Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

  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.       Johann Tauler, O.P. “There was once someone who loved our Lord very dearly and to him our Lord offered His divine kiss. But this soul said: ‘No, truly, dear Lord, this is not what I want at all. If I were to be taken out of myself in rapture, I could not be of anymore use to You. How could I then pray for all Your poor souls to help them out of purgatory? How could I pray for miserable sinners?’ It is up to us who are still on earth to help sinners and the souls who cannot help themselves. God cannot do anything for them without our help, because His justice must be perfectly satisfied. So those who love Him and are still on earth must constantly labor for this. Could anyone ask for a greater love of God than that man showed, depriving himself from divine favors from this motive?” (From Spiritual Conferences )   Father Francis Fern

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons )   "O boundless charity! Just as You gave us Yourself, wholly God and wholly human, so You left us all of Yourself as food so that while we are pilgrims in this life we might not collapse in our weariness but be strengthened by You, heavenly food. O mercenary people! And what has your God left you?  He has left you Himself, wholly God and wholly human, hidden under the whiteness of this bread. O fire of love! Was it not enough to gift us with creation in Your image and likeness, and to create us anew to grace in Your Son's blood, without giving us Yourself as food, the whole of divine being, the whole of God? What drove you? Nothing but Your charity, mad with love as You are!" (From The Letters St. Catherine of Siena, Vol. translated by Suzanne Noffke, O.P.)

In case this invitation was not extended to you today, close your eyes and listen to Jesus speaking directly to you - the one with whom He is in love: I am always here – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year - waiting for you. But generally I am alone, abandoned and ignored. So when I looked out from behind the closed doors this morning, I was overjoyed to see you - so many of you. While there were many familiar faces among those filling the pews, there were a good number whom I have not seen in some time. If you only knew the joy I experience when you come! I take delight in all My people, but I experience a special joy when those who stay away come to be with Me. I have so much to give each of you! How I hunger for your presence here every Sunday. How I want to be one with you and fill you will My graces. How I want to give you the spiritual nourishment you need to withstand the weekly onslaught and temptations that surround you. I offer you My Word and mo

[I have shared this post before. Its content is forever relevant and worthy of our consideration.] The gifts of the Magi - gold, frankincense, and myrrh - were expensive and very significant physical gifts. But they pale in comparison to the spiritual gifts we can give our Infant, Crucified, and Risen Lord – if we would but choose to do so. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) The gifts I am about to describe, when given to our Lord in love and gratitude, weekly (daily if possible), will not only please Him, but will result in our being united more intimately with the Prince of Peace. What follows are some concrete suggestions as to what each of us can and should do every time we attend Mass, if we are serious about loving God as He deserves and as we ought. We don’t need any one’s permission to do any of these things.  We will just do these things out of love and reverence and let God do the rest:        Read and ponder the Mass readings several times before      

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "The world is so ignorant concerning the Eucharist! It is not preached about often enough. The faithful complain of this and wait for someone who will feed them with the word of true life. If we do not preach the Blessed Sacrament, the reason is that our hearts do not understand it. If preachers adored the Blessed Sacrament more often, they would also preach about it more often. And yet the salvation of the world lies in Jesus Christ abiding in our midst." (St. Peter Julian Eymard from The Eucharist and Christian Perfection II )

(Image Source: Madonna House) Servant of God, Catherine Doherty "lived through the Russian Revolution". She was the founder of Madonna House . Her apostolate continues in Combermere, Ontario, Canada, and includes a monthly newspaper, Restoration . I highly recommend you subscribe to it. The link that follows is a must read for those of us living in these challenging times. Christmas Without Christ, written by Catherine decades ago, was re-published in the December 2021 issue of Restoration . Unfortunately, there is no direct link from that issue of Restoration to it. I did find a nearly identical copy of her article published in December 2004. You can find it here . PLEASE READ AND PASS ALONG!!! God forbid that our recent exclusion from Church, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments during the pandemic were to be repeated or ever become permanent. Let us never take His Presence among us for granted! 

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.     Catherine Doherty, Servant of God “I had worked with Catherine for many years in our gift shop and handicraft department. One day, Catherine stopped to dictate an article for our paper Restoration , probably concerning our needs for craft materials and gift shop items. It was a fairly extensive article, but she dictated it aloud, without pausing. I was somewhat astonished that she could do this and I asked, “B, how can you create that way? Don’t you have to be in the mood to write? Don’t you need time to think about what you want to say and just how to say it? Catherine looked at me, as she often did, with a look that betrayed a combination of disappointment and despair in her spirit. 'Sweetheart, don’t you understand? This is God’s work. I simply say a prayer to do it well. I know He will give me the grace to do so, so I proceed in pe