Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"We need to change the [current] culture that once Mass is over, we leave Church and are gone, that we don't linger [in our pews].  In the past tradition, it was understood that people would stay back after Mass to continue their thanksgiving with the Lord, to really receive the grace of Holy Communion because this is the most important moment of our life - the Lord has united us so amazingly to Himself. Our prayer is most powerful in these minutes after Mass.  So let us not lose the graces of prayer that is born from our Holy Communion with Jesus." Linger. Pray. Don't rush to leave. (From How To Be His - A 33-Day Dedication to Our Eucharistic Jesus ,  by Father J. Maingot, O.P. and Father Ignatius John Schweitzer, O.P. with Dan Burke).

In How To Be His - A 33-Day Dedication to our Eucharistic Jesus , Father Jesse J. Maingot, O.P. shares the wisdom and insight of St. Peter Julian Eymard; here are two brief samples:   "Few persons think of the virtues, the life, the state of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We treat Him like a statute; we think He is there merely to forgive our sins and to listen to our prayers. That is a wrong viewpoint. Our Lord lives and acts in the Eucharist. Look at Him, study and imitate Him!...Observe Him practicing virtue and you shall know what you have to do."                                                                    (St. Peter Julian Eymard) Father reminds us: that our Lord is patient and quiet; that He's waiting for us; that He's so available, so generous - anyone can come and talk to Him; that He looks at Hi...

 

  [I first shared the following thoughts more than 10 years ago. I do so today with a renewed sense of urgency.  We are spinning our wheels and jeopardizing souls if we do not become lovers of the Eucharist.] “We ministers of the Lord, for whom the Tabernacle has become mute and silent, the stone of consecration cold, the Host a venerable, but lifeless, memento: have been unable to turn souls from their evil. How could we ever draw them out of the mire or forbidden pleasures? And yet we have talked to them about the joys of religion and of good conscience. But because we have not known how to slake our own thirst at the living waters of the Lamb, we have mumbled and stuttered in our attempts to portray those ineffable joys, the very desire of which would have shattered the chains of the triple concupiscence much more effectively than all our thundering tirades about hell…Our lips have been unable to speak the language of the Heart of Him Who loves men, because our converse wit...

 

 

  (Excerpted from How To Be His - A 33-Day Dedication to Our Eucharistic Lord )

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 Richard D. Breton “May our parishes become beacons of hope in a culture that thirsts for meaning. May they become places where people say” ‘Here I encounter Christ. Here I belong. Here I am sent to share His love.’ May we [our] priests lead the way, with the laity at our side, trusting the Holy Spirit, grounded in the sacraments, committed to truth and open to renewal.” (From A Transcendent Brand of Hope and Renewal -  A Priest’s Reflection published in November 6, 2025 issue of The Wanderer )     D r. Gregory Popcak   "When you are at Mass, don't just go through the motions. Ask God to help you find Him in the Eucharist. When you hear or read Scripture, prayerfully ask God what He is saying to you through the words. When you pray, don't just say words at God. Bring your whole self to it, rededicate your li...

 

 

(From Hands At Mass )   "Think of how the Eucharist is given: bread broken, wine poured out: this is a model for Christian life. We, too, are called to be broken for others, poured out in service, hidden in love. The Eucharist gives us the strength to live this way, but it also sets the pattern for how we must live.” (Father Richard D Breton from the October 16th 2025 issue of the Wanderer , entitled Learning Humility from the Eucharist )