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. Paul Thigpen “If we have been baptized into the Catholic faith as infants and have spent our Sundays attending Mass, perhaps we have missed what many converts are so ecstatic about. We are prone to a certain “house-blindness,” going through the motions of the Faith without bothering to scratch the surface. But for those who are brave enough to venture farther than surface-skimming, an entirely new chapter of their lives begins to unfold when the true reality before us is realized: The same Jesus we read about in the Bible, hear about in the readings of Mass, and watch movies about (if they are trendy enough) is the very same Jesus we receive and adore in the Most Blessed Sacrament, Body Soul and Divinity.”   (From Manual for Eucharistic Adoration )     Father Jacques Philippe "In...

  “Faith in the Eucharist opens out the whole invisible world to us. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is nothing less than radiation therapy for our cancer of the eyes.  When we gaze upon the Eucharist the healing graces that come from it are the same as the grace that Jesus unleashed upon all of those blind men He healed in the Gospels.  It is the same healing, the same mercy, the same compassion, the same transformation that He offers to us in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. ‘Do this in memory of Me.’ … the Eucharist gives us a deep gaze into the invisible world and we can trust God Who has told us it is true.”  (Monsignor James Shea at the Eucharistic Conference, Fargo, ND, September 2022, as posted on Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration,com)   ·          

 

"Certainly, I think that if we were to approach the most Blessed Sacrament with great faith and love, once would be enough to make us rich. How much richer from approaching so many of times as we do. The trouble is we do so out of routine and it shows.” St. Teresa of Avila

No doubt there are current-day Jeremiah's in our midst to who m we, like our Jewish ancestors, have turned a deaf ear... "[The Lord telling Jeremiah] to speak to the people of the cities of Judah whatever I command you, tell them, and omit nothing. Perhaps they will listen and turn back, each from his evil way, so that I may repent of the evil I planned to inflict upon them for their evil deeds. Say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you disobey me, not living according to the law I placed before you and not listening to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send you constantly though you do not obey them, I will treat this house like Shiloh, and make this the city to which all nations of the earth, shall refer when cursing another."   (From Jeremiah 26:4-6 )

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 Jacques Philippe “When a problem has robbed us of our peace, the most important thing is not to resolve the problem in the hope of regaining our peace, but to regain a minimum of peacefulness, and then to see what we can do to face the problem. We will avoid making irrational choices for all the wrong reasons. How do we get back this minimum level of peace? Essentially through prayer, listening to the Word, and believing that God will never abandoned us.” (From Fire & Light: Learning to Receive the Gift of God )   Msgr. Romano Guardini "[Some people], when they [receive Holy Communion], strive with all their might for sensible sweetness, instead of worshipping in humility and praising God within themselves. So much are they given to this, that they think when they derive no sensible sweetness, they have done nothing, so m...

"In our self-center ed culture and classic American emphasis on work, we often feel we have to accomplish something during our times of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. We rate our experience by how 'good' our prayer was, how heartfelt our devotion was, or how focused we could remain. Yet prayer and contemplation are fundamentally God's work, in which we are invited to participate. We need only to give Him the opening, and He will do the rest. By coming to adoration, we are handing Him the keys to our hearts, allowing the rays of His love and grace to bathe our souls in the light of His Presence, as the rays of the sun bathe our bodies in light. If we can take the time to pull away from the busyness and distractions of life and just sit at His feet, He will lead us."   (From Manual for Eucharistic Adoration -  Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration )

 

"There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention. Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not having eternal life. Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity. Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily. When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about to receive the Body of Our Lord: 'O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.'  My children, listen we...

 

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...

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. Rev. Father Raymond, O.C.S.O. “We need God.  Without Him we can do nothing. But God also needs us. He needs us to bear witness to the fact that He exists; that God became man; that God died; that God rose again; that men can become like God. God needs us to be animated Gospels and give the world the almost unbelievable ‘Good News’ that God is our Father, and we are heirs to all that almighty God possesses.” (From God. A Woman and the Way )     Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J. "The divine activity permeates the whole universe, it pervades every creature; wherever they are it is there; it goes before them, with them, and it follows them; all they have to do is to let the waves bear them on. Would to God that ... all men could know how very easy it would be for them to arrive at a high degree of sanctity. They would only h...

 

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “We have forgotten that there is eloquence in the silent simplicity of doing one’s ordinary duty. We have forgotten that there is power and terrific impact in example. A child of six was about to undergo a tonsillectomy. The surgeon, a fallen away Catholic, to ease all tension, playfully and paternally told the little girl that he was going to help her go to sleep for a while. Whereupon the child knelt on the operating table saying: 'If I’m going to sleep, I must first say my night prayers.’ In all simplicity and with the full charm of innocent childhood she folded her hands and said what you and I have said again and again in our youth. Now I lay me down to sleep; To God I give my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, To God I give my soul to take. That night a fallen away Catholic came back to Christ.   We forget that silence speaks, that our mere presence gives testimony to the truth – or evidence of our untruth!”  (Rev. ...