John Henry Newman writes about Santa Croce in Gerusalemme:
"This Basilica is so called, because St. Helena, not only brought the True Cross there, but earth from Mount Calvary on which the Chapel or the Altar there is built — thus if there be a centre of the Church, we shall be there, when we are on earth from Jerusalem in the midst of Rome." (Ascension Day, 1847)
Brother Ryan tells me that in one of Newman's letters written from Santa Croce, he speaks of the convenient staircase leading from his rooms directly into the basilica below. I have not yet been able to find that letter; it would have been written in 1847. In any case, this is the very staircase that I now use several times a day to go down into the sacristy and basilica. Brother Ryan has dubbed it la Scala Newman.
It is fascinating that, through the intervention of Blessed Pope Pius IX, the English Oratory began here at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. Now, it is impossible for me to go downstairs without thinking of John Henry Newman and listening for ancient footsteps. As the staircase is often treacherously dark, I should also think of the poem Newman wrote at sea in 1833:
Lead, Kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom
Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home—
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene—one step enough for me.
His Excellency, the Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma has given
Father Mark a special mandate to live in adoration before the Most
Blessed Sacrament, in a spirit of thanksgiving and intercession, that he
might make reparation before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus for all his
brothers in Holy Orders. At the same time, he is available to the
priests and deacons of the Diocese for spiritual and sacramental
support in their pursuit of holiness.
