Newman loved his daily walks on his own, or being joined by others to chat, think through problems, pray and while riding, compose homilies and addresses.  He described the holiness of nature as a “Temple” or “vast Cathedral”:

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“Does not the whole world speak in praise of God?  Does not every star in the sky, every tree and every flower upon the earth, all that grows all that endures, the leafy woods, the everlasting mountains, speak of God…” (Parochial and Plain Sermons, V: p.21).

Newman celebrates the glory of creation, in its fulsome late summer bloom, when commenting to W.J. Copeland, from the same setting:

“The green is of a thousand hues, as the corn begins to turn - the heather is purple and the mountain berries are in profusion.” (LD XX, p.262)

Newman also found, in nature, a fruitful source of analogy to describe the development of virtue in different people:

The soul which is quickened with the spirit of love has faith and hope…one and all exist in love, though distinct from it; as stalk, leaves and flowers are as distinct and entire in one plant as in another, yet vary in the quality, according to the plant‘s nature. (Parochial and Plain Sermons IV, 21)

Newman viewed his frailties as an invitation to engage with the cross. He recognized hints of the paschal mystery in the cycles of birth, death and rebirth in creation and concludes:

As on a misty day, the gloom gradually melts and the sun brightens, so have the glories of the spiritual world lit up this world below. The dull and cold earth is penetrated by the rays. All around we see glimpses of reflections of those heavenly things, which the elect of God shall one day see face-to-face. (The Heart of Newman, Erich Przywara, p.307).

Let us share, in a disciple-like ‘transfiguration’ moment, and gaze through Newman’s looking-glass reflection of the Eastern Fathers of the Church:

Christ came to make a new world. He came into the world to regenerate it in Himself, to make a new beginning to be the beginning of the creation of God, to gather together in one, and recapitulate all things in Himself. The rays of His glory were scattered through the world; one state of life had some of them, another others. The world was like some fair mirror, broken in pieces, and giving back no one uniform image of its Maker. But He came to combine what was dissipated, to recast what was shattered in Himself. He began all excellence, and of His fulness have all we received. (Sermons of the Day, 61).