Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"I was first introduced to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the 1980’s in St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Liberty, NY. I was invited by some friendly people to attend Adoration on the First Friday of the month. This became a regular visit. In those years, I was busy with my husband and growing children at home. I was still mourning the loss of my youngest sister’s sudden death and a miscarriage early-on in a pregnancy. It was during those quiet hours in the evening in the church, talking to Jesus in this most intimate way, sometimes in tears, that I began a path to inner peace. Adoration led me to spiritual reading, learning more about the faith I grew up in, to regular Confession, to talking more to our priests and others. I became involved in activities in my own parish, helping with the Altar Rosary Society, religious education, projects to raise funds, pro-life work and Bible study. In the local newspaper, I read about an Adoration event happening at St. Joseph’s C...

"Home... That’s the word that the Lord lays on my heart when I walk into the Adoration Chapel. But it wasn’t always that way. For a couple of years, I went to Adoration, to beg, borrow, plead, and to try and 'make a deal' with God; what I’d do for Him, if He’d only do what I wanted for me. But that isn’t how God works. He loves us too much to give us what we 'want,' instead, in His Love for us, He gives us what we 'need.' And often times in my life, well, in my 'old' life, those two things were rarely the same. And so, I literally spent hundreds of hours in Adoration, trying to 'convince' God that I knew better. But today, I thank God without ceasing for loving me too much to give me what I 'thought' was best, instead; because of His love for me, He chose to give me more than I ever could have imagined or even conceived of asking Him for. And since He’s given these things to me, has my life smoothed out and gotten happy, or fun, or e...

 

  “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)   ·          

"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. Father Henri Dominic Lacordaire, O.P. “What is difficult is to carry the cross each day, the cross which is not blood-stained but which bruises the skin a little without making it bleed, and which is composed of restraint, tediousness and languor. If one could only mount Calvary once and for all, and give one's body once and for all to the executioners, what pleasure! But no, the torment is in detail: a little cut of the whip, a little slap in the face, a little humiliation.” (From  St. Dominic’s Family   by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.)   Plinio Correa de Oliveira “If I am truly grateful for the fact that our Lord is my God and my Savior Who shed His blood to the last drop for me and would have done it for me alone, I must react when I see Him attacked, insulted derided, blasphemed and His Church persecuted. That is t...

" You must spend time in the Presence of God! When you go to church to spend time at Adoration, give your full attention to the Lord. Talk to Him just as if you were talking to a friend or relative. Know that He is there in front of you, waiting for you! All you need to do is to open your eyes and your hearts to God. Even though God knows everything that is in your heart, He wants you to share those thoughts with Him. He is waiting for you to ask Him to help you, your loved ones and others in need. Only He knows what you and they need and what is best for the salvation of your soul and theirs. Be grateful that you can come into His Presence and be with Him. Remember that everything we have is a gift from God. He may not always give us what we request, but God will always give us what we need. Should we not offer all the joys and tribulations of our lives to Him? Should we not worship and love Him as He asks? Should we not ask Him to change our hearts and teach us how to love...

Our lives are plagued with distraction.   But when we choose to exercise our free will, which God the Father so lovingly respects, and attend Eucharistic Adoration without phone or timepiece, we render these distractions harmless. God does not shout. He whispers His love into our hearts when our hearts are completely open to Him. It is then His words are heard and made manifest in us.   It is then we more fully understand the Truth. As St. Catherine of Siena teaches, the greater our understanding of the Truth, the greater is our ability to love.   Eucharistic Adoration brings us closer to Truth, which is Christ Jesus Himself, and hence our capacity to love is made greater. Mr. Bob Kratzenberg, O.P.   St. Catherine of Siena Fraternity, Columbus, OH f rom  Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration)

  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons )   "My Dearest Jesus, Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, my Savior and Redeemer, my Love and my Life; I behold You, hidden in the spotless Host―Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.   I love You! I adore You! I trust in You!   I surrender my intellect and my will to You. I surrender my all to You. Please help me to know You, love You, and serve You ever more perfectly.   Please grant me the grace to love You ever more intimately, so that You may be in me and I may be in You―that my love may be complete.   Please allow the Indwelling of the Three in me to reflect the Trinity dwelling in You, so that I may be a mirror of Your Divine Love.   It is only by Your unfathomable mercy that I can bear Your radiance, and it is only by Your infinite love that I may love!   O my Jesus! Please grant me the greatest desire to love you without ceasing and to be fearlessly ...

" 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. ...

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 came to Adoration tonight with my addled brain to talk to Jesus and see if He really wants me to continue with my apostolate. I prayed the Office and waited to hear what He had to say. No new words, just silence. A calm. An eternity. A fatherly gaze of understanding — nothing so definite as that, just warmth. Less than that. It was my intellect that told me He is in that monstrance and all His attention is on me. Knowing that enables me to feel it. A powerful whisper. Then a wordless sense of all the Scripture passages that move me, gathered together in His gaze. How many mistakenly come to ask Jesus for guidance and hear nothing because they have not heard what He has said already in scripture. “We played the flute and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn,” and again, “If you had believed Moses, you would believe me now.” How to encourage a hard heart to hear and to love? Maybe some do not want to hear because they want only a relationship with God ...

In his Introduction to  Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration , Father Ignatius Schweitzer, O.P., the Priest Promoter of the Lay Dominicans St Joseph Province, USA, writes:  "The Lay Dominicans in this book have discovered the secret! They have discovered the all-surpassing treasure and value and meaning we have in our Eucharistic Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration. Their deep yearnings have kept them coming back to the Eucharist to touch the human heart's ultimate fulfillment, God, and then to go out to the world with something to share." May Gloria J. Eldridge's refection, excerpted   from this inspiring book, entice all who read it, to discover and/or rediscover, the secret! (Photo by  Thays Orrico  on  Unsplash ) Sometimes and Always "Sometimes I pray. It might be the Rosary...the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Stations of the Cross. Sometimes I read. It might be Scripture...a dev...

“… let us persevere in Adoration. The Adoration of God will never disappoint us. The patient and silent Adoration of Saint Anne made possible the birth of Mary, the mother of the Savior, the most beautiful, the purest, the holiest of all creatures. To all of you whose hearts bear suffering and sorrow, your Adoration will bear fruit in hope. Persevering and relentless Adoration tears through darkness and brings the light of hope.” (Cardinal Robert Sarah, July 26, 2025 Homily marking the 400 th  anniversary of Saint Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at her shrine in Sainte-Anne d’Auray,)

  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “God is greater than our misunderstandings, greater than our doubts.   God is greater than our hearts. In the face of evil, we have no ready-made answers. We have no human answers. Faced with evil, we have but one response: Adoration. Our only response to the mystery of evil is silent Adoration. Yes, evil is incomprehensible, but by faith, we know that trusting Adoration in God is stronger than the absurdity of evil…” (Cardinal Robert Sarah, July 26, 2025 Homily marking the 400 th   anniversary of Saint Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at her shrine in Sainte-Anne d’Auray, Brittany, France )  

(Photo ©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with Permission) We see clearly how in lands of comfort, wealth and abundance, man destroys himself, self-destructs, because he forgets God and thinks only of his riches and earthly well-being. What saves the world is the bread of God. Man must be nourished with the bread of God - and the bread of God - is Christ Himself. What will save the world is a man kneeling before God, to adore and to serve Him. God is not at our service. It is we who are at His service. (Cardinal Robert Sarah, July 26, 2025 Homily marking the 400 th anniversary of Saint Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at her shrine in Sainte-Anne d’Auray, Brittany, France)

 

A Call To Be A Militant Catholic   How will these words impact the way you live your Faith?  “If I am truly grateful for the fact that our Lord is my God and my Savior, Who shed His blood to the last drop for me and would have done it for me alone, I must react, when I see Him attacked, insulted, derided, blasphemed and His Church persecuted. That is the logical consequence of adoration. "What good is a Holy Hour, filled with good feelings and emotion, if, as I come out and witness an offence to God, I do not take a stand? What is the sincerity of that love I pledged to Our Lord, if I remain indifferent when I see Him attacked? If my adoration is sincere, I must be ready to fight for His cause to the last breath. If we consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the Mystical Body, which is the Catholic Church, and that the Church on earth is called the Church Militant; if we consider that it has been the Church's lot to be attacked, contested, denied, betrayed and p...