Pondering Tidbits of Truth - August 14, 2025

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. Alphonsus Liguori 

"With regard to evil thoughts, there may be a twofold delusion. God-fearing souls who have little or no gift of discernment, and are inclined to scruples, think that every wicked thought that enters their mind is a sin. This is a mistake, for it is not the wicked thoughts in themselves that are sins, but the yielding or consenting to them. The wickedness of mortal sin consists in the perverse will that deliberately yields to sin with a complete knowledge of its wickedness with full consent. And therefore St. Augustine teaches that when the consent of the will is absent, there is no sin. However much we may be tormented by temptations, the rebellion of the senses, or the inordinate motions of the inferior part of the soul, as long as there is no consent, there is no sin. For the comfort of such anxious souls, let me suggest a good rule of conduct that is taught by all masters in the spiritual life. If a person who fears God and hates sin doubts whether or not he has consented to an evil thought or not, he is not bound to confess it, because it is morally certain that he has not given consent. For had he actually committed a mortal sin, he would have no doubt about it, as mortal sin is such a monster in the eyes of one who fears God that its entrance into the heart could not take place without its being known. Others, on the contrary, whose conscience is lax and not well-informed, think that evil thoughts and desires, though consented to, are not sins provided they are not followed by sinful actions. This error is worse than the one mentioned above. What we may not do, we may not desire. Therefore, an evil thought or desire to which we consent comprises in itself all the wickedness of an evil deed." (From 12 Steps to Holiness and Salvation)

Bishop Joseph Strickland 

“So what does that [love for one another] look like? It looks like quietly offering your Holy Communion for someone who’s abandoned the faith. It looks like fasting for a family member caught in sin. It looks like sitting beside a sick friend at midnight because no one else would. It looks like mentoring a struggling young Catholic – patiently, faithfully, over time. It looks like defending the unborn, even when it makes you hated. It looks likes staying loyal to the Church when shepherds fail – and loving her more in Her wounds. It looks like comforting a parent with a child in prison, or a widow who grieves alone. It looks like pending time in Adoration not just for yourself-but for the whole world.”

(From By This Shall Men Know: A Church that Carries, A Love That Saves, The Wanderer, July 24, 2025 issue) 

 

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

"At the foot of the Cross, Mary witnessed the conversion of the good thief, and her soul rejoiced that he had accepted the will of God. Her Divine Son's second word, promising paradise as a reward for that surrender, reminded her of her own second word thirty years before, when the angel had appeared to her and told her that she was to be the Mother of Him who was now dying on he Cross...The second word of Jesus on Golgotha [Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise] and the second word of Mary in Nazareth [Be it done to me according to thy word] teach the same lesson: Everyone in the world has a cross, but the cross is not the same for any two of us. The cross of the thief was not the cross of Mary. The difference was due to God's will toward each. The thief was to give life: Mary to accept life. The Thief was to hang on his cross, Mary was to stand beneath hers. The thief was to go ahead; Mary to remain behind. The thief received a dismissal; Mary received a mission. The thief was to be received into paradise, but paradise was to be received into Mary."

(From The Cries of Jesus From the Cross)