Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"0 my children! Our Lord is hidden there, waiting for us to come and visit Him and make our requests. See how good He is! He accommodates Himself to our weakness. (Source: WikiMedia Commons )  "In Heaven, where we shall be glorious and triumphant, we shall see Him in all His glory. If He presented Himself before us in that glory now, we should not dare to approach Him, but He hides Himself like a person in a prison and seems to say, 'You do not see Me, but that does not matter; ask of Me all you wish and I will grant it.' He is there in the Sacrament of His love, sighing and interceding incessantly with His Father for sinners. "To what outrages does He not expose Himself,   that He may remain in our midst!

(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.   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 )

Have you become a little too causal when you approach the King of Kings? Maybe this little prayer will help reignite the sense of awe, amazement and gratitude that such a great and undeserved privilege deserves.

(Photo©Michael Seagriff

Photo©Michael Seagriff It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's This That and The Other Thing where you are sure to find something that will touch your heart and stir your soul. Take a few minutes and visit! I have set forth my postings for this week below. I pray something you read there will be of value.  But first - a matter of great personal and eternal importance. I am with my sister who is suffering through the burden of carrying the cross of cancer. May I be bold enough to ask all who visit here to storm heaven on Jane's behalf and prayerfully help her carry that ever-increasing burden to a heavenly reward? She and I would be eternally grateful. Monday Musings - We Need More Holy Priests Fra Angelico - Sharing The Fruits of His Comtemplation Pondering The Tidbits of Truth - The Book - Is Here! Eucharistic Reflection - Nothing Can Compare To It! What Would Happen If...

...we loved Him as we ought and as He deserves?

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “But if it is true that without Christ Jesus we "can do nothing", how much more will that be found true when it is a matter of our carrying out the action which is the holiest one of each day! To unite oneself sacramentally to Christ Jesus in the Eucharist is, for a created being, the highest act there can be. All human wisdom, whatever heights it may reach, is nothing in comparison with that act. We are incapable of adequately disposing ourselves in this without the help of Christ Himself. Our prayers show the reverence we have for Him, but it is He Himself who must prepare a dwelling for Himself within us.

Take a glimpse  into Pondering Tidbits of Truth by clicking here.     Get Your Copy Here! YOU DO NOT NEED A KINDLE IN ORDER TO READ THIS BOOK . JUST DOWNLOAD THE FREE KINDLE READER APPLICATIONS (WHICH YOU WILL FIND HERE ) ON TO YOUR LAPTOP, SMART PHONE OR TABLET AND YOU ARE GOOD TO GO.   If you find this little book has value, would you spread the word? Thank you.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) As a Lay Dominican, I promised to engage in a consistent and serious study of my Faith, to ponder and chew on those Truths and to share the fruits of my contemplation with others - all for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. In a very limited and inadequate way, I have tried to use my writing and this blog to achieve those goals. The Blessed Dominican whom we commemorate today,  Blessed John of Fiesole (more popularly referred to as Fra Angelico) shared the fruits of his contemplation, not so much through words, but through the magnificent works of art that flowed from his reflection and through the paint brushes God so skillfully guided. One would be hard pressed to gaze upon these treasures without obtaining a greater understanding and appreciation for the great Truths of our Faith. Oh, how satisfying  his work is to souls hungry to be nourished!

There has been a shortage of priestly vocations in this nation for some time. There are a number of reasons for this crisis (well beyond the scope of this simple article) but one screams to be addressed: the failure of some priests to make the Eucharist the source and center of their daily lives – an issue addressed many times by Blessed John Paul II. We do not need priests who believe their success rests in political activism and community organizing and who tickle our ears with platitudes and half-truths while withholding the spiritual Truth we need to live eternally. We need courageous priests, real men, other Christs, holy priests, who teach, live, defend, explain and love all the Truths of our Faith – men who would rather die than see a single person under their pastoral care lose their soul.

This is long. View it in little pieces. You will not regret investing the time. You will be blown away:

Just in case these words escaped your attention yesterday at Mass:

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place where you are sure to find something that will touch your heart and stir your soul. Take a few minutes and visit! Question of the week: What is my  favorite book? There are so many but these three are the ones to which I continually return: God, A Woman and the Way by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., The Way to God by Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S and Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales. Here is what I shared this week on my blog and elsewhere: So Sin Is No Big Deal? Monday Musings - On The Poor and Pope Francis' Challenge To Us Eucharistic Reflection - Are We Other Christs? Still Think Sin Is Not So Bad? The Most Powerful Pro-life Video Ever? I was also blessed to have Catholic Spirituality Blogs Network post this: Love Your Priests - All of Them!

Life news.com described the following video as the most powerful pro-life video it had ever seen.  Do you agree? If so, pass it along.

(Source: Wikemedia Commons ) “The Divine Lover in the tabernacle longs to diffuse His life. If we are to resemble Him, then love, which is His life, must so burn within us as to set on fire the world around us. "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?"' Christ wishes us to create or renew this life in others. To be His true disciples, we must not possess our sacramen­tal God selfishly, but, like Him, we must willingly and gener­ously sacrifice ourselves, be other Christs, in the unrestrained, perfect development and diffusion of His life of love. As love acts and reacts, our charity, especially toward those who need it most, through daily, thoughtful kindness, through a delicate anticipation, and, if possible, through relief of their wants - through spending ourselves and being spent for them - will determine the extent of our love of Christ and His love of us. The God of love cannot abide in a soul where there is no love...

( (Image from Biblebios.com) (If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic postings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month (God willing) generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.)   Being materially poor is not much fun.  In whatever form it manifests itself, such poverty is a  heavy, terrible and sometimes oppressive cross to bear.  Truly impoverished people struggle daily to find food, shelter and clothing. Far too many in this world have little or none of these necessities. For the most part, we who profess to be Christian, ignore their plight. As a result, every day, countless die of starvation and malnutrition, while we fill our trash bins with enough wasted food to have saved a good portion of them from such a horrifying fate.

(Photo© Michael Seagriff) It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place   where you are sure to find something that will touch your heart and stir your soul. Take a few minutes and visit! This week's question: Do you read Christian fiction?  Why or why not?  It is only within the past two years that I have begun to read Christian fiction. I really enjoy the great variety of outstanding books that are being written in this genre. Thanks to my involvement with the Catholic Writers Guild,  I had the privilege of meeting a few of the many gifted story tellers out there such as Ellen Gable Hrkach, Erin McCole-Cupp and Michelle Buckman. I highly recommend their work. I posted the following on my blog this week: Coming Soon -"Pondering Tidbits of Truth" - the E-book St. Agatha and I "Got A Good Thing Going" Pondering Tidbits of Truth - February 6, 2014 Join Us In "Storming" Heaven fo...

We are all busy people. Many of us have convinced ourselves that we simply do not have the time to read, ponder and reflect on the wealth of spiritual wisdom our Catholic Church has accumulated over the centuries. Yet, we owe God and ourselves this reflective time. If we spend little or no time pondering the truths and mysteries of our Faith, we are not going to progress spiritually - a growth essential to our eternal well-being and that of those around us.

We Lay Dominicans of the St. Joseph Province are praying for the complete cure of Baby Oliver, the son and grandson of members of our community. What makes this even more compelling and unique is that we are asking God, if it be His holy will, to produce this mighty miracle through the intercession of our beloved Lay Dominican sister, Blessed Margaret of Castello (1293-1320), who was blind and deformed from birth, thereby providing the second miracle needed for her canonization. (You can find out more about Blessed Margaret here and here .) The success of this prayer effort rests where it belongs – in the hands of our Almighty and loving God. What a great blessing it would be, not only for Oliver, his family and our Dominican family but the entire Catholic Church, if God used Oliver’s cure to give birth to yet another Lay Dominican saint! Will you, your family and friends join us in this prayer effort? You will find the Novena and Canonization prayers and excer...

(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. Rev. Daniel Considine S.J. “There is more danger of our not hoping enough than of our hoping too much. Don’t put your standard so low. If you want to go high, the higher the things you think God wants of you, the better. Breathe the air of God’s promises, and raise your hearts high. God wants a great deal of us. You have never hitherto believed that He really does. You say to yourself, if God wanted me to be a saint, He should have given me a very different character. Whether you are a Carmelite or living in the world, there is not the smallest difference in the love God wants of you. Hitherto I have not realized what God wants of me. The highest gifts of prayer, what are they compared with the gift of His Body and Blood!

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) More than 20 years ago, my former pastor asked us if we all knew the dates of our Baptism. No one did. “You should,” he exclaimed, “it was the most important day of your life. You should celebrate it every year.” Until he asked, I had never given much thought to the day of my baptism save for being vaguely thankful my parents had had me baptized. Father’s suggestion made sense to me. I made a mental note to look it up and follow the good priest’s suggestion. Unfortunately, like many of my “good intentions” this one got lost in the ebb and flow of life’s daily challenges. Fifteen years later while meditating on the first Luminous Mystery of the Rosary, the Baptism of our Lord in the Jordan, Father’s suggestion from years ago suddenly jumped into my head. This time I resolved to follow it.

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place once again. Take a few minutes and visit! Y ou are sure to find something that will touch your heart and stir your soul. Spent most of the week shamelessly promoting  free copies of my quick read book. I was humbled and overwhelmed with the response. If you or anyone you know who might have liked a copy missed the chance but have a buck, you can still get your copy here . Here is what I managed to post this week: Monday Musings - Gimme Shelter - Go See It Now! Video - Where Do You Think God Is? Quench His Thirst! Eucharistic Reflection - Hasten There From Home Any Chance We Will Hear This Truth On Super Bowl Sunday?

 He Thirsts for You!  For Your Love! Quench His Thirst! (Source: FOCUS ) Why not at least spend a few minutes during half-time with Him -  if not physically than spiritually in some quiet corner of your home?

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) AFTER the Sacrifice of the Mass and the reception of Holy Communion, visiting the Blessed Sacrament is one of the richest sources of grace for souls. The memorable words of Pope St. Pius X, the Pope of the Eucharist, show us clearly how he regarded such visits: "The daily adoration or visit to the Blessed Sacrament is the practice which is the fountainhead of all devotional works." In these daily visits, therefore, St. Pius X recog­nized the root of Eucharistic devotions.