Pondering Tidbits of Truth - March 18, 2021

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. John of the Cross

 "Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction."

 (From The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross)

 

Joseph Pronechen

“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'.”

 (From Altar Railing Returning to Use, published by National Catholic Register July 2, 2011)

 

St. John of the Cross

"Christ is little known by those who consider themselves His friends. For we see them going about seeking in Him their own consolations and satisfactions, loving themselves very much, but not loving Him very much by seeking His bitter trials and deaths."

 (From The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross)