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Poem: “Flowers Without Fruit”

Flowers Without Fruit

Prune thou thy words; the thoughts control
That o’er thee swell and throng;–
They will condense within thy soul,
And change to purpose strong.

But he who lets his feelings run
In soft luxurious flow,
Shrinks when hard service must be done,
And faints at every woe.

Faith’s meanest deed more favor bears,
Where hearts and wills are weighed,
Than brightest transports, choicest prayers,
Which bloom their hour, and fade.

John Henry Newman


Blessed John Henry Newman was born in London, the eldest of three sons and three daughters. He became an evangelical Oxford academic and priest in the Anglican Church of England. In 1845, Newman was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He founded the Catholic University of Ireland which later became the University College, Dublin.  Newman died on August 11th, 1890 of pneumonia at the Birmingham Oratory. At the time of his death, he had been Protodeacon of the Holy Roman Church. The Protodeacon is the longest-serving Cardinal Deacon in the College of Cardinals. Newman was beatified on September 19th, 2010