Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Another week has gone by and it is time to thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers to re-post their favorite articles on 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. Be sure to visit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of the week.   Here is my contribution this week: Musings of An Aging Sibling  (Originally posted May 6, 2011) (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I have wondered occasionally what you must have thought when you first saw two little bodies squirming around in their cribs, squawking and demanding so much attention from others.   Joseph, you were certainly old enough to understand who these two little runts were and why they required so much attention.   But John, you were still in di...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) O what an awesome thought! You deal otherwise with others, but, as to me, the flesh and blood of God is my sole life. I shall perish without it; yet shall I not perish with it and by it? How can I raise myself to such an act as to feed upon God? 0 my God, I am in a quandary—shall I go forward, or shall I go back? I will go forward: I will go to meet You. I will open my mouth, and receive Your gift. I do so with great awe and fear, but what else can I do? To whom should I go but to You? Who can save me but You? Who can cleanse me but You? Who can make me overcome myself but You? Who can raise my body from the grave but You? Therefore I come to You in all these my necessities: in fear, but in faith.

There is always something more that a hungry soul can learn about prayer. I found this to be true during a brief presentation Father John Denburger, OCSO offered at a recent retreat I made at the Abbey at the Genesee in Piffard, New York I hope I can do justice to the pearls he shared with us. The most important relationship we are called to develop in this life," Father began, "is our relationship with God and His with us." Prayer is essential. If one does not pray, there can be no fruitful relationship between God and man. St. Maria Faustina Kowalska confirms Father's teaching, telling us that there are no exceptions to this command to pray: "In whatever state a soul may be, it ought to pray. A soul which is pure and beautiful must pray, or else it will lose its beauty; a soul which is striving after this purity must pray, or else it will never attain it; a soul which is newly converted must pray, or else it will fall ag...

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.   Saint Augustine “If you love God; draw to you all those who gather around or live in your house, so that all will come to love Him If you love the Body of Christ, which is the unity of the Church, impel everyone, to rejoice in God and tell them with David: ‘Magnify with me the Lord, and let us together praise His Holy Name' (Prov 21:28); and in this do not be calculating or stingy, but rather win for the Lord all those you can by whatever means possible, according to your abilities: exhorting them; bearing them up, pleading with then; arguing with them and giving them the reasons for the things of faith, with all gentleness and tact.” (From Commentary on the Psalms )

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on “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. During the rest of each week. visit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb .  You will be pleased with what they share. I hope you find something of value in what follows: Good Night Lord: Thank You For My Life and My Dominican Vocation (Originally posted:  April 25, 2011) (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) There are two reasons why I may have some difficulty falling asleep tonight. On my way to Mass this morning at a Church near where my son and his wife live, I was awestruck by a life size portrait of Our Risen Lord that w...

“We ministers of the Lord, for whom the Tabernacle has become mute and silent, the stone of consecration cold, the Host a venerable, but lifeless, memento: have been unable to turn souls from their evil How could we ever draw them out of the mire or forbidden pleasures? And yet we have talked to them about the joys of religion and of good conscience. But because we have not known how to slake our own thirst at the living waters of the Lamb, we have mumbled and stuttered in our attempts to portray those ineffable joys, the very desire of which would have shattered the chains of the triple concupiscence much more effectively than all our thundering tirades about hell…Our lips have been unable to speak the language of the Heart of Him Who loves men, because our converse with Him has been as infrequent as it has been cold. Let us not try to shift all the blame onto the profoundly demoralized state of society. After all, we have only to look, for example, at the e...

"When a preacher or catechist retains, in himself the warm life of the Precious Blood, when his heart is consumed with the fire that consumes the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, what life his words will have: they will burn, they will be living flames! And what effects the Eucharist will have, radiating throughout a class for instance, or through a hospital ward, or in a club, and so on, when the ones God has chosen to work there have nourished their zeal in Holy Communion, and have become Christ-bearers !" (From The Soul of The Apostolate by Jean Baptiste Chautard, OCSO)

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on “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. During the rest of each week. visit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb .  You will be pleased with what they share. Here is what I am sharing this week: May More of Our Priests Accept God's Invitation to Come Before His Eucharistic Face and Enter His Sacred Heart (Originally posted July 9, 2012)  In case you have not recently read Vultus Christi , Father Mark’s blog, make sure you read what follows and then share it with everyone you know, especially with as many priests as you can.  Recommend  Vultus Christi to your priests.  ...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Amazing what we can accomplish when we cooperate with God. Visit here and you will understand what I mean.

(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.     Father Francis Fernandez "We may also recall today the obligation - at times grave - that we have to do everything possible so that no relative, friend or colleague or ours dies without the spiritual assistance that our Mother Church provides for the final moments of our journey [Viaticum-Last rites]. This is the best and most effective and perhaps the last possible manifestation of charity and affection towards those persons here on earth." (From In Conversation With God , Vol 4:56.1)

My continued thanks to Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers 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 your Faith journey.     During the rest of the week, visit Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.       Here is what I wish to share this week: [ As 40 Days for Life prepares to kick off its Fall campaign in a few weeks and as we struggle with the barbaric revelations from the mouths of Planned Parenthood's own staff, the  following post from September of 2011 seemed a timely one to re-share] Your Presence Makes a Difference  My wife, I and four strangers spent an hour outside the local Planned Parenthood center witnessing to and praying for all those entering that building – staff and client alike. This was only the fourth time ove...

You can feel Him…O yes, here you can feel God…you can inhale and breathe Him, filling this humble cenacle of the earth, impregnating the atmosphere with celestial perfume. This tabernacle bears the fragrance of Jesus; one enters here as if entering Jesus' innermost being; with that same respect... that same confidence... that same love. The light, the warmth, the fire of the Eucharistic Jesus fills everything, and thus, in this beloved enclosure, the thorns are roses... sacrifice is not felt... pain and martyrdom are sweet because they are suffered for His sake and in His intimacy. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) If the altar is poor, Jesus is its richness... its most delicate embellishment. Without being fully aware of it, one enters into profound concentration and prayer because one leaves earthly things at the door, and the soul is engulfed in the possession of its Beloved.

Our failure to live this Truth has contributed to the destruction of our culture and  the loss of countless souls. It is time to engage the enemy...

My continued thanks to Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers 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 your Faith journey.  During the rest of the week, visit Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.       I WANT TO APOLOGIZE for the link I posted last week.  I deleted it accidentally and could not retrieve it. Consequently most of you were unable to read the post.     After praying to St. Anthony for the past week, he allowed me to find a copy yesterday. I am re-posting it below or if you prefer as a podcast here . I hope you find it worthy of your time.    Who Was That Man?   (Originally posted Mach 3, 2014)  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I’ve walked these few blocks countless times over the past twelve years ...

“Even after three years of close companionship with Jesus, the apostles noticed no striking change in each other, and little in themselves. Yet Jesus saw a steady transformation going forward, and He rejoiced. He saw how the love of Himself, which brings with it all good, was gradually raising their standards; was widening, purifying, and kindling their hearts; and preparing the material for fire which at Pentecost was to descend upon them and transform them into other men. Slowly and quietly, as is the way with the works of God, the apostles grew into the knowledge of the likeness of the Son of God, until each in his measure of capacity, and according to God's plan for him I became alter Christus   — another Christ. So it will be with us.” (Attributed to Mother Mary Loyola in The Blessed Sacrament Prayer Book)