Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

In this meditation, I want to begin with an image from St. John Henry Newman talking about the relationship of our own private judgment and the teachings of the one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

Here's what Newman says.

A man out of doors uses a lamp in a dark night

and puts it out when he gets home.

What would be thought of his bringing it into his drawing room?

What would the goodly company there assembled before a genial hearth and under glittering

chandeliers, the bright ladies and the well-dressed gentleman, what would they say to him

if he came in with a great code on his back, a hat on his head, an

umbrella under his arm, and a large stable lantern in his hand. Now that may sound kind of dated and it was hard to

read, but we can put it in contemporary terms. Imagine there's a terrible storm outside and you're

outside on foot a long way from home and you've got a cheap old flashlight and it's really

weak and the batteries aren't fully charged and it's

wavering. Plus the wind is howling and the rain is pouring down. You're just

hoping the light will hold out and be strong enough and last long enough until you get home.

And it does, thank God. You get home and your family and your friends are there, and even though it's dark and stormy

outside all the lights are on and there's a nice fire in the fireplace and

imagine everyone welcomes you and it's warm and you're surrounded by light, and you can see everything.

How weird would it be if you insisted on holding on to your little dinky flashlight, wherever you went in your own house totally lit up by electric light,

yet you still insisted on pointing your dinky flashlight everywhere, so you could see where you were going.

They'd all think you were crazy. Well, to insist on relying on your own

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