Pondering Tidbits of Truth - October 30, 2025

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. John of the Cross

"What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness and kingdom - your Beloved Whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you."

(From Spiritual Canticle)

Thomas a Kempis "You must first have peace in your own soul before you can make peace between other people. Peaceable people accomplish more good than learned people do. Those who are passionate often can turn good into evil and readily believe the worst. But those who are honest and peaceful turn all things to good and are suspicious of no one. ... It is no test of virtue to be on good terms with easy-going people, for they are always well liked. And, of course, all of us want to live in peace and prefer those who agree with us. But the real test of virtue and deserving of praise is to live at peace with the perverse, or the aggressive and those who contradict us, for this needs a great grace. ... in this mortal life, our peace consists in the humble bearing of suffering and contradictions, not in being free of them, for we cannot live in this world without adversity. Those who can best suffer will enjoy the most peace, for such persons are masters of themselves, lords of the world, with Christ for their friend, and heaven as their reward."                                      (From Imitation of Christ)

St. Lawrence Justinian

"The Mass is the most excellent, the most holy, the most acceptable to God and useful to us, that can be imagined. And so,  while it is going on, the angels assist in crowds, with bare feet, with earnest eyes, with downcast brows, with great silence, with incredible amazement and veneration. With what purity, attention, devotion and reverence, then, ought the priest to celebrate it?"

(From A Year With The Saints)

Eucharistic Reflection - Growing in Humility

 

“So how do we grow in humility through the Eucharist? A few simple practices can help.

First, we must always approach the Eucharist with reverence. Come to Mass prepared, recollected and aware of the great mystery before you.  One way we do this is by looking at the prayers and readings beforehand, thus allowing us to participate more fully at Mass.

Second, make frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Even a few minutes in prayer before the tabernacle can teach the soul humility, We don't need to worry about bringing a prayer book or what we are going to say, just be with Jesus.

Third , we must allow the Eucharist to shape our daily lives. After receiving Communion, ask yourself: How can I be’ bread broken’ and ‘wine poured out’ for others today?

Fourth, serve in your ministry, quietly. Remember anything we do for the Church is not our right, it is a privilege. Allow your love for Eucharist to spill over into hidden acts of service that reflect Christ's humility.

The Eucharist is humility made visible before our eyes. It is God's love poured out in silence and hiddenness, a love that gives itself completely without seeking recognition. If we wish to grow in humility, we must draw near to the Eucharist  - not only to receive it but to let it transform us.”

(Excerpted from Learning Humility from the Eucharist written by Father Richard D. Breton and published in the October 16, 2025 issue of The Wanderer)

Monday Musings - What The Eucharist Teaches Us

 

Eucharistic Reflection - How To Grow In Humility

 

(Photo ©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with Permission)

“If you want to grow in humility, spend time in Eucharistic adoration. In the silence of the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, we come face to face with the humility of God.

There, Christ waits for us - not demanding, not forcing, but simply inviting. In adoration. we learn to quiet the noise of our pride and ambitions. We learn to listen more than we speak. We learn to rest in God's presence without needing to prove ourselves.

Adoration teaches us that humility is not about doing but about being - being with Christ, who humbled Himself to be with us.”

(Excerpted from Learning Humility from the Eucharist written by Father Richard D. Breton and published in the October 16, 2025 issue of The Wanderer)

Monday Musings - Rosary Reflection - When Parents Pray The Rosary

 

"The faults of children are not always imputed to the parents, especially when they have instructed them and given good example. Our Lord, in His wondrous Providence, allows children to break the hearts of devout fathers and mothers. Thus the decisions your children have made don't make you a failure as a parent in God's eyes. You are entitled to feel sorrow, but not necessarily guilt. Do not cease praying for your children; God's grace can touch a hardened heart. Commend your children to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When parents pray the Rosary, at the end of each decade they should hold the Rosary aloft and say to her, 'With these beads bind my children to your Immaculate Heart"'. She will attend to their souls."

(St. Louise de Marillac)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - October 15, 2025

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. Bernard of Clairvaux

“Look to the star of the sea, call upon Mary. In danger, in distress, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. May her name never be far from your lips, or far from your heart. If you follow her you will not stray; if you pray to her, you will not despair; if you turn your thoughts to her, you will not err. If she holds you, you will not fail; if she protects you, you need not fear; if she is your guide, you will not tire; if she is gracious to you, you will surely reach your destination."

(From A Homily of St. Bernard)

 

St. John Henry Newman

“Realize it, my brethren; —every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in the body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also.”

 (From Newman Reader)

 

Father Florian Racine   “How can we live from the power of the Holy Spirit if this gift is not renewed in the Eucharist? Eucharistic adoration is a perpetual outpouring of the Holy Spirit to give us the heart of a child, to put us at the disposal of the Heart of God, to learn in those long hours spent before the Blessed Sacrament how to say ‘Abba, Father’ with the right attitude…"

(From Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?)

 

Rosary Reflection - Its Beauty

 

"The entire Rosary has the beauty of reproducing the theological thoughts concerning Mary, they are reproduced in the entire dialectic of truth and deduction. Marian theology and the Rosary are two poems that are united into one, two hymns forming one hymn, two magnificent temples, two cathedrals of thought and piety, that come together as one...

Here in the Rosary, piety speaks in the language of theologians. Here meditation rises to the heights attained by scholars. Here prayer dwells where the scholars are brought to a halt.

Marian theology and the Rosary are therefore similar to two temples having at the same height their pinnacles and spires. The people of God in the Church have found the Rosary, its Book of Psalms. The clergy have the Divine Office, the people have the Rosary. Like The Divine Comedy, the Rosary is a trilogy: it recalls the joys, sorrows, and triumphs of Jesus and in perfect symmetry, for each part it has five chants, and each chant in turn is an episode. 

The Rosary could very well be called the poem of human redemption. The Rosary is a poem that takes its lively but simplistic hues from the pure palette of the Gospel; while at the same time it draws its logical ties, its harmonious responses, its entire intimate dialectic from the highest theology."

                           (Saint Bartolo Longo)