Pondering Tidbits of Truth - January 2, 2014

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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.

Pope Paul VI

“Our evangelizing zeal must spring from true holiness of life, and as the Second Vatican Council suggests, preaching must in turn make the preacher grow in holiness, which is nourished by prayer and above all by love for the Eucharist.”

                                                                (From Evangelii Nuntiandi, 76)

Blessed Columba Marmion

“Our Lord asks that the splendor of our works be such as to bring those who are witnesses of them to glorify His Father. Let us fear neither temptation (when we resist it, God will make profit come out of it for us, because it is the occasion of a victory which strengthens us in the love of God); nor trials either. We can go through great difficulties, suffer grave contradictions, endure deep sufferings, but from the moment that we set ourselves to serve God through love, those difficulties, those contradictions, those sufferings, serve as the food of love. When one loves God, one can still feel the cross; God will even make us feel it more in the measure that we advance, because the cross establishes in us a greater likeness to Christ; but one loves then, if not the cross itself, at least the hand of Jesus that places the cross on our shoulders. For this hand gives us also the unguent of grace for bearing our burden. Love is a powerful weapon against temptation and an invincible force in adversity.”

(From Christ – The Life of the Soul)

Frank Morrris

“The modern Catholic is inclined to feel he has no right to intrude moral precepts, the teachings of religious truth he has received from his Church into public matters. There is a false idea that it is improper to fight for or against anything because one has learned to be for or against it from his faith. This is not only wrong, it is specifically rejected by Vatican II…Indeed, the first virtue that needs rehabilitating among the laity today is that of courage – courage concerning the faith. To be a true Catholic, a conciliar one heeding the teaching of Vatican II, is to be a courageous Catholic, one who is known and heard in regard to his beliefs.”

(From Heralds of Christ in the Marketplace)