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 Anthony J. Paone, S.J.   “My Child, if you desire to make progress along the way to Heaven, keep in your heart a holy fear of the Divine Justice. It is only reasonable that you should be afraid to hurt yourself. When you bring sin into your life, you are making yourself an object of My justice. I, the Eternal Truth, cannot accept you as good if you have become bad by sin. Therefore, keep your earthly desires under control and refuse to surrender yourself to unnecessary or dangerous pleasures. This holy fear of My justice will help you to stay free of the slavery of earthly attractions… If your love of Me is not yet strong enough to hold you back from doing wrong, then let your fear of hell keep you from sinning. A man who lacks this wise and holy fear will not go on doing good things for long. He will soon fall into Satan's snares a...

(Image Source: Hands At Mass ) Oh, how beautiful will be a soul that has often and worthily received the good God! It will be united to the soul of Our Lord. Then it will enjoy a happiness pure and perfect. It will shine like a beautiful diamond, because God will be reflected in it.  When the soul of a Christian who has received Our Lord enters Paradise, it adds to the joy of heaven. The Angels and the Queen of Angels come to meet it because they recognize the Son of God in this soul. Those who receive. Holy Communion at the moment of death are very fortunate. At the particular judgment which takes place immediately after death God the Father sees His Son in them! He cannot condemn them, Oh! no. (From The Eucharistic Reflections of the Cure of Ars )

    "I was listening to the radio yesterday when the host said something that stayed with me: God will not judge me for how others treat me, but for how I treat others. They were talking about how to respond when someone doesn’t treat you well. It is easy to slip into negativity when negativity surrounds us. It is easy to mirror what we receive instead of choosing what we want to give. His message was about choosing differently-choosing to stay positive, choosing to do the right thing, choosing to let God’s love be the pattern we follow rather than the negative behavior around us. Oh what a wonderful world it would be if we could all choose God’s love all the time. For me, the reflection becomes personal: How can I do my part? How can I make sure I am choosing to share God’s love, even when the circumstances make it feel difficult? How can I let His grace shape my response more than my frustration does? Lord, help me meet every person with the love You place in my heart, e...

It [Holy Communion] repairs the strength and appeases the hunger of the soul, and enables it to carry out joyfully and with fervor all the duties of the Christian life. When you have had the happiness of receiving the good God, you feel, for some time, a joy and comfort in your heart. Pure souls are always in that state, this union is their strength and their happiness.  Oh! how sweet is this life of union with the good God! It is heaven on earth. There are no more troubles, no longer any crosses! Without the Blessed Eucharist there would no longer be any happiness in this world, life would be unbearable. When we receive Holy Communion we receive our joy and all our good... Oh! if you knew how this heavenly Bread sweetens the sorrows of life! Oh! If once you had tasted how kind and generous Jesus Christ is to those who receive Him in Holy Communion! . . . Go, my children, eat this Bread of the strong and you will return filled with joy and courage, you will desire more sufferings, ...

 

 

"It is for us that...our divine Savior has remained day and night on our altars, that we may have recourse to Him in all our needs; and nothing so much afflicts His divine Heart as our ingratitude for such a favor, and our neglect to visit Him and ask His blessing. If we knew how profitable those visits are, we should be constantly prostrate before the altar. The Saints understood this truth; they knew that Jesus Christ is the source of all grace, and whenever they encountered any difficulty or wished to obtain any particular favor, they ran to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis Regis and others spent whole hours during the day and, frequently, a great part of the night at the foot of the altar; it was in these long interviews with Jesus Christ that they advanced the good works they had in hand, converted sinners, and obtained success in all their undertakings for the glory of God and their own sanctification." (Blessed J. B. Marcellin Cha...