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Poem: “Lead, Kindly Light”

by on Feb 07, 2015 in Poetry
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Lead, Kindly Light

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.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on:
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead thou me on!
I loved the garish days, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.

So long thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
Will lead me on;
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone;
And with the morn those angel faces smile
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

Blessed 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