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.   St. John of the Cross "What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness and kingdom - your Beloved Whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you." (From Spiritual Canticle ) Thomas a Kempis "You must first have peace in your own soul before you can make peace between other people. Peaceable people accomplish more good than learned people do. Those who are passionate often can turn good i...

  “So how do we grow in humility through the Eucharist? A few simple practices can help. First, we must always approach the Eucharist with reverence. Come to Mass prepared, recollected and aware of the great mystery before you.   One way we do this is by looking at the prayers and readings beforehand, thus allowing us to participate more fully at Mass. Second, make frequent visits to the Blessed Sacrament. Even a few minutes in prayer before the tabernacle can teach the soul humility, We don't need to worry about bringing a prayer book or what we are going to say, just be with Jesus. Third , we must allow the Eucharist to shape our daily lives. After receiving Communion, ask yourself: How can I be’ bread broken’ and ‘wine poured out’ for others today? Fourth, serve in your ministry, quietly. Remember anything we do for the Church is not our right, it is a privilege. Allow your love for Eucharist to spill over into hidden acts of service that reflect Christ's humility. ...

 

  (Photo ©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with Permission) “If you want to grow in humility, spend time in Eucharistic adoration. In the silence of the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, we come face to face with the humility of God. There, Christ waits for us - not demanding, not forcing, but simply inviting. In adoration. we learn to quiet the noise of our pride and ambitions. We learn to listen more than we speak. We learn to rest in God's presence without needing to prove ourselves. Adoration teaches us that humility is not about doing but about being - being with Christ, who humbled Himself to be with us.” (Excerpted from L earning Humility from the Eucharist written by Father Richard D. Breton and published in the October 16, 2025 issue of The Wanderer)

  "The faults of children are not always imputed to the parents, especially when they have instructed them and given good example. Our Lord, in His wondrous Providence, allows children to break the hearts of devout fathers and mothers. Thus the decisions your children have made don't make you a failure as a parent in God's eyes. You are entitled to feel sorrow, but not necessarily guilt. Do not cease praying for your children; God's grace can touch a hardened heart. Commend your children to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When parents pray the Rosary, at the end of each decade they should hold the Rosary aloft and say to her, 'With these beads bind my children to your Immaculate Heart"'. She will attend to their souls." (St. Louise de Marillac)

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. Bernard of Clairvaux “Look to the star of the sea, call upon Mary. In danger, in distress, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. May her name never be far from your lips, or far from your heart. If you follow her you will not stray; if you pray to her, you will not despair; if you turn your thoughts to her, you will not err. If she holds you, you will not fail; if she protects you, you need not fear; if she is your guide, you will not tire; if she is gracious to you, you will surely reach your destination." (From A Homily of St. Bernard)   St. John Henry Newman “Realize it, my brethren; —every one who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; . . . God sees every one of us; He creates every soul,...

  "The entire Rosary has the beauty of reproducing the theological thoughts concerning Mary, they are reproduced in the entire dialectic of truth and deduction. Marian theology and the Rosary are two poems that are united into one, two hymns forming one hymn, two magnificent temples, two cathedrals of thought and piety, that come together as one... Here in the Rosary, piety speaks in the language of theologians. Here meditation rises to the heights attained by scholars. Here prayer dwells where the scholars are brought to a halt. Marian theology and the Rosary are therefore similar to two temples having at the same height their pinnacles and spires. The people of God in the Church have found the Rosary, its Book of Psalms. The clergy have the Divine Office, the people have the Rosary. Like The Divine Comedy, the Rosary is a trilogy: it recalls the joys, sorrows, and triumphs of Jesus and in perfect symmetry, for each part it has five chants, and each chant in turn is an episode....

  (Image Source:  cathopic.com ) I come as I am, before the Eucharistic Lord, the beloved Eucharistic Son of the Father. I come in silence and sincerity  as one in need. I come neither piously nor sentimentally. I come not on my own merit, moral strength nor conviction, but one seriously aware of my personal frailty, weakness, forgetfulness, inconsistency, pretentiousness, in short my sinfulness. I come as one in need. I come in truth just as I am, in need of the mercy, forgiveness, healing and correction. Like the Publican I cry out to the merciful one before me; “Oh God be merciful to me a sinner”. (Lk. 18:13) The Lord’s Eucharistic Presence before me is the one who calls me and receives me as I am; “come to me all you who are weary and are burdened and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:28).   I come before our Eucharistic Lord not crestfallen, downcast, dejected or depressed at my inner and ...

  Rosary Reflection – The Rosary Will Bring Back A Harvest of Holiness (Image Source: Marge Hendry Photo©Michael Seagriff) [Another prophetic but ignored excerpt and plea from the Apostolic Letter  On The    Rosary of The Virgin Mary ] The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” ( duc in altum! ) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the go...

  “The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” (Sister Lucia dos Santos)

There is confusion among some Catholics these days – no doubt planted by the Evil One, who fears the Blessed Mother and the power of her Rosary. Some would have us believe that recitation of the Rosary is an antiquated devotion no longer relevant or needed in current times. Nothing could be further from the truth as can be seen by the Blessed Mother’s promise to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de Roche and as she herself re-emphasized to the children at Fatima: - Whoever shall faithfully serve me  by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces.  - I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. - The Rosary shall be a powerful armor against hell, it will destroy vice, decrease sin, and defeat heresies - It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of people from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desir...

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. Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart.  "Life is a journey. Provided we keep going, all is well. What God cannot tolerate - what is, indeed, intolerable - are those stationary souls who either are inert by nature or persuade themselves that they have reached the summit, and that there is nothing more for them." (From Where Silence Is Praise: From the Writings of Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart. )   Father Dismas Sayre, O.P In our modern world, man sees Jesus's forgiveness and mercy as almost givens, taken for granted. Of course, even the most permissive and “merciful” want whatever they might consider evil to be punished, but never their own evil . It's funny how that works. As has often been stated by various authors, two thieves were crucified with Christ. One was saved, so we should not despair, but one was lost, so we should not ...