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There is confusion among some Catholics these days – no doubt planted by the Evil One, who fears the Blessed Mother and the power of her Rosary.  Some would have us believe that recitation of the Rosary is an antiquated devotion no longer relevant or needed in current times. Nothing could be further from the truth as can be seen by the Blessed Mother’s promise to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de Roche and as she herself re-emphasized to the children at Fatima: - Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces. - I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. | |
- The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies | |
- It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. | |
- The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall not perish. | |
- Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its Sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. | |
- Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church. | |
- Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the Saints in Paradise. | |
- I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. | |
- The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in Heaven. | |
- You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. | |
- All those who propagate the Holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. | |
- I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. | |
- All who recite the Rosary are my children, and brothers and sisters of my only Son, Jesus Christ. | |
- Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination. |
Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.
Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart.
"Life is a journey. Provided we keep going, all is well. What God cannot tolerate - what is, indeed, intolerable - are those stationary souls who either are inert by nature or persuade themselves that they have reached the summit, and that there is nothing more for them."
(From Where Silence Is Praise: From the Writings of Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart.)
Father Dismas Sayre, O.P
In our modern world, man
sees Jesus's forgiveness and mercy as almost givens, taken for granted. Of
course, even the most permissive and “merciful” want whatever they might
consider evil to be punished, but never their own evil. It's
funny how that works. As has often been stated by various authors, two thieves
were crucified with Christ. One was saved, so we should not despair, but one
was lost, so we should not presume.
Yes, it is very
possible for us to lose our salvation, to lose our way eternally. Our Lord
is crystal clear on this point in His many parables, as much as He is crystal
clear on the need for forgiveness and mercy. But the goal of God's justice is
not to separate us eternally but to restore us.
(From Yes, It Is Very Possible published in the July-August 2025 issue of Light and Life)
Alan Schreck, Ph.D.
"The crucifix reminds us that God's response to human suffering is to put Himself in a position to experience the worst of it. The Resurrection of Jesus sows that the power of God overcomes evil and its consequence."
(From Jesus - What Catholics Believe)
This reflection is longer than most that I have shared on my blog - just one of 175 stirring Eucharistic Reflections you will find in Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration.
It is well-worth reading and savoring its every word and the images and experiences they will bring to mind.
There is a place in the human heart that can only be filled by You, Lord. Try as we might to fill that space with glittery goods or flatterers, it remains nothing but a vacant apartment, an echo chamber, without You. It is a place at the core of my being; I am empty, lonely, without You there.
At Adoration, everything
changes. If I let You in, You fill that insatiable yearning place. You melt my iciness; my heart begins to
glow. In a mystical moment, I am warmed
and satisfied in a way both quieting and yet passionate.
Adoration is my private door
that I can open to you. Immediately, You sweetly and lovingly permeate every
corner of my emptiness. By a treasured
grace, I learned of this door as a child.
In my long ago, my parents took my hand leading me regularly to
Adoration in a beautiful, hushed church in Manhattan. There You were, on the
altar, in the gilded monstrance, candles casting flickering shadows across Your
gaze. Even then, I was struck by Your beauty and the mystery to be explored at
each visit. I wanted to visit You often
so no one would put You back in the Tabernacle where You yearned for visitors.
You gave me two joyful parents whose love for You was clear. At Adoration, they never tried to keep me entertained, never stuffed crayons into my hands, never gave me childish books to distract me from you. Instead, they would whisper the amazing story of Your Love. Each visit with You became an adventure. “Talk to Jesus, dear,” they would say. “He loves you so much, and He wants to take you by the hand on a great happy journey filled with beautiful flowers and laughter. Jesus will teach you to make those flowers into a crown for our heavenly Mother. He will take you to His sweet Father, Our Father, who loves you more than you can imagine. Later, on the way home, tell us about all the places where Jesus takes you.” And I did.
I had to trust Him. I had to surrender to God the concerns that were causing me so much angst and which I was unable to resolve on my own. I had to trust God to take care of them. I rushed to an online Adoration site I frequently visit where I could gaze upon my waiting and loving Lord and seek His assistance.
On my way there, I rediscovered Sanctify the Moment – The Now Moment written by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen. It had been some time since I had first read this article. It immediately helped me to put my current challenges into proper perspective.
Hopefully, the good Archbishop's words will help you to do likewise:
*****
"[One] remedy for the ills that come to us from thinking about time is what might be called the sanctification of the moment—or the Now. Our Lord laid down the rule for us in these words: “Do not fret, then, over tomorrow; leave tomorrow to fret over its own needs; for today, today’s troubles are enough.” (Matt. 6:34)
This means that each day has its own trials; we are not to
borrow troubles from tomorrow, because that day, too, will have its cross. We
are to leave the past to Divine Mercy and to trust the future, whatever its
trials, to His Loving Providence.
Each minute of life has its peculiar duty—regardless of the
appearance that minute may take. The Now-moment is the moment of salvation.
Each complaint against it is a defeat; each act of resignation to it is a
victory. The moment is always an indication to us of God’s will. The ways of
pleasing Him are made clear to us in several ways: through His Commandments, by
the events of His Incarnate Life in Jesus Christ Our Lord, in the Voice of His
Mystical Body, the Church, in the duties of our state of life. And, in a more
particular way, God’s will is manifested for us in the Now with all of its
attendant circumstances, duties, and trials.
The present moment includes some things over which we have
control, but it also carries with it difficulties we cannot avoid—such things
as a business failure, a bad cold, rain on picnic days, an unwelcome visitor, a
fallen cake, a buzzer that doesn’t work, a fly in the milk, and a boil on the
nose the night of the dance. We do not always know why such things as sickness
and setbacks happen to us, for our minds are far too puny to grasp God’s plan.
Man is a little like a mouse in a piano, which cannot understand why it must be
disturbed by someone playing Chopin and forcing it to move off the piano wires.
Those who love God do not protest, whatever He may ask of them,
nor doubt His kindness when He sends them difficult hours. A sick man takes
medicine without asking the physician to justify its bitter taste, because he
trusts the doctor’s knowledge; so the soul which has sufficient faith accepts
all the events of life as gifts from God, in the serene assurance that He knows
best.
Nothing is more individually tailored to our spiritual needs
than the Now-moment; for that reason it is an occasion of knowledge which can
come to no one else. This moment is my school, my textbook, my lesson. Not even
Our Lord disdained to learn from His specific Now; being God, He knew all, but
there was still one kind of knowledge He could experience as a man. St. Paul
describes it: “Son of God though He was, He learned obedience in the school of
suffering.” (Heb. 5:8)
… to accept the crosses of our state of life
because they come from an all-loving God is to have taken the most important
step in the reformation of the world, namely, the reformation of the self.
Sanctity can be built out of patient endurance of the incessant grumbling of a
husband—the almost intolerable nagging of a wife—the boss’s habit of smoking a
pipe while he dictates—the noise the children make with their soup—the
unexpected illness—the failure to find a husband—the inability to get rich. All
these can become occasions of merit and be made into prayers if they are borne
patiently for love of One Who bears so patiently with us, despite our
shortcomings, our failures, and our sins.
…To accept the duty of this moment for God is to touch Eternity, to
escape from time. This habit of embracing the Now and glorifying God through
its demands is an act of the loving will.
"… our first task is to adore and glorify God. It is the highest expression of our gratitude to Him and the most beautiful response our life can offer to the extraordinary love He bears us. To adore God one must set oneself apart -in silence. Come here in the silence of the heart, to listen to God. This is what it means to enter into a sacred disposition.
There are sacred places set
apart for God, chosen by God - these places must not be profaned by any
activity other than prayer, silence and liturgy.
Our churches are not theaters, nor concert halls, nor venues for cultural or recreational events. The
church is the House of God. It is reserved for Him alone. We enter it with
reverence and veneration, properly clothed, because we tremble before the
greatness of God. We do not tremble out of fear but out of reverence, awe and
wonder.
…Sacred places do not
belong to us; they belong to God. The purpose of the liturgy is the glory of
God and the sanctification of the faithful, and sacred music is a privileged
means to foster the active and fully conscious participation of the faithful in
the sacred celebration of the Christian mysteries…"
(Cardinal Robert Sarah, July 26, 2025 Homily marking the 400th anniversary of Saint Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at her shrine in Sainte-Anne d’Auray, Brittany, France)
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"The Eucharist is alive. If a stranger who knew nothing about the Eucharist were to watch the way we receive, would he know...
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