Pondering Tidbits of Truth - January 30, 2020

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.

Archbishop Luis M. Martinez

"For worldly people, the will of God is often a tragic hardship; for imperfect souls, it is a motive for resignation; for saints, it is Heaven. Why so many diverse effects from one thing? Simply because each soul receives the will of God according to its relations with the Holy Spirit."

(From True Devotion to the Holy Spirit)

Robert Cardinal  Sarah

"It is time for the faith to become for Christians their most intimate, most precious treasure. Think of all the martyrs who died for the purity of their faith at the time of the Arian crisis: because they professed that the Son is not only similar to the Father but of one substance with him; how many bishops, priests, monks, and simple believers suffered torture and death! What is at stake is our relationship with God, not just some theological quarrels. You can gauge by our apathy regarding doctrinal deviations the lukewarmness that has set in among us. It is not uncommon to see serious errors being taught in the Catholic universities or in officially Christian publications. No one reacts! We bishops content ourselves with prudent, fearful clarifications. Beware, one day the faithful will demand an accounting of us. They will accuse us before God of having handed them over to the wolves, of having deserted our post as pastor defending the sheepfold. I am not calling here for a reinstatement of the Inquisition! My cry is a cry of love! Our faith affects our love for God. To defend the faith is to defend the weakest, the simplest, and to help them love God in truth.

Dear brother bishops, priests, and all you baptized persons: we must burn with love for our faith. We must not tarnish it or dilute it in worldly compromises. We must not falsify or corrupt it. It is a mater of the salvation of souls: ours and those of our brethren! 'The day when you no longer burn with love, others will die of cold,' Francois Mauriac wrote. The day when we no longer burn with love for our faith, the world would die of cold, deprived of the most precious good. It is up to us to defend and proclaim the faith!"

(From The Day Is Now Far Spent) 

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI 

 

"God has done everything; He has done the impossible: He was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: the Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family. And yet, this same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to Him." 

(From  Christmas Message 2012)

Eucharistic Reflection - To Have A Right Intention

"There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention. 

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not having eternal life. Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity. Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily. 

When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about to receive the Body of Our Lord: “O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.

My children, listen well to that. Every time I have obtained a grace, I have asked it like this, I have never been disappointed."

(St. John Marie Vianney from The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars)

Worth Revisiting - Without Reverent Silence, Nothing Else We Do Will Be of Any Value

Thank you 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.  

 

Without Reverent Silence, Nothing Else We Do Will Be of Any Value

(Originally posted posted on November 11, 2019)

A Forgotten Truth:  "The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy." - St. John Henry Cardinal Newman:

A Catholic Church must be unlike any other building in the world because God resides there. A Catholic Church is holy ground. All who enter must conduct themselves in  a manner consistent with being in the Presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must enter, remain and exit it in reverent and total silence. God deserves nothing less.

In far too many of our Catholic parishes we have lost the sense of the sacred and an appreciation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that are both essential for fostering and maintaining a belief in the Real Presence. We have forgotten how to pray.
 
We have forgotten how to act while we are in Church and no one teaches or corrects us. Many ignore He Who is Love to engage in inane chatter on topics more appropriately discussed at social and sporting events. The actions and demeanor of so many souls are inconsistent with one who professes to believe that Jesus Christ is really and truly present on the altar and in their hands.

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

We proclaim that the sanctuary and naves of our Churches are holy ground but we seldom act in a manner consistent with such a belief. We allow them to be used for non-sacred purposes – secular movies, concerts of non-liturgical music, and slide shows highlighting various life events in our high school graduates. We permit non-Catholics to use our Churches without instructing them and having them respect the reverent silence to be maintained in the presence of our Lord. Now, most egregiously, we allow raucous, disrespectful and blasphemous wakes to be held in our Church prior to Funeral Masses, just feet from our Lord imprisoned in His tabernacle. Bedlam, not reverence. reigns supreme. This is no way to treat our God.

"This irreverence and lack of sacred silence is not of God."

As James Monti noted in his recent column entitled Reverence as A Way of Life In Church and Beyond: “Satan is the father of irreverence. He hates the sacred, and so he seeks to hurl against the sacred all that can desecrate it. Art that makes the human face and form hideous, music that make life and love ugly, immodest clothing that blaspheme against the Temple of the Holy Spirit, architecture that makes man crawl on his belly rather than raise his eyes to Heaven all suit Satan’s purposes quite well.” (The Wanderer, March 21, 2019).

We state that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith but act like “social justice” (whatever that is) is the be all and end all. We welcome the suggestion of a Catholic author that “we become the best version of ourselves that we can be,” instead of challenging Catholics to strive toward their authentic calling – to become more Christ-like so as to lead many more souls into the eternal embrace of our Triune God. We rarely encourage daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament. We lock our Church doors denying access to any soul who might wish to do so. Rarely do we offer Benediction and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament or encourage prolonged periods of Eucharistic Adoration.

This has got to change. It is time for action.

Eucharistic Reflection - We Do Not Have Life In Ourselves

(Image Source- Wikimedia Commons)

"That the Eucharist—and thus the whole of Christian life—is a meal shows us that we do not have life in ourselves. We must receive it, eat it. We become what we receive. If we refuse to receive, refuse to eat and drink Him, we remain without life"

(Father Wilfrid Stinissen, OCD from Bread That Is Broken)