Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Christmas night rocked Heaven. Angels were aghast at the Incarnation. But Holy Thursday night struck them dumb. That God should become a Babe in swaddling clothes was cause for overwhelming surprise; but that God should bury Himself in Bread and become the very Food of man dazzled and stupefied the nine choirs of Heaven’s court. And yet, great as was God’s action, they were not completely bewildered by it. No! It took man’s reaction to do that! Heaven was not completely bewildered until it saw man’s coldness to God’s condescension. Bethlehem closed doors – but Bethlehem did not really know who Joseph was or whom Mary tabernacled. Roman soldiers scourged Christ and hammered Him to a Cross while High priests howled, and frenzied Jews mocked; but none of these fully understood what they did or who He was. But you! – you have made profession after profession of your belief. You say that you know that God is on your altars; that He is there with His B...

We live in a time and culture where many children give little or no thought to the loving Lord who lives physically among us. Most of them spend a good portion of their free time glued to some type of screen - a tablet, a phone, or a television. For hours they watch or play bizarre and often violent videos and games. These diversions never provide any lasting satisfaction.  Author Janeen Zaio wants them to put down their screens, pick up a copy of her book, The Treasure Within a Face, and accompany twelve year-old Eli on a fascinating, suspenseful and life changing quest to find the Treasure of all treasures. This captivating adventure tale takes us back to the time of Jesus in a small village some distance from Jerusalem. There we meet Eli, who with his mother, lives with his uncle Sham - an irascible, difficult and unappreciative man. Eli and his friend Abe dream of leaving this tiny town in search of the lost Arc of the Covenant.   When Uncle Sham asks Eli to deliver a...

"The more food is chewed the more it loses of its former nature. Dear child, if you want to be drawn into and transformed into God, you must lose your former nature, yourself, your self-love, your absorption and satisfaction in your own activity, in fact every form of self-obsession.  You must be prepared for all of this. ‘Two lives and two forms cannot exist together in one being’; if heat is to enter, cold must of necessity go out; and if God is to enter, the creature’s love of itself and clinging to itself must go out. If God is really to perform His works in you, you must be purely passive. All your powers must quite abandon their own activities and preoccupations and must be kept utterly free of yourself. You must deny all your own powers and be content to be purely and entirely nothing.   The more the depths of your soul are emptied of all that is yourself, the truer and more essential will your union with God be. This selflessness was never more purely and truly see...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "But anyone who would approach this gracious Sacrament while guilty of deadly sin would receive no grace from it, even though such a person would really be receiving Me as I am, wholly God, wholly human. But do you know the situation of the soul who receives the Sacrament unworthily? She is like a candle that has been doused with water and only hisses when it is brought under the fire. The flame no more than touches it, but it goes out, and nothing remains but smoke. Just so, this soul brings the candle she received in holy baptism and throws the water of sin over it, a water that drenches the wick of baptismal grace that is meant to bear the light. And unless she dries the wick out with the fire of true contrition by confessing her sin, she will physically receive the light when she approaches the table of the altar, but she will not receive it into her spirit. If the soul is not disposed as she should be for so great a mystery, this true...

There is never an idle word that flows from the mouth of our God. What He said through the prophets years ago, should be listened to by those living now. His Truth never changes nor do the consequences for those who choose to ignore Him. Foolish are those who turn deaf ears to His warnings.  

 

 

  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.     Venerable Bruno Lanteri "Do you find yourself turning inward, preoccupied by your anxieties and burdened by your failings? 'Instead of turning in on yourself, lift your gaze often with peace and love to God.' Often. With peace. With love. The less you focus on your failures and the more you gaze on the Lord with peace and love, the more your heart will lift, the stronger you will become, the more joy you will find. Tell Him that 'you want to be totally His' and, with boldness, tell Him that 'it is His to make you become better'!" (From Overcoming Spiritual Discouragement - The Wisdom and Spiritual Power of Venerable Bruno Lanteri )   Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament "Would to God that you could fathom the extreme and terrible evil that it is to sin. Oh! Sin, sin what harm you have ...