Posted on 03/31/2011 6:02:38 PM PDT by MDJohnPaul
Dominican Father Carleton Parker Jones calls it the “greatest temptation” of his life.
It happened 21 years ago in the library of the Anglican Centre in Rome, where Father Jones was completing research for his doctoral dissertation on Blessed John Henry Newman.
Blessed Newman, an Anglican priest who was received into the Catholic Church in 1845, was one of Father Jones’ greatest heroes. Inspired by Blessed Newman’s writings, Father Jones had followed in the Englishman’s footsteps – leaving the Anglican priesthood to become a Catholic priest in 1982.
Deep in the stacks of the acclaimed library, Father Jones pulled out a first-edition of Blessed Newman’s “On the Development of Christian Faith.” It was the very work that had most inspired Father Jones to become Catholic.
As soon as the Dominican opened the volume, a letter fell from its pages. Father Jones, then a student at Rome’s Angelicum University, stooped down to pick it up. His eyes widened as he read the old letter and realized it was a hand-written, signed note from Blessed Newman to a reviewer who had written some kind words about his book.
No one was watching and no one knew the letter existed.
“I could have simply taken it and put it in my pocket and no one would have known the difference,” remembered Father Jones, now the pastor of Ss. Philip and James in Baltimore...
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicreview.org ...
Character is doing the right thing, even when no one is looking. God Bless Father Jones.
Wow. I used to know Fr. Jones when he was in CT.
The problem in these situations is that most people do not think down the road.
What the heck would he do with the letter? I guess he could take it out and look at it once in a while. He certainly would not be able to sell it.
The difference is that with this priest, he knew it wasn’t his and it was important. He did the right thing.
As my wife always tells me, “You don’t get extra credit for doing the right thing.”
You married your mother?
Blessed Cardinal Newman is going to be an incredible saint.
If his greatest temtation was not to take a letter that had been lost for years, he lead an easy life.
No, he led a good life.
He’s now pastor at SS.Philip and James in Baltimore.
Sometimes I wonder.....
Great story. Thanks!!
If we don't feel that urge, is it a temptation? I guess not.
The grace to resist or not to even feel that urge comes from God of course.
To parse out the steps and moments of sin is hard because we are trying to understand what is a breakdown, a failure.
If one looks seriously at the life of a scholar friar, if one considers that, though they wear different clothes, it is the same sins which afflict him as those which afflict pimps or murderers, one may conclude that the urge to purloin a scholarly treasure can be quite as devastatingly strong as the urge to kill a rival lover.
We each can see the yawning mouth of hell, and who can compare terrors? Rather than sneer at Fr. Jones’s easy life, let’s give thanks that he was delivered and pray that when our trial comes we too will be prevented by Grace.
Pompous sentiment du jour ...
Well said.
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