Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

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. Vinny Flynn "A spiritual Communion acts on the soul as blowing does on a cinder-covered fire which was about to go out. Whenever you feel your love of God growing cold, quickly make a spiritual Communion.’ ‘Quickly!’ There’s a sense of urgency here. The saints are trying to tell us that we should not limit our union with Christ in the Eucharist to sacramental Communion once a week, or even once a day. We need Christ’s living presence in our lives moment-by-moment to nourish us and protect us from sin, so we need to renew our union with Him regularly, especially any time we feel ourselves drifting away. Christ is not merely present in the Eucharist during Mass! The Eucharist is an ongoing fulfillment of Christ’s Gospel promise to remain with us: ‘Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age’ (Mt. 28:20)."   (From...

"How your life would change if you went to Him often as a friend. Can you be thinking Jesus won’t want to welcome you as a friend? If that’s what you thought, it would be a sign you don’t know Him. Jesus is all tenderness, all love for His sinful creatures. He lives in the tabernacle with His Heart open to receive us, waiting for our arrival so He may console us."   (Saint Teresa of the Andes)  

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons) So what is the next step, Lord? What do I do? Where do I go? How do I love You and others as I ought? What must I sever myself and my time from? How Lord do I bridge the great gap that exists between what I profess to believe and how I actually live my life?  Please reveal to me, dear Lord, what I have been unable or unwilling to see.  When Lord will my heart and will be one with Yours – where every second of my life honors and glorifies You?

“If you want to experience true peace, come to the Tabernacle.   Oh, what love you will feel.   My Father waits for you: He waits until you are ready to sit and honor His Son.   He waits for you to open your heart: to believe He is there, so that He can give you the warmth of His Love and His Peace.   For if you believe I am there, all things are possible.   What happened?   Your families before you, honored Me.   They sat with Me: talked with Me.   Churches were full, and because of their love for Me, and the one who sent Me, they did all they could for my Church.   A lot has happened in the last 30 [50+] years.   I am the same God, yet there is no reverence for Me or my Son.   You come with your hands in your pockets, not folded in prayer; children eat, laugh and play in the real presence of my Son.   Some look away, as if they don’t know what to do; most don’t know who I am.   Come to the Tabernacle and learn who I am...

How can we Catholics credibly profess to believe that Jesus Christ is really, truly and substantially present in the tabernacles of  our Churches but rarely attend Sunday Mass and seldom visit Him outside of Mass?  If it is true (and it is) that the more time that we spend in the Presence of our God, the more like Him we will become, why are we not encouraged to do so?  Why do we keep our Churches locked so that the few who do stop for a visit, cannot get in to be with their Lord?  God wants us to visit Him. Don't we trust Him? Why have we not shared these Truths with our non-Catholic brethren? God is not in our tabernacles just for we Catholics. He is there for every soul, waiting to touch and stir their hearts, to bring them into His one, holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and His loving embrace. There are at least two likely answers to these questions: we mistakenly believe that one religion is just as good as another; and/ or we don't believe He is there!  O...

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. Peter Kreeft. Ph.D   “What is the best argument for the evangelist to use when telling the Good News? The most effective one is joy. It’s irresistible because it’s what everyone deeply wants. We can put up walls of argument against arguments, but we can’t argue with joy.”   (From The Mystery of Joy )      Venerable Fulton J. Sheen  "If you have never before prayed to Mary, do so now. Can you not see that if Christ himself willed to be physically formed in her for nine months and then be spiritually formed by her for thirty years, it is to her that we must go to learn how to have Christ formed in us? Only she who raised Christ can raise a Christian."   (From Advent Meditations with Fulton J. Sheen )     St. Therese...

" Here - all alone, He and I —  He, with all His greatness, and I with all my miseries — He, all fire; and I, burning in the midst of His Divine Passion!...My darkness is lost in the midst of His light...and my icy heart melts inside of His. Here my sins are forgiven and my sorrows —  O! my sorrows are united to His own, giving them value...How many treasures are enclosed in this holy place, consecrated through the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament! Heaven is here, because He is here! I would not exchange these four walls for the most glorious palace on earth! You can feel Him, yes... here the Lord can be felt...here He can be found...here the soul loses itself in His arms. It cries out contritely, is anxious to suffer, and loves Him!"   ( Holy Hours -   Concepcion Carbrera de Armida)