Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"Once you feel the attraction to remain in the silence of adoration in God’s presence, you must give yourself entirely to the Holy Spirit and remain there in pure faith. If God gives you no feeling, no sentiment, no distinct thought, just be there before Him in silent love. During such moments He operates insensibly in the soul and does more for her perfection than she could in a lifetime by her own thoughts." Blessed Columba Marmion

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) "Wouldn’t it indeed be a failure of respect to neglect the Divine Guest who awaits us in the tabernacle? He dwells there, really present, He who was present in the crib, at Nazareth, upon the mountains of Judea, at the Last Supper, upon the cross. He is there, the same Christ who healed the lepers, stilled the tempest, and promised to the good thief a place in His kingdom. We find there our Savior, our Friend, our elder Brother, in the fullness of His almighty power, in the ever-fruitful virtue of His mysteries, the infinite superabundance of His merits, and the ineffable mercy of His love." Blessed Columba Marmion

“What is there upon the altar before the Consecration? A bit of bread, a little wine. And after the Consecration? For the senses – for touch, sight, taste – bread and wine still. Faith, only faith, penetrates beneath those veils, to reach the divine reality that is totally hidden there. Without faith, we shall never see anything but bread and wine; we shall not see God; He does not reveal Himself there as He does in the Gospel… (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) In the case of the Eucharist, there is room only for pure faith; faith founded solely on the words of Jesus: ‘This is my body, this is my blood.’ The Eucharist is, above all, a ‘mystery of faith’; Mysterium fidei .

“O Christ Jesus, really present on the altar, I prostrate myself at Your feet. May all adoration be rendered to You in the Sacrament You willed to leave to us in witness of the excess of your love, on the eve of Your Passion! Again, we can express that reverence, that veneration, by going to visit Christ in the tabernacle. Is it not, indeed a failure of respect if we neglect this Divine Guest who awaits us? There in the tabernacle He remains, really present, this one who was present in the manger of Bethlehem, at Nazareth, on the hills of Judea, in the upper room, on the cross…

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) 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.   St.   Thomas Aquinas “There is a difference between the knowledge we ac­quire of God by science and by faith. The knowledge of God possessed by a study of the sciences enlightens our intellect only, by showing that God is the first cause, that He is One and All-Wise. But the knowledge of God had by faith both enlightens the intellect and delights the heart; because that knowledge not only tells us that God is the First Cause but that He is our Savior, that He is the Redeemer, that He loves us and became man for us.” (From Saint Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day )

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “But if it is true that without Christ Jesus we "can do nothing", how much more will that be found true when it is a matter of our carrying out the action which is the holiest one of each day! To unite oneself sacramentally to Christ Jesus in the Eucharist is, for a created being, the highest act there can be. All human wisdom, whatever heights it may reach, is nothing in comparison with that act. We are incapable of adequately disposing ourselves in this without the help of Christ Himself. Our prayers show the reverence we have for Him, but it is He Himself who must prepare a dwelling for Himself within us.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons ) 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. Pope Paul VI “Our evangelizing zeal must spring from true holiness of life, and as the Second Vatican Council suggests, preaching must in turn make the preacher grow in holiness, which is nourished by prayer and above all by love for the Eucharist.”                                                                 (From Evangelii Nuntiandi , 76)

(St. Francis Xavier Church, Hyannis, MA) 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. St. John Chrysostom   “At times we dedicate all our efforts not only to what is superfluous but also to what is useless or even harmful, while we abandon the study of Sacred Scripture. Many people who are completely enthused over the horse races can quickly come up with the name, pedigree, race, nation, and training of the horses; their age, which horse would win the race against some other one, and an individual horse’s potential to pass the winning-post first, when mounted by a given rider, all spring immediately to mind…If, however, we ask them the number of St. Paul’s epistles, they are incapable of an answer.” (Homilies on certain passages from the New Testament, I,1)

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. St. Peter Julian Eymard “It is impossible for anyone to bestow upon us a love for Jesus Christ or infuse it into our hearts. People may exhort us to love Him, but it is beyond human power to reach us teach us how to love; we learn love by feeling it. This education of the heart belongs to our Lord alone, for He desires Himself alone to be its goal. He begins by giving to the communicant the sentiment of love, then the motive of love, and finally the impelling desire for the heroism of love, But this is learned only in Communion.” (From How To Get More Out of Holy Communion) Venerable Fulton J. Sheen “The Sermon on the Mount is so much at variance with all that our world holds dear, that the world will crucify anyone who strives to live up to its values; because Christ preached them, he had to die. Calvary was the price ...