Pondering Tidbits of Truth - February 27, 2014
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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.
St. Thomas Aquinas
“There is a
difference between the knowledge we acquire of God by science and by faith.
The knowledge of God possessed by a study of the sciences enlightens our
intellect only, by showing that God is the first cause, that He is One and
All-Wise. But the knowledge of God had by faith both enlightens the intellect
and delights the heart; because that knowledge not only tells us that God is
the First Cause but that He is our Savior, that He is the Redeemer, that He
loves us and became man for us.”
(From Saint
Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day)
Father Leo Rudloff, O.S.B.
“It is certain that
the suffering of the "poor souls" [in purgatory] is very great and that
they suffer without being able to gain further merits, i.e., to grow in
charity. Most severe of all is the fact that they are excluded from the vision
of God. It is a further certainty that we can come to their aid by prayer and
especially by sacrifice (Holy Mass). But it is equally certain that they know
of their eternal salvation and that they derive great comfort therefrom.
Consequently, purgatory is decidedly a place of love and surrender to the will
of God. After the soul has completed its period of purgation, or if it departed
this life free from the last stain of sin or obligation to temporal punishment,
it enters into the eternal bliss of heaven.”
(From Everyman’s
Theology)
Blessed
Columba Marmion
“…What God wants is that you be holy.
Let us, then, seek to
carry out this will of our Heavenly Father. Our Lord asks that the splendor of
our works be such as to bring those who are witness 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)
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