Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

If you care about the salvation of souls (yours and those you know and love) you MUST read Dr. Ralph Martin’s book, The Urgency of the New Evangelization: Answering the Call .  It is a clear and concise explanation of an essential Truth we rarely hear preached in our Churches anymore – there is a hell and it is being heavily populated. For too long we have flipped Church teaching upside down suggesting that it is pretty smooth sailing to the pearly gates.   Many of our contemporary teachers erroneously tell us that we ‘have a reasonable hope that all will be saved”. That is not what our Lord told us. Unless we return to His Truth – “that the road is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mt 7:14), we will deprive ourselves and those we love of the precious and undeserved Gift our Lord suffered and died to offer us – eternal salvation.  We are in the midst of a Jubilee Year of Mercy. We should seek God’s mercy and extend mercy to...

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.     Dr. Ralph Martin   “The reason for the command [in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8 for example] – namely, that the eternal destinies of human beings are really at stake and for most people the preaching of the Gospel can make a life-or-death, heaven or hell difference – need to be unashamedly stated. This is certainly why Jesus often spoke of the eternal consequences of not accepting his teaching – being lost forever, hell – and did not just give the command to evangelize. This is why Mark 16:16, which is referenced in LG [ Lumen Gentium] 16 but not directly quoted, makes explicit that what is at stake in being “saved” or “condemned.” Jesus makes clear that Christianity is not a game or an optional enrichment opportunity but a precious and urgent opportunity to find salvation and escape damnation. In fidelity to the t...

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. Servant of God Madeleine Delbrel   “To the extent that our world tries to break itself away from God, that people believe that they can get by without God, that they can organize things apart from God, God becomes for the world something new, and the living God of the Gospel once again becomes news.”    (From We, the Ordinary People of the Streets )   Benedict XVI Today…it is particularly important to clarify the criteria used to distinguish the authentic s ensus fidelium from its counterfeits. In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the Magisterium, this because the sensus fidei cannot grow authentically in the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the life of the Church, and ...