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. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, Servant of God "As an audience maintains silence to hear better the voice of an orator, as music lovers keep silence during a symphony to admire its artistic beauty, so the silence of contemplation is nothing other than the indispensable condition for hearing the voice of God and addressing to Him our heartfelt words." (From When God is Silent: Finding Spiritual Peace Amidst The Storms of Life )   Father Donald Haggerty "To give ourselves to God in prayer is to find a door in our heart unlocking and opening to the hearts of other people." (From his Contemplative Enigmas )   St. Jean-Pierre de Caussade "Sometimes we live in God and sometimes God lives in us. These are very different states. When God lives in us, we should abandon ourselves com...

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       Alexander de Rouville "The Holy Spirit does not tell everyone: 'Give away all that you have.' He does not require that degree of perfection from everyone, but He does say to everyone: 'Do not be attached to possessions.' God cannot establish His rule in a heart that is attached to the passing things of earth." (From The Imitation of Mary )   Father Andrew Haggerty "The idea that contemplation could be at one's personal disposal and available on demand is an obvious misconception. The only proper expectation is that the soul's yearning to love God has come from God and cannot be fruitless. A soul becomes contemplative on the condition that it takes seriously a need in love to give itself in a complete surrender to God." (From The Contemplative Hunger )    Servant of God Dolindo Ruotolo "Amid the d...

It's Good Friday. Gaze into His eyes and then ponder these words. PLEASE TAKE NOTE :  I HAVE BEEN CENSURED. MY IMAGE AND POST HAVE BEEN REMOVED. WHY? I HAVE NO IDEA. BY WHOM? I ASSUME BY BLOGGER. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THIS WAS DONE, WHAT OFFENSE I MAY HAVE COMMITTED. NO ONE CONTACTED ME BEFORE OR AFTER THEY REMOVED MY POST.  THIS ACTION SHOULD UPSET EVERYONE WHO VALUES FREEDOM OF SPEECH. I HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO CONTACT BLOGGER TO GET AN EXPLANATION. THEY MAKE COMMUNICATION WITH THEM NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.  IF ANYONE HAS HAD A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE OR HAS FOUND A WAY TO CONTACT AND GET AN ANSWER FROM BLOGGER I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR CONTACTING ME. BUT WAIT. A MIRACLE??? SUDDENLY AFTER INSERTING  THE PLEASE TAKE NOTE TEXT ABOVE, THE LINK TO MY TEXT REAPPEARS AND WORKS...DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING BUT AM THANKFUL... 

Have we been selling ourselves short on the importance of prayer and our need to persevere in prayer? St. Teresa of Avila warns us against doing so: “You must believe that if you give up prayer, you are, in my opinion, courting danger.” Who among us is not distracted during prayer? How many of us feel like our prayer time is lifeless and useless? Why do so many give up on prayer and never reach the point where God gives them the undeserved blessing and gift of infused contemplation? What is infused contemplation and how does it differ from meditation? Why are we not taught about this form of prayer? What are the origins of this type of mystical prayer? Who is called to such prayer? How many have abandoned their prayer life just when they might be on the precipice of real communion with the Lord they love? David Torkington, noted Spiritual Theologian, Author and Speaker, answers these questions and countless others in his easy to read, instructive and inspiring book, Wisdom...

Bringing the Mysteries of the most Holy Rosary to Life Let me be frank. Dan Burke and Connie Rossini are fine outstanding lay Catholics whose efforts on behalf of the Lord they serve have touched the hearts of countless souls seeking a closer union with God. Nary a day passes without my being enriched by the wisdom and insight they share at spiritualdirection.com    and at authenticcontemplativeprayer. But I am upset with both of them! Why you ask? Because I was too weak to stand my ground, to honor the promise I made not to buy another book this year! It is THEIR fault that I was unfaithful to that promise and succumbed once again to that “buy with one click” button on Amazon. Had they not written The Contemplative   Rosary with St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of   Avila , I would have been successful in fulfilling my promise. They should have known that this rosary loving Lay Dominican, who never leaves home without his beads, would rush to ge...

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 of the Cross "Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction." (From  The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross )   St. John Paul II "We could say that suffering, which is present under so many different forms in our human world, is also present in order to unleash love in the human person, that unselfish gift of one's 'I' on behalf of other people, especially those who suffer. The world of human suffering unceasingly calls for, so to speak, another world: the world of human love; and in a certain sense man owes to suffering that unselfish love which stirs in his heart and actions." (From Apostolic Letter, Salvifici doloris ,...