Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

One way of letting all prayer warriors know what happened at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco last Saturday (see my earlier post ) is to share some of the photographs taken by Darwin Sayo , who has graciously consented to our using them: Oh, the power of prayer! One of the event's promoters filed this report:

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb , an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on the site they host: “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey. Since 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), I thought I would share something I had originally posted on April 19, 2013: Jesus Speaks Not Only To St. Catherine of Siena But to Us Jesus to St. Catherine: “What I ask of you is nothing other than love and affection for Me and for your neighbor. This can be done at any time, any place, and in any state of life.” “In the way of God, he who makes no progress loses ground.” “...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) It [Eucharistic Adoration] is a time of encounter between the depths of our misery and the depths of God's love. It is there that I can know that I am loved by Christ who delivered himself for me. Everything is from him. He knows how to untie the knots that keep me in their grip. There, I to be silent in the deepest part of myself in order to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, real problems resolving themselves at the foot of the tabernacle. Jesus said to Angela of Foligno: "Concern yourself with me, and I will concern myself with you." Adoration nourishes faith, trains it to avoid lapsing into unbelief or superstition. It is essential among this people that believes that it is being injured. Adoration is not a pharmacy but the gratuitousness of God's gift. (Archbishop Kébreau of Cap-HaItien quoted in Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour? by Father Florian Racine)

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Many professing to be Catholic - even among those who attend Sunday Mass regularly - have lost the sense of the Sacred and their belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The many reasons for this are beyond the scope of this brief reflection. Let me mention just two   (1) the misuse of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist whose assistance at Mass should be restricted to those very rare occasions “whenever the number of faithful wishing to receive Communion is so great that the celebration of Mass would be unduly long (emphasis added); and (2) the failure of so many of us to spend sufficient time in thanksgiving and conversation with the Lord whose Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity we consume. Since reception under both species is neither required nor recommended for frequent use, can anyone truthfully say that their Sunday Mass would be unduly prolonged if there were no Extraordinary Ministers of the...

May the wisdom of this great saint stir our souls to a greater appreciation for the magnificence and value of each Mass offered daily throughout the world.

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.  Gaudium et Spes “The Christian who neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation." ( Gaudium et Spes , the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 43)

(Image Source: Star of the Sea Church ) Help me understand this! For far too many years now, there have been Bishops, priests, religious and laity (including prominent politicians claiming to be Catholic), who have engaged in public dissent from the Church’s teachings with little or no public correction from the Shepherds charged with the salvation of their souls.   Such public dissent – so destructive to the spiritual well-being of other Catholics - is more often than not met with public silence. Yet two simple priests (Fathers Joseph Illo and Patrick Driscoll), who are trying to establish an Oratory of St. Philip Neri in a San Francisco parish in hopes of   reigniting the flames of knowledge, love and fidelity for the Catholic Faith, are met with public ridicule and criticism, some of which come from their brother priests. At the same time, a public effort is made to have the Holy Father remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, their Archbishop, simply be...

There is only one real way to lasting happiness - total surrender and abandonment to God's will. There is, however,  a number of ways to express and explain that Truth.  On Sunday ,  I shared Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's take on this vital issue. Today, I offer the wisdom of St. Josemaria Escriva.  We would be wise to let their words penetrate and saturate our minds hearts and souls.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “Eucharistic piety should be centered above all on the celebration of the Lord's Supper, which perpetuates the pouring out of His love on the Cross. But it has a logical prolongation ...in the adoration of Christ in this divine Sacrament, in the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament, in prayer beside the Tabernacle, as well as in those other exercises of devotion both personal and collective, private and public, which you have been practicing for centuries ... Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love. Let us not be mean with our time when it comes to going to meet Him in adoration, in contemplation that is filled with faith, and disposed to make reparation for the grave faults and crimes of the world. (Saint John Paul II Address , October 31, 1982)

The most difficult but fulfilling life on earth demands our total surrender to the Will of God.

"If the great event of the Second Vatican Council was a breath of the Spirit that was blown into the world through the windows of the Church, then we need to recognize that a lot of worldliness has also blown in with the Spirit, creating a current and blowing the leaves all over. We’ve seen everything and yet nothing has been lost, but order must be patiently restored. Order is restored above all by strongly affirming the primacy of the Risen Christ, present in the Eucharist. There is a great peaceful battle to be waged which is that of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, so that the entire world can become part of a network of prayer, united to the Holy Rosary, in which we reflect on the salvific mysteries of Christ with Mary. This will generate and develop a movement of reparation and penetration." ( Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, )

Thank you Allison Gingras at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb for hosting this site each week. Please show your appreciation to them and to the bloggers who post here by visiting each Wednesday. Here is what I am sharing this week: Lost The Sense of the Sacred? (Originally posted on July 25, 2013) There is so much of spiritual value that is shared over the internet on a daily basis that goes unrecognized and/or unread - the sheer volume of such material is mind boggling. One of the contributions we Catholic bloggers can make toward advancing the cause of The New Evangelization is to share some of the spiritual treasures we discover while searching the web with those who might visit our blogs. Many bloggers already do so. I ran across one of those treasures some time ago at Traditional Catholic Priest. I should have shared this sooner. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Are you amo...

If you want to read about the struggles of a twice-divorced former U.S. Army pilot and mother who tried going through a good portion of her younger life without having a personal relationship with God (sound familiar?) then this is the book for you. Don’t believe God can forgive a lifetime of sin and self-centeredness, including premarital sex, cohabitation, adultery and divorce? Then you really do not know Him. Think it is too late to change, to be forgiven, to start anew? Then read this book – an inspiring story of personal conversion. I knew neither the author nor the book before I was invited to participate in this Virtual Blog Tour. I am grateful I accepted the invitation. Not only have I come to know her through the words she shared, but now have a resource I can recommend to two ever expanding groups - those tempted to make similarly poor choices and those who have lived Marie’s difficult life and mistakenly feel it is too late to start anew. This is wh...

A great reminder that we are never alone on this journey toward heaven - most especially at those times when we are tempted to feel the most forsaken:

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I knew several weeks ago when my friend and noted author, Anne Costa, posted the following excerpt on her website , that there would be a perfect time for me to share it directly with my readers. Today is that time. What an ideal and complimentary reflection to share on Divine Mercy Sunday: "We have been trained in the habit of looking at our dark side, our ugliness, and not at the purifying Sun, Light of Light, which He is, Who changes the dust we are into pure gold. We think about examining ourselves, yet we do not think before the examination, during the examination or after the examination to plunge ourselves, with all our miseries into the consuming and transforming furnace of His Heart, which is open to us through a single humble act of Confidence. I am not telling you ‘You believe too much in your own wretchedness’. We are much more wretched than we ever realize. But I am telling you ‘You ...

(Image 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. Monsignor Ronald A. Knox "When you have a lot of people singing without any organ accompaniment, there is a constant tendency for the note to drop all the time; it gets lower and lower as it goes on. And therefore, when the choir isn't accustomed to sing­ing without accompaniment, every now and then the choir­master, who has a pitch-pipe concealed on his person, gives a little 'toot' in the background, to remind them of the higher note which they ought to be taking and aren't. And, you see, we are rather like that We go on living from day to day without thinking much about how we are living, or what we are here for, or whether the things that chiefly interest us are really worth living for; and we get accustomed to our sins, and feel vaguely that it is a pity we go on co...

We thank Allison Gingras at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb for their continuing hospitality here on Wednesdays.  Show your appreciation to them and to the bloggers they host by visiting there each week. Here is what I am sharing this week: Listen To The Prophets! (Originally posted on July 12, 2012) (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) The prophet Hosea reminds us (Hosea 11:1-4,8e-9) that the history of mankind is a story of unrequited love   – God loving man but man not loving Him in return.  God has given us every thing we need. Yet, the more we receive the less grateful we have become.   Despite our ingratitude and our failure to love Him as we ought and in a manner our God deserves, He still loves us. He went to the cross, suffered and died for us, knowing that far too many of us would never appreciate His sacrifice or benefit eternally from it.  Oh, that we would l...

“ “I desire to unite Myself to human souls; My great delight is to unite Myself with souls.  Know, my daughter, that when I come to a human heart in Holy Communion, My hands are full of all kinds of graces which I want to give to the soul. But souls do not even pay attention to Me; they leave Me to myself and busy themselves with other things.  Oh, how sad I am that souls do not recognize Love!  They treat me as a dead object.” (Jesus to St. Maria Faustina Kowalska )          

“What joy ought not we men to conceive, what hopes and what affections, in knowing that in the midst of our land, in our churches, near our houses, the Holy of Holies, the true God, dwells and lives in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar! He who by his presence alone renders the saints in heaven blessed! He who is love itself.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori)

Alleluia! He's Alive. Our Lord Has Risen! (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) I thought this video was worth re-posting this Easter.

It is only with much perseverance and undeserved grace that our meditation and contemplation will bear fruit - fruit which we should share with those around us. On those occasions when we are so blessed, most of us will resort to sharing our experience with written or spoken words. A rare few who ponder persistently the mysteries of our Faith and the life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and who have been blessed with artistic gifts, will receive a greater grace - the ability to share the fruits of their meditation and contemplation through the creation of penetrating, piercing, and powerful images of He Whom they have contemplated. Take time this Good Friday (and from time to time thereafter) to gaze upon and ponder the drawing posted below. Let your eyes, heart, mind and soul take in every painstakingly created feature of this compelling representation of our Lord. Ponder the depth of God's love for you as He suffered such a savage, barbaric and painful death in order tha...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) Holy Thursday should be among the most treasured days in our Church as we commemorate and give thanks for the Gift of the Eucharist and the Priesthood. It must be an occasion for the spiritual re-invigoration of our priests and of all whom they serve. God is quite clear as to what He expects from His priests! - to make the Eucharist the center of all that they do - all that they do .  This begins and is sustained only by spending time in His Eucharistic Presence, adoring Him, listening to Him and allowing Him to complete their priestly transformation into other Christs, His expectations and pleadings have not changed over the centuries.  Sadly, He still awaits a universal and affirmative response from many of His priests. Thank God that through the following two reflections, Father Mark at Vultus Christi has the courage to share those expectations with his brother priests and with us.  Here are two brief ...

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in Faith journey. Be sure to regularly visit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb .  hey have much to offer you, Here is what I am sharing this week: May Tomorrow Not Just Be Another Routine Holy Thursday (Originally published on April 2, 2012) (A somewhat updated version of several posts from previous years) (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) According to St. Pius X, our sanctity depends in large measure on the holiness of our priests. This Holy Thursday then is an appropriate time to reflect on our priests, the imperative that the Eucharist be the source, center and summit of their lives and ours, and our duty as lay men and ...