Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

We humans have suffered from selective deafness  from the moment God created us. Over the centuries, He has sent countless prophets to guide us, but we have ignored them. He sent His only Son and our ancestors killed Him. We continue to torment Him  with our sins and ingratitude. Few books that I have read have had more of an impact on me than God, A Woman and The Way , written in 1954 by Trappist, Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. Unfortunately, getting copies of this superlative book now is a challenge. Today, we are quick to blame our bishops and priests for the sorry condition of our world and God's Church. It is true that far too many of them can be justly criticized for not teaching and defending the Truth, for creating ambiguity in the Church's teaching where none existed, and for living lives inconsistent with their call to be alter Christus . But their failures, however, do not excuse our own. We lay folk far outnumber our ordained and flawed shepherds. As Father Raymond po...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) For several months now, at Sunday Mass, I have noticed that a middle-aged gentleman quickly walks out of the Church as soon as the congregation begins to approach the altar to receive Holy Communion. He leaves before anyone who might be inclined to approach or speak to him, is able to do so. I do not know why he will not approach our Lord; there could be countless reasons. Maybe he simply does not believe that it is Jesus he is walking away from. To date, all I have done is to pray for him. However, after Mass today, I read an article written by Father Denis Lemieux, entitled “Who Will Be Saved?” This thought-provoking column appeared in the July-August 2018 issue of Restoration , the newspaper published by Madonna House.  The good Father offers, what I consider, a possible explanation for this man’s reluctance to receive Communion that shook my soul and made it quite clear I must offer this man much more than my pr...

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers .   Monday Musings - Stop Blaming God  (Originally posted on July 31, 2017) What follows are simple declarative sentences excerpted from God, A Woman and the Way, a book written more than sixty years ago by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., a Trappist monk. They set forth fundamental Truths which today are routinely denied and denounced:  (Photo©Michael Seagriff) “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 ...