Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 17, 2025

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.

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

"No creature ever loved Jesus Christ more ardently, nor showed more perfect submission to His will, than Mary, His mother. If then, this Savior, immolated for us sinners, gave His mother to us, an advocate and intercessor for all time, she cannot but comply with His request, and will not refuse us her assistance. Let us, then, not hesitate to implore her pity; let us have recourse to her with great confidence in all our necessities, as she is an inexhaustible source of blessing, bestowing her favors in proportion to the confidence placed in her."

 (From Spiritual Combat)

 

Alice von Hildebrand

“But the recognition of our nothingness should go hand in hand with an awareness that God, the infinitely good and merciful God, loves His creatures, these poor beggars that He has knighted by making them to His image and likeness. The moment that man perceives both his misery and his greatness, the consciousness that he is loved brings him to such overwhelming joy that, appropriately, he prefers to be nothing because the one who loves him and whom he has learned to love is everything.” 

(From The Privilege of Being a Woman)

 

St. Therese of Lisieux "I realize as never before that the Lord is gentle and merciful; He did not send me this heavy cross until I could bear it. If He had sent it before, I am certain that it would have discouraged me . . . I desire nothing at all now except to love until I die of love. I am free, I am not afraid of anything, not even of what I used to dread most of all . . . a long illness which would make me a burden to the community. I am perfectly content to go on suffering in body and soul for years, if that would please God. I am not in the least afraid of living for a long time; I am ready to go on fighting."  (From The Story of a Soul)

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - June 19, 2025

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. Ignatius of Loyola "Man was created for a certain end. This end is to praise, to reverence and to serve the Lord his God and by this means to arrive at eternal salvation. All other beings and objects that surround us on the earth were created for the benefit of man and to be useful to him, as means to his final end; hence his obligation to use, or to abstain from the use of, these creatures, according as they bring him nearer to that end, or tend to separate him from it." (From The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius)

Deacon Alex Jones "How do you tell God no? How do you look into the face of truth and say, ‘That’s nice, but it will cause me problems?’ I said yes, and that yes has cost me dearly. But deep down in my heart is a passion for our Lord and a love for his Church. I love the Church—that sweet, holy, sanctifying Bride of Christ. I love the bishops, the priests, the nuns, the smells, and the bells. I love it all because I have discovered it. It has cost me much, but thank God I’m home at last!" (From Testimony to Truth)  Dom Lorenzo Scupoli “Remember also that the more unjustly you suffer, and consequently the more grievous your affliction, the greater is your merit in the sight of God. For in the midst of your suffering you adore His judgments, and willingly submit to His Divine Providence which draws good from the greatest evil and makes the malice of our enemies subservient to our eternal happiness.” (From The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise On Peace of Soul)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - November 21, 2024

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.

Dan Burke and Connie Rossini  "When we have too many vocal prayers to say, our goal easily changes to getting them done instead of praying them well. They become less, rather than more, contemplative. The Holy Spirt might be moving us to linger silently on the meditation of a mystery, but we feel that we can't stop or we will never fit all our prayers in. So we find ourselves working against the Holy Spirit...We forget that the very purpose of prayer is communing with the Lord."  (From The Contemplative Rosary)    Dom Lorenzo Scupoli  "No creature ever loved Jesus Christ more ardently, nor showed more perfect submission to His will, than Mary, His mother. If then, this Savior, immolated for us sinners, gave His mother to us, an advocate and intercessor for all time, she cannot but comply with His request, and will not refuse us her assistance. Let us, then, not hesitate to implore her pity; let us have recourse to her with great confidence in all our necessities, as she is an inexhaustible source of blessing, bestowing her favors in proportion to the confidence placed in her."  (An excerpt from The Spiritual Combat and A Treatise on Peace of Soul)

Rev. D. Chisholm

“If Christians only knew the immense treasure they possessed in the Holy Eucharist, and all they could obtain by going to Holy Communion, their joy would be so great that earth would be changed for them into Heaven itself; they would go in crowds to the Holy Table every day, and with hearts overflowing with love.”

 (From The Catechism in Examples)

 

 

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - August 22, 2024

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 Donald H. Calloway, MIC

"Many saints have claimed to see angels during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and during Eucharistic adoration. The angels are God's servants and do His holy will. They pass unnoticed before our eyes, yet, when we attend Holy Mass or Eucharistic adoration, we are surrounded by armies of holy angels. They have no self-interest; their one desire is to serve and worship God. Like soldiers on a battlefield, they fight for God and constantly await their marching orders. It should be the same for you."

(From 30 Day Eucharistic Revival – A Retreat with St. Peter Julian Eymard)

 

St. John Chrysostom

"There is nothing to be dreaded in human ills except sin—not poverty, or disease, or insult, or ill treatment, or dishonor, or death, which people call the worst of evils. To those who love spiritual wisdom, these things are only the names of disasters, names that have no substance. No, the true disaster is to offend God, to do anything that displeases Him."

                                              (From A Year with the Church Fathers)

 

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

"No creature ever loved Jesus Christ more ardently, nor showed more perfect submission to His will, than Mary, His mother. If then, this Savior, immolated for us sinners, gave His mother to us, an advocate and intercessor for all time, she cannot but comply with His request, and will not refuse us her assistance. Let us, then, not hesitate to implore her pity; let us have recourse to her with great confidence in all our necessities, as she is an inexhaustible source of blessing, bestowing her favors in proportion to the confidence placed in her."

(From The Spiritual Combat)

 

Eucharistic Reflection - Spiritual Communions

"Although actual reception of the Sacrament of the Eucharist is limited [generally] to once a day, you are nevertheless at liberty to communicate in spirit every hour. And nothing except your own negligence can prevent you from receiving the inestimable benefits to be derived from such a union with Him. It is worth noting that spiritual communion is sometimes of greater benefit to the soul and more acceptable to God than sacramental communions received with little preparation and less affection." 

(Dom Lorenzo Scupoli from The Spiritual Combat)

 

Pondering Tidbits Of Truth - September 17, 2020

 

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. Catherine of Siena

“Do you know dearest daughter, how I raise the soul out of her imperfections? Sometimes I vex her with evil thoughts and a sterile mind. It will seem to her that I have left her completely, without any feeling whatever. She does not seem to be in the world, because she is in fact not there; nor does she seem to be in me because she has no feeling at all other than that her will does not want sin. I do not allow enemies to open the gate of the will that is free. I do let the devils and other enemies of humankind beat against other gates, but not against this, which is the main gate guarding the city of the soul. I do not will the soul’s death as long as she is not so stupid as to open the gate of her will. They cannot enter unless her own will chooses to let them in.”

(From The Dialogue)

 

Peter Kreeft, Ph.D.

“God does not excuse, He forgives. If we do not know the difference between those two things, we probably misunderstand both. Excusing is very easy and cheap; forgiving is very hard and costly. We are the Church of the costly Cross, not the Church of Cheap Grace.”

(From Wisdom from the Psalms)

 

Dom Lorenzo Scupoli

 

“Reflect every day on the fact that He Who has granted you the morning has not promised the evening, and if He grant this, He gives no assurance of the following morning. Spend each day, therefore, as if it were the last; cherish nothing but the will of God, for you will have to render a strict account of every moment…Although you have transacted a great deal of business and have undergone many hardships, you may consider the day worthless and your labor unprofitable, unless you have gained many victories over your passions and your own will, unless you have gratefully acknowledged the benefits received from God, particularly His death on the Cross, unless you have accepted as blessings whatever chastisements the Father of infinite mercy has inflicted as an expiation for your any sins.”

 

(From The Spiritual Combat and a Treatise On Peace of Soul)