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)
James Monti
“Across the centuries, it has been the tradition in Catholic
architecture to set a boundary between the nave and the sanctuary, setting
apart the altar and its immediate surroundings from the rest of the church. In
the early Christian basilicas this took the form of a chancel wall, sometimes called
the templon. Over the centuries that followed, there came the altar rail and
the rood screen. In the Eastern liturgies, it has taken the form of the
iconostasis.
Far from being an impediment to our communion with God, this
cloistering of the altar, this physical barrier, teaches the soul the
incomparable beauty of what is transpiring beyond it, and the infinite goodness
and majesty of Him who dwells beyond it. The Church architect, Dennis McNamara,
has described the altar rail as the symbolic boundary 'where heaven and earth
meet, where the priest, acting in persona Christi, reaches across
from heaven to earth to give the Eucharist as the gift of divine life' (Joseph
Pronechen, 'Altar Railing Returning to Use,' National Catholic Register, posted online
July 2, 2011)
This reservation of the sanctuary heightens our love and
longing for the sacred and bestows a sublime character on those special
privileged moments when one is permitted to enter its holy precincts. For the
priest, this is a daily privilege, but by no means one that he should take for
granted. The altar rail reminds us all that on such holy ground we are only the
invited guests, the privileged visitors.
(From The Journey Deep Into The Sacred published in the September 5, 2019 issue of The Wanderer)
St. Philip Neri
“If a man finds it very
hard to forgive injuries, let him look at a Crucifix, and think that Christ
shed all His Blood for him, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His
Heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the
Our Father, every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling
down vengeance on himself.”
(From The Teaching Wisdom of the Saints)
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