Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 21, 2017

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 Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.

"We need God. Without Him we can do nothing. But God also needs us. He needs us to bear witness to the fact that He exists; that God became man; that God died; that God rose again; that men can become like God. God needs us to be animated Gospels and give the world the almost unbelievable ‘Good News’ that God is our Father and we are heirs to all that almighty God possesses."

(From God, A Woman and the Way)

Father J. Urteaga Loidi

"If you give yourself to God give yourself the way the saints did. Let no one and nothing occupy your attention and slow you down: you belong to God. If you give yourself, give yourself for eternity. Let neither the roaring waves nor the treacherous undercurrent shake the concrete solidity of your foundations. God depends on you: He leans on you. Put all your energy into it and row against the current...'Duc in altum'. Launch out into the deep waters with the daring of those others who loved Christ."

(From Man the Saint)

St. John of the Cross

"Let the men eaten up with activity and who imagine they are able to shake the world with their preaching and other outward works, stop and reflect a moment. It will not be difficult for them to understand that they would be much more useful to the Church and more pleasing to the Lord, not to mention the example they would give to those around them, if they devoted more time to prayer and to the exercises of the interior life.

Under these circumstances, by one single work of theirs they would do far more good, and with much less trouble, than they do by a thousand others on which they exhaust their lives. Prayer would merit them this grace, and would obtain for them the spiritual energies they need to bring forth such fruits. But without prayer, all they do amounts to nothing more than noise and uproar; it is like a hammer banging on an anvil and echoing all over the neighborhood. They accomplish little more than nothing, sometimes absolutely nothing at all, and sometimes downright evil. God save us from such a soul as this, if it should happen to swell up with pride! It would be vain for appearances to be in his favor: because no good work can be done without the power of God. Oh, how much could be written on this subject, for the information of those who give up practicing the interior life, and aspire to brilliant works which will put them on a pedestal and make them the admiration of all. Such people know nothing at all about the source of living water, and of the mysterious fountain which makes all fruit to grow."

(From Spiritual Canticle)