Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Thank you, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb for   hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers . I would like to share this: Do You Treasure His Presence?  (Originally posted August 25, 2014) My wife and I will be boarding a train later this afternoon to return home ending a nearly three week visit with our son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. I thank God that He blessed us with this unforgettable time together. Unfortunately, my visits to the local Catholic Church here created a heaviness and sadness  in my heart. There was no tabernacle in the main Church or Chapel. Our Lord was confined to a small room that accommodated only eight individuals. The loud chatter and laughter before and immediately after the end of Mass each day made silent prayer an enormous challenge...

“What is there upon the altar before the Consecration? A bit of bread, a little wine. And after the Consecration? For the senses – for touch, sight, taste – bread and wine still. Faith, only faith, penetrates beneath those veils, to reach the divine reality that is totally hidden there. Without faith, we shall never see anything but bread and wine; we shall not see God; He does not reveal Himself there as He does in the Gospel… (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) In the case of the Eucharist, there is room only for pure faith; faith founded solely on the words of Jesus: ‘This is my body, this is my blood.’ The Eucharist is, above all, a ‘mystery of faith’; Mysterium fidei .

If I am going to take the time to read a novel, I want its characters to be authentic and the story line compelling and relevant to the issues of our day. I want to be entertained and surprised. I struck gold when I purchased Vijaya Bodach’s most recent tale, Bound . I was immediately drawn to Rebecca, abandoned at birth, adopted by the Joshi family and later severely burned and disfigured, her older and mentally challenged sister, Joy, their grieving father, and the life challenges each faced following the death of their much beloved mother and spouse.  Joy’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy causes immense embarrassment to her father, threatens Rebecca’s long-cherished dream to become a doctor, and pits each family member against the other. All three become obstinate and unwilling to find an appropriate path forward. But, of course, they must and you will be flipping the pages feverishly to see what they do. The author helps us explore the most significan...

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers .   Monday Musings - Stop Blaming God  (Originally posted on July 31, 2017) What follows are simple declarative sentences excerpted from God, A Woman and the Way, a book written more than sixty years ago by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., a Trappist monk. They set forth fundamental Truths which today are routinely denied and denounced:  (Photo©Michael Seagriff) “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 ...

“O Christ Jesus, really present on the altar, I prostrate myself at Your feet. May all adoration be rendered to You in the Sacrament You willed to leave to us in witness of the excess of your love, on the eve of Your Passion! Again, we can express that reverence, that veneration, by going to visit Christ in the tabernacle. Is it not, indeed a failure of respect if we neglect this Divine Guest who awaits us? There in the tabernacle He remains, really present, this one who was present in the manger of Bethlehem, at Nazareth, on the hills of Judea, in the upper room, on the cross…

We will continue to shrink in numbers, close our Churches and  experience a dearth in priestly vocations until we reinstate a sense of the Sacred in our Church buildings. This will only occur when all our actions in Church evidence an unswerving belief that we are privileged to be in the presence of Jesus Christ. Listen here.

Imagine waking up in a house and bed you do not recognize, not knowing who and where you are and lying next to a man you are about to be told is your husband. So begins the page turning tale of Caitlyn Summers and Jarret West in Theresa Linden’s intriguing novel, Anyone But Him . We can easily relate to Linden’s characters and her fascinating story line – a young woman’s journey through amnesia. Along the way, the author addresses many of the most significant social and moral issues of our day. Anyone But Him is one of those special books whose twists and turns made it difficult to put down. You will enjoy it!

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. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) St. Francis de Sales “Kiss frequently the crosses which the Lord sends you, and with all your heart, without regarding of what sort they may be; for the more vile and mean they are, the more they deserve their name. The merit of crosses does not consist in their weight, but in the manner in which they are borne…”  (From A Year With The Saints - - A Virtue For Every Month of The Year )

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers . Stop by for a visit now . We Stand With You Lord - No Matter The Price We May Be Asked To Pay!  (Originally published on June 29, 2015) May the following words penned more than 50 years ago by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. encourage us during these trying times and our pending exile in a world that has, for the most part, turned its back on the Lord who created them, died for them, yet still offers all of us eternal life: (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "There was pain in Egypt - yet, I say it was heaven. Mary saw raw, rampant paganism all about her, yet she nursed God at her breast; she had to listen to false gods being called upon, yet she heard the Word of God utt...