Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image source:  Wikimedia Commons )   The little that we have – be it in material goods, time  or talents – is sufficient for God’s work if, when He asks, we would just give whatever that is to Him. Take notice in today’s Gospel what He did with five loaves of bread and two fish! On the surface, it looked like Jesus was asking His Apostles to do the impossible – feed thousands of  people. He wasn’t. He was asking them to give Him what they had and He would make the impossible possible. God will never give us a task, no matter how daunting it may first appear, without giving us all that we need to complete it. The first step is our total surrender to, and trust in, His will for us. So let’s ask ourselves: Is there anything I am still holding on to and unwilling to give Him?

This is the feast day of the great Dominican Saint, Lay Dominican, Doctor of the Catholic Church, and mystic, St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380).  Many have heard of Dialogue of Divine Providence, the spiritual jewel she left our Church, but few have taken the time to really study it. I am still working on it. It is a priceless treasure worth mining. Here is an excerpt that should provide you with sufficient food for contemplation: Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena : "I require that you should love Me with the same love with which I love you. This indeed you cannot do, because I loved you without being loved. All the love which you have for Me you owe to Me, so that it is not of grace that you love Me, but because you ought to do so, while I love you of grace, and not because I owe you my love. Therefore to Me, in person you cannot repay the love which I require of you, and I have placed you in the midst of your fellows, that you may do ...

  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Dear Saint Michael: What sweet delight it is to call upon you as the Guardian Angel of the Eucharist. Dear and faithful sentinel, we believe that you always attend to our Eucharistic King Jesus, wherever He is pleased to dwell among us. Please help us grow in imitation of your boundless love for Jesus in this Sacrament of His Divine Love. Confirm and strengthen our faith and His Real Presence. Obtain for us the grace of receiving the Holy Eucharist worthily, mindfully and reverently each time we are blessed to approach His Sacred Altar Amen. (Carol Puschaver from Lovingly Do I Call to You - Prayers to Saint Michael the Archangel. Used with permission.)

  "The evil one sows fear; the angels of God dispel it." Father Jose Gonzalez

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.   "The object of faith is not feelings but truth, and the subject and agent of faith is will, not feelings. The will is like the ocean, and the feelings are like the waves. The ocean is always reliably there even though the waves are high one day and low the next."  (From his book Calvinist to Catholic )   St. Catherine of Siena   "I've appointed the Devil to tempt and to trouble My creatures in this life [St. Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her]. I've done this, not so that My creatures will be overcome, but so that they may overcome, proving their virtue and receiving from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil tha...

"Ima gine now that you hear these sweet words from your Savior: 'It is because you are poor that I come into you; it is because you are sick that I come to heal you; it was to give you My life and let you share My sanctity that I made Myself Sacrament; come then with confidence and give Me Your heart; that is all I desire from you'."   St. Peter Julian Eymard from  Holy Communion )