan was healed of his spinal disorder in 2001. He was healed on August 15. Like Bishop Carroll, Newman had for most of his life a deep devotion to Our Lady. He knew well the power of her prayers to perform miracles.
In his Meditations and Devotions, under the heading, “On The Assumption”, he writes a subtitle: “Mary is the Virgo Potens, the powerful Virgin.” He tells us: “There is a power which avails to alter and subdue this visible world, and to suspend and counteract its laws; that is, the world of angels and saints, of Holy Church and her children; and the weapon by which they master its laws is the power of prayer.” Later on he adds: “This is why the Blessed Virgin is called ‘Powerful’ – nay, sometimes, ‘All-powerful’, because she has, more than anyone else, more than all angels and saints, this great, prevailing gift of prayer. Her Son will deny her nothing that she asks; and herein lies her power.” May I suggest that Cardinal Newman would wish us to link the name of the Mother of God with his own name in the delivery of the miracle of God’s grace that brought healing to Deacon Jack Sullivan, something indicated to us by the date on which the miracle occurred, and the country in which it happened.
Yours faithfully, MICHAEL MURPHY St Michael’s, Bishopstown, Co Cork