Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for your weekly invitation to re-post our favorite articles on Worth Revisiting. Go here now (and every Wednesday) and let an interesting group of Catholic bloggers nourish 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 are my thoughts this week: Homilies - When Were You Last Challenged To Change the Way You Live?  (Originally posted on February 16, 2015) The best homilies are those which challenge us to look objectively at our relationship with God and how we live out our faith. We need to be reminded of the great chasm that often exists between what we profess to believe and how we actually live our lives. We must be encouraged to seek God's grace and forgiveness if we are ever to bridge that gap. How can that be done? Father Suarez has some unambiguous suggestions

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons) The principal and proper end of the Eucharist is to receive into our souls the spirit of Christ by means of which we are transformed into Him and we live as He lived, with the same charity, humility, patience, obedience, poverty of spirit, mortification of body and disdain of the world that He manifested.  This is what it means to eat and drink Christ, to be transformed into Him, and to become one thing with Him, as was done by St. Paul, who said: ‘I live now, not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ Therefore this should be our principal intention, as well as to renew in this Sacrament the memory of His passion and to thank Him for the inestimable benefit of our redemption.” (From Summa of the Christian Life by Ven. Louis of Granada, O.P.)

(Image source: Pixabay) Whenever I have been blessed to spend time in the chapel at the retreat house at the Abbey of Genesee an assortment of birds always flies above and around the exterior of the chapel as I first begin to pray – carefree, chirping, doing what God created them to do, and trusting Him to provide for their needs.  After a time, they leave me as silence returns. The presence of my feathered friends at these times of prayer is God’s way of reminding me that if He cares and provides for these little creatures, how much more certain I can be He will do so for me. I can never be reminded of this truth enough.

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. Josemaria Escriva “This and no other is the end of the Church: the salvation of souls, one by one. For this the Father sent the Son. And, Jesus said, ‘even so I send you’ (John 20:21). From this rises the command to make His doctrine known and to baptize, so that the Most Blessed Trinity may reside in the soul, through grace.”  (From In Love With the Church )

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 “Worth Revisiting”.  Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in 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: Above All - Do Not Close Our Church Doors (Originally posted October 23, 2014) [ One is left to ponder how different our Church would be today had we listened to the Holy Pontiff . It is not too late to open the doors and encourage us to visit He Who Is Love .] (Image Source- Wikimedia Commons ) "Above all, do not allow - as some do, who are deceived under the pretext of restoring the liturgy or who idly claim that only liturgical rit

“To each of us He says from the tabernacle: ‘Stay you here, and watch with Me…Could you not watch one hour with Me?’ Or if not one hour, one quarter? (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Stay with Me because I am going to offer My morning sacrifice, and men are too busy to assist at the oblation of Myself for them. “Stay with Me for a few moments at midday, when the glare of the world and its rush and its din are fiercest. Turn off the crowded pavement into the quiet church, ‘Come apart…and rest a little.’ “Stay with Me because it is towards evening and the day is now far spent. There will be no more visitors for Me today, none through the long hours of the night. Stay with Me because it is towards evening (From Coram Sanctissimo by Mother Mary Loyola)

Truth be told, too many of us take our priests for granted. Satan has his sights on them. He attacks and seeks to destroy their vocations. How our beloved priests need and deserve our prayerful support! Yet, we do not pray for them as we ought. That has got to change. Thankfully, there are a number of efforts underway to correct that failure. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) I had the privilege of attending A Holy Hour in Honor of the Priesthood held on August 4, 2016 in Syracuse, New York. This occurred on   the feast day of St. John Marie Vianney, patron saint of priests. The Holy Hour was sponsored by the Martin Society – whose mission is “to pray and support Priests in their vocation of service to the Catholic Church”. A special friend, who is the mother of a priest, offered an opening reflection that evening. I felt it should be shared with an audience beyond those who were blessed to be there that night. She has graciously given me permission to share it her

[Originally posted in 2014) “Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make His spirit, His devotion, His affections, His desires and His disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.”                        (St. John Eudes from The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls )

How our loving Lord thirsts for our love, our visits, our hearts, minds and souls!  Please satiate His thirst!

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for your weekly invitation to re-post our favorite articles on Worth Revisiting. Go here now (and every Wednesday) and let an interesting group of Catholic bloggers nourish 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. It's Not About Putting The Genie Back In The Bottle (Originally posted July 18, 2016) There was a time when everyone entering a Catholic Church knew enough to genuflect, to remain silent and to spend time in intimate interior conversation with their Loving Lord locked behind the tabernacle doors. God deserves nothing less today. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Back in that day, everyone knew they were there in the Presence of God to adore and worship Him, not to visit with their neighbor. Somehow, they were able to enter, remain and exit the Church in