Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Book Review of A Storyteller’s Guide to a GRACE-FILLED Life – Volume II by Tony Agnesi Want To Know How To Eat An Elephant? What a gift Tony Agnesi has to simply live each day and then share what he observed, whom he interacted with, and what he did or what he failed to do to promote the Kingdom of God. He shows how easy it is to be Christ-like to those struggling emotionally, physically and spiritually if we would but open our eyes and our hearts.  It makes no difference where Tony is – work, Church, walking down a street, eating at a restaurant, or in jail – he loves to share his faith. In A Storyteller’s Guide to a GRACE-FILLED Life – Volume II , he challenges us not to ignore the many opportunities God puts in our path daily to lead souls into His loving embrace. In fact, all of us should adopt Tony's daily prayer : Lord, put someone in my path today that I can help. Nothing he writes is contrived. It is simply Tony being Tony – a simple but very gifted...

T hank you 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 . Eucharistic Reflection - His Goal Is My Heart (Originally posted on July 28, 2012) (St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, NYC) “When Jesus remains in the quiet of the altar, in the tabernacle’s shadow, people in their blind carelessness let Him alone, they forget all about Him. And when He exposes Himself upon the altar, he is hurt to the Heart by the irreverence of so many who either have no faith at all or a faith that is very weak. When He goes through the streets in order to bring unspeakable blessings to His beloved children, He hears curses and blasphemies that make out of His errand of mercy another way of the cross. But in the midst of all these bitternesses one hope sustains Him – the hope of a place of refuge that will offer the love and peace He ...

"How consoling is this mystery of the Eucharist! If we knew how to appreciate it, it would suffice to fortify and sustain us. Is there anything sweeter than to have a friend to whom we may at any hour confide our difficulties and our pain?"                                                                       Saint Theodore Guerin

Servant of God Catherine Doherty is correct: we have forgotten how to pray. Let her refresh our memory:  “Prayer now is the last resort. We have forgotten how to pray. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) We have forgotten that there must be a time when we are silent so we can hear what God wants to say to us. Yes, my friends, we must pray. It must be the prayer of two people in love with each other who cease to talk…Two people in love! When you are in love with God you will understand that He loved your first. You will enter into a deep and mysterious silence and in that silence become one with the Absolute…Your oneness with God will overflow to all your brothers and sisters. My friends this is the kind of prayer we need today. If you pray like this you will be overshadowed by the wings of a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. On those wings your prayer of silence will be lifted into the hands of ‘the Woman Wrapped in Silence,’ and she will lay it at t...

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. Frances de Sales "It is horrible irreverence to Him who with so much love and sweetness invites us to perfection, to say, ‘I do not want to be holy, or perfect, or to have a greater share in Your friendship, or to follow the counsels You give me to advance in it.”  (From Finding God’s Will For You)

Thank you 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 . My contribution this week as we near the end of the Month of the Rosary: Recite The Rosary Like A Child    (Originally posted on October 15, 2018)   "The rosary is not a tedious prayer just because the person is always repeating the Hail Mary. Each Hail Mary recited, with the contemplation of the mysteries, is always said with a different feeling and the intensity of the prayer is not monotonous. It is an intensity of love.  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Does not a child call his mother all the time? His cry: "Mom!" is different according to the need that inspires and animates it. Therefore, recite the rosary like a child, invoking our Heavenly Mother and imploring her help."   (Servant of God, Dol...

(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 Carretto

Thank you 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 . Here is my contribution:  Eucharistic Reflection - Communion of Reparation  (Originally posted on July 21, 2015)  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “When Christ manifested Himself to Margaret Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries were done to Him by ungrateful men — and we would that these words in which He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were never blotted out by oblivion: ‘Behold this Heart’ — He said — ‘which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a...

If you have not yet read the outstanding pro-life novel, Bound , written by gifted author, Vijaya Bodach, go to her website now . She is offering a discount for all purchases made this month. Take a moment to read my review of this outstanding novel and you will  know why I recommend it so highly. You can find my review here . Do your family and friends a favor and share this post with them. This is a book that should get into the hands of every family you know.

"Only in the Eucharist are virtues easily acquired and sustained. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Let us then remember that our Lord is in the Blessed Sacrament not merely to distribute His graces but above all to be our Way and our Model. A mother educates her child through her presence, through a secret correspondence that exists between her heart and that of her child. The mere sound of her voice thrills the heart of her child, whereas  strangers fail to make any impression at all. We shall have the life of our Lord in us only if we live under His inspiration and receive our education from Him." (From The Real Presence by St. Peter Julian Eymard)

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) God will test us during the course of life with a variety of challenges, all of which are intended to strengthen our belief in and resolve to follow Him. We need to embrace these challenges if we are to grow spiritually and closer to Him.   These challenges and the gift of the Eucharist should be a constant reminder of His love for us and of our obligation to love and trust Him in return. It is not bread and wine we eat and drink but the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ! We should approach and respond to Him with a mindset and in a fashion deserving of such great a gift. It is understandable why so many were repulsed and walked away from Our Lord after He told them that they had to eat His Body and drink His Blood if they wished to have eternal life. It made no sense. Cannibalism was not a concept easily embraced by anyone. Jews weren’t even permitted to drink the blood of slaughtered animals. Even if one was i...