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. Father Jose Gonzalez " Reflect upon the scenario in which you were supposed to receive a very large inheritance but were cheated out of it. How would you react? The right reaction would be to care more for the soul of the person who cheated you than to care about actually being cheated. A person who is fully detached from material possessions will care little about losing such an inheritance or gaining one. It will truly matter not. If that is hard to accept, know that this is a sign that your soul is too attached to the things of this world. Pray for freedom from all greed. That is the only way to obtain the true riches of God." (From  Daily Reflections  - October 21, 2024)   St. Teresa of Calcutta "How did Christ love us? He made Himself the Bread of Life. He made Himself a living bread that you and I may eat and live. He made himse...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons) "He does not come down from Heaven each day to stay in the gold ciborium. He comes down to find another Heaven He cherishes infinitely more than the first, the Heaven of our souls, made in His image, living temples of the Most Blessed Trinity!" St. Therese of Lisieux 

( Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) A few nights ago, several of us got together online to engage in an informal Lectio Divina exercise. Let me share a bit of that experience with you. The moderator chose the well-known story of the Samaritan woman at the well - a passage most of us have read many times (see John:4:7-26).   The exercise prompted these thoughts: “How often I have been unwilling to come to the well, to ask for the spiritual nourishment I so deeply need. How foolish it would be for me to now offer Jesus excuses as to why I had not come to Him. He knows! I was afraid to ask for that living water – afraid I would be unwilling to drink the cup He would give me. For a fleeting second, I then recalled the few times in my life where I did drink gluttonously of that living water and relived the amazing things God did in, and through me, when I simply did as He had asked.” Later in the session, our spiritual adviser emphasized that our Lord never seeks or desir...

"You who only communicate rarely are like someone between two sleeps. You know that Jesus Christ is truly in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that this food is absolutely necessary for your poor soul. Nevertheless, one sees in you little desire. There are long intervals between your Confessions and Communions. You decide to go because of a great feast or a jubilee or a mission, or because others are going, and not because your poor soul needs it. Not only do you not try to merit this happiness, but you do not even envy those who taste it more often. Thus you imitate the Jews.  They are reproached for refusing shelter to Jesus Christ on the first Christmas night although they did not know Him. You treat Him with the same discourtesy, you who neglect to receive Him into your hearts in Holy Communion.  Do not forget that at the Particular Judgment Jesus Christ will judge us on all the good we could have done. He will show you all the sacraments that you could have received during ...

  “Lord my mind and heart, I believe, are in the right place. Make sure, Lord, that my keyboard is there as well.” A Catholic Blogger’s Prayer    

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. Scott Hahn "There are many ways of looking at confession, and all of them are valid. You can look at it as a courtroom with a divine judge. You can look at it as an accounting of debts. I think it's most helpful to look at it as healing - as health care. Confession does for our souls what doctors, dieticians, physical therapists, and pharmacists do for our bodies. Think about all we do to keep our bodies in working order. We go for regular checkups with a primary-care physician, a dentist, an eye doctor. And no one has to remind us to brush our teeth, take a shower, and pop the pills for whatever ails us. All this is good for us, and it's good for everyone around us, too. No one wants to work beside us if we decide to stop showering. Well, if we spend so much effort on the care of our bodies, shouldn't we be spending more time on ou...

 

 

"On the day that we receive Holy Communion we should endeavor to keep our hearts as living tabernacles of our Eucharistic Jesus, and then visit Him often with acts of adoration, love, and gratitude; this is what divine love will teach us." Saint Paul of the Cross 

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 Paul II "You must learn to think, speak and act in accordance with the simplicity of the Gospel: Yes, yes; no, no. You must learn to call white, white; and black, black. To call sin, sin; and not to call it liberty or progress, even if the fashion is to stand against this teaching." (Address to Youth in Rome, 1981) Catherine Doherty, Servant of God "Communion is the union of man's soul with God the source of all strength. Our communions could change the world if the fire of the Holy Spirit were really allowed to fall on the earth and to renew it through you and me. Our faith centers around the truth that God loved us first and all we have to do to be fiery Apostolic Catholics is to love Him back. If we meditate deeply on the Eucharist we will distinctly hear the loving, powerful, immense heartbeat of God. We would h...