Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)     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 Cardinal Robert Sarah “I wish to underline a very important fact here: God, not man is at the center of Catholic liturgy. We come to worship Him. The liturgy is not about you and me; it is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs. The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what He has done for us.”  (Presentation to Sacra Liturgia Conference)

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers . The late Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. is a treasure you must discover: Jesus The Beggar (Originally posted November 4, 2012) “Jesus loves poverty with a very special love – so much so, indeed, that, because He could not find it in heaven, He came down and sought it here on earth. He took nothing along with Him from heaven. The tiny bit of glory that He gets on earth is the free gift of the few generous hearts that are trying to show how much they love Him. He is at His lovers’ mercy! Were merely a little wafer of bread denied Him, He could not remain in our midst on earth – He, the Lord of the Universe!... Jesus begs. I wonder for what?   He [Jesus] begs for one little word of kindly considerate greeting when I pass by a church… for a shor

  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "By our prayer we share the life of God. True prayer demands that we be more passive than active; it requires more silence than words, more adoration than study, more concentration than rushing about, more faith than reason. The highest state of prayer is to be children in the arms of Love: silent, loving, rejoicing." Carlo Carrett

(Excerpted from the column entitled The Privilege of Kneeling published in  the August 21, 2019 issue of The Wanderer )

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers . More from In Sinu Jesu : Put God First - Love and Console Our Lord! (Originally published June 7, 2012) The Eucharist must be the source and center of our lives. If we and our priests prefer Him over all others and all things, He will transform us and our world - one heart at a time. We can never share this Truth enough! Please spend time mining this spiritual treasure from  Father Mark at Vultus Christi  and then share it with all whom you love, especially your priests! Put Nothing Before My Love for You You have only to prefer My company to every other companionship, the love of My Heart to the love of every other heart, and the sound of My voice in the silence of your soul to every other voice. I have called you to be for Me another Jo

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "It is by staying still, in silence, and possibly for long periods, before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament that we perceive what He wants from us, put aside our own plans to make way for His, and let God’s light gradually penetrate the heart and heal it."                                                                                Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) As we face the tragic reality that so few Catholics believe our Lord is really and substantially present in the Holy Eucharist, we must be honest in assessing the reasons why this has occurred. While there are many possible explanations, there is one common denominator: we abandoned sacred rituals and conduct for the banal - discarding that which elevated our minds and hearts to the heavenly King, for practices that center on ourselves and the mundane. So many Catholics today either do not remember or never experienced the sacred practices of days gone by. It is important then that those practices and the reasons for them be shared anew if we are ever to re-establish belief in, awe and amazement for our Eucharistic Lord. Actions do indeed speak louder than words: Toward that end, let me share again the observations of columnist, James Monti:

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. Catherine of Siena   "To join two things together there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between." (From The Letters of St. Catherine )

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers . Sometimes, one priest must have the courage to challenge some of his brother priests by writing frankly and truthfully. This is the time. Thank you Father Mark for doing so.     This is what I wanted to share this week:   Will They Hear?       (Originally posted on October 31, 2011)   Nothing so grieves my Heart as the coldness and indifference of priests and of consecrated souls to my living presence among them. Had they not the privilege of my abiding sacramental presence close at hand, they might be excused for the hardness of their hearts, but those who have me near, those who dwell close to my tabernacles have no excuse for the estrangement of their souls from the Sacrament of my Love. On the Day of Judgment I will hold them

"Who would agree to do what our Lord does? (Photo©Michael Seagriff) He institutes His Sacrament to be honored therein by man, and He is more insulted than honored; the bad Christians outnumber the good. Our Lord is taking in only losses. Why does He keep up this business? Who would want to run a business at a total loss? Ah! The saints who see and understand so much love and abasement must be seized with holy anger and feel indignant at seeing us so ungrateful! And the Father says to His Son: 'We must put a stop to this; You are getting nothing out of it. Your love is slighted; Your abasements are made nothing of. You are losing out on it; let us be done with it'. But our Lord will not listen. He stays on, He hopes, He contents Himself with the adoration and love of a few good souls. Oh, We at least, let us not fail Him! Does He not deserve by His abasements that we honor and love Him?" (St. Peter Julian Eymard from The Real Prese

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) The sense of the Sacred has been absent from far too many of our Churches for some time now. The lack of belief in the Real Presence among Catholics today, as noted by the recent PEW research, is intrinsically tied to that lack of Sacredness. Our eyes and ears will not deceive us. As you enter Church, look around; listen. Does what you do, see and hear demonstrate that those in attendance actually believe that they in the Presence of the living Christ? Is there much difference in the conduct you witness within the nave of our Churches from that you experience when in secular, fraternal, sporting and entertainment venues? Is this how you experience Mass? THIS insulting irreverence to our loving Lord must end. We must address this issue NOW! We can no longer wait for our Bishops and priests to address this pressing issue.  Our Churches are intended to be unlike any other earthly edifice - they house the Son of God. Everyone who enters must conduc