Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

" My Adoration time is spent in an Adoration Chapel at a local parish in the town next to where I live. I have been a committed Adorer for many years now. Although I also go at other times and to other churches for Adoration, my committed time is early on Wednesday mornings. I go there to be with my creator, my Lord and Savior, my friend, my brother and my beloved.  I go to Adoration for many reasons. One of the main ones is because I choose to take time away from the distractions of my day, to pray, just as Jesus did. I find this time to be recreating and renewing. In this quiet, there is a salve for my spirit, a remedy for my aches. It is there that I am really able to surrender myself, my life, my family both given and chosen, those committed to my prayers that remain in my mind and in my heart. I pray for His Kingdom to come and His Will to be done, for the glory of the Father, the salvation of souls and the conversion of sinners. I pray for the crosses the Lord has given me. ...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) It had been nearly five years since I last saw my friend, Bernie. After I relocated to a distant city, we kept in touch with periodic phone calls. They eventually ended. Bernie found it difficult to care for himself and his large home. He moved closer to a daughter and eventually moved into an assisted living situation. After a time, he began to deteriorate; that deterioration was rapid. I received a phone call informing me that he was in comfort care; he was not likely to live much longer. The caller was correct. Bernie died the following morning, surrounded by his loving family. I could not make it to the wake but was present at his funeral Mass. It was a blessing to be there. As I approached the altar to receive Holy Communion, I paused momentarily, bent over and placed my head on his casket – my fond farewell. When I returned to my pew, with my Lord still on my tongue, a few tears fell down my cheek as I was filled with gratitude for the...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "People who receive Holy Communion at an occasional Mass attended during the year, on Christmas Day, for instance, or at a wedding or funeral, are not so unusual. They seem to take Holy Communion with no thought they are receiving anything other than a wafer of bread as part of a ritual that everyone present at Mass does. It is likely that in many cases they have no faith in the reality of the Eucharist as the Body of Christ; nothing prompts them to fear making a grave act of disrespect toward the sacred. They simply join the Communion line and take the Host as a participant in the ceremony, as it were, thinking nothing of it. Not uncommonly, they reach out a single hand to take hold of the sacred Host as though they were being given a religious souvenir. In all this casual indifference to the sacred reality, the wounds to the heart of Jesus must be real, and perhaps quite terrible. The callousness of an unbelieving touch in this manner when in t...

Over the years, I have been instructed and blessed by the work of Father Donald Haggerty. His recent book, The Hour of Testing - Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Tome of Ecclesial Uncertainty , is a book for our time. I highly recommend it. Just ponder this little this gem: “[God] comes as one who can be refused and denied admittance; His tapping at the door of the human heart can be ignored. Indeed, He is a God who can be cast outside into the cold. There are countless people who at some point in life callously occupy the home in their soul that belongs to God and evict Him.  He is a God of unfathomable humility, submitting repeatedly to crass gestures of rudeness from His creature. Until we realize this humility of God, we cannot love Him properly. He is vulnerable to being wounded and finds few people who are moved to see how, in His humility, He turns His face away, hiding it from view, not in anger, but to conceal the rejection He experiences from those indifferent to Him. It ...

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. Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration "The most powerful thing we can do on this earth with our time is to spend it in Eucharistic adoration. Nothing can do more to change the world, to bring about peace, to convert hearts, to make reparation for the many evils committed. Spending time in prayer may seem, on the outside, to be a passive thing; however, it is anything but! Our world is in desperate need of hope, of renewal, of a 'turning back' to the things of God. By visiting Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we take up the best weapon for the battles of our age and contribute to the healing of our culture. Cultivating a Eucharistic life of adoration also bears tremendous fruit in our own hearts and lives. We cannot spend time in the rays of His Eucharistic Presence without receiving His grace, His love, His mercy, His peace. As we gaze...

"Did you ever consider well, dear Christian soul, that, when the Sacred Host is publicly exposed, Jesus is not on His Eucharistic throne to receive the adorations of the angels and to enjoy the company of the blessed? These He finds in heaven. But He is on His Eucharistic throne to receive your adorations, to listen to your confidences, and to console and alleviate your sorrows and trials.' Come, then, and adore the Holy Host." (From the book The Holy Eucharist , by Jose Guadalupe Trevino)

 

 

How to Be His - A 33-Day Dedication to our Eucharistic Lord , authored by Father Jesse J. Maingot, O.P. and Father Ignatius John Schweitzer, O.P., enriched my Advent, reignited my love for the Eucharist and opened my eyes to the prophetic voice we are all called to share. I highly recommend their work. Here is a summary of some of the more important insights these wise Friars shared about prophets and their role in God's plan of salvation. To speak a prophetic word,  Father Ignatius instructs us, " is not so much about foretelling something in the future. Prophecy is seeing the unfolding of history as God sees it." A prophet gets God's people to read the sign of the times and to be aware of their lives and the events of their days in light of God's wisdom and God's plan. A prophet is able to interpret what is happening from God's perspective. To speak a prophetic word is to speak into a situation, a living Word that manifests what God is up to and encourag...