Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “God is greater than our misunderstandings, greater than our doubts.   God is greater than our hearts. In the face of evil, we have no ready-made answers. We have no human answers. Faced with evil, we have but one response: Adoration. Our only response to the mystery of evil is silent Adoration. Yes, evil is incomprehensible, but by faith, we know that trusting Adoration in God is stronger than the absurdity of evil…” (Cardinal Robert Sarah, July 26, 2025 Homily marking the 400 th   anniversary of Saint Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at her shrine in Sainte-Anne d’Auray, Brittany, France )  

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. Hubert Van Zeller, O.S.B. "The weight of evil in the world seems overwhelming. We feel it everywhere and our effort to resist is smothered. But God does not  see things in this way. God must still see the world as good or he would not allow it to continue its existence. H e prefers, so St. Augustine tells us, to draw good out of evil rather than not to permit any evil at all." (From The Mystery of Suffering) Father Benedict Baur, O.S.B.  "Think of all of our omissions with regard to opportunities for and impulses toward prayer. All those free moments we have in the course of each day: we could use them for prayer, but we omit to do so…Think of all the inspirations of grace and all the impulses to good we neglect or to which we turn a deaf ear. We know that God is speaking to us ...

Satan's battle plan for some time has been clear, obvious and unambiguous to anyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear - to destroy the Catholic priesthood, its Liturgy and the Eucharist. For the most part, he has succeeded beyond his wildest expectation - although his victory is but a temporary, albeit extremely painful, one. But how many souls have been and will be lost until God has had enough and finally destroys Satan and his countless minions? Too many. And tragically not enough in positions of authority seem to care.  Ask Catholics what is the purpose of their Church and few, very few, will know that it exists for the salvation of souls, not for correcting social or economic injustices. Our Church must assist its members to know, love and serve God in this world so that they can spend eternity with Him in next - to help form us into saints.

Today is a good time to recall that Herod feared and hated the infant King of the Jews so much, he ordered the execution of all male children around Jesus’ age in the vicinity of Bethlehem ( Mt 2:13-18).  He wanted to prevent Jesus’ kingship – but that he was powerless to accomplish.  How horrible it had to have been where mother after mother had their child ripped out from their arms and murdered in their sight. There was nothing these women could do to stop it The slaughter of innocents began by Herod has not ended. It has just taken another form  – the millions of children brutally killed in their mother’s wombs through abortion.  Where is the outrage? Why the silence? Why have we not stopped these atrocities? Speak up against the evil of abortion.  Save lives and souls.

The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen was a master of the written word.    The Archbishop would be horrified (but not surprised) to see not only how many who identify themselves as Catholics have remained silent about the evil of abortion but the large number of them who, while hiding behind the curtains of voting booths, have pulled the lever for candidates who passionately support the killing of infants within their mother's wombs.    Their family and friends may not know for whom they voted but God does. 

The Church's selective silence in the face of clear and unambiguous evil is impossible to reconcile with our moral obligations and the ageless wisdom of so many of our forbears in the Faith.  Why do our leaders hesitate for even a second to publicly and unrelentlessly oppose such evils as killing and harvesting of body parts for profit and continued funding of Planned Parenthood?  Why is there any delay in publicly correcting and reprimanding Catholic public figures who support  positions contrary to Church teaching and yet profess to be faithful Catholics?  Why do we refuse to immediately tell our government officials when they direct us to act contrary to our Catholic beliefs and God's Truth that we will not comply, instead of simply and meekly saying we will support Court challenges to such directives? Why? - a most compelling question requiring a loud response! Here is one offered by Father M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. more than half a century ago: ...

A flawed and imperfect man once reminded his audience that we were all responsible for the scourge of abortion through our silence! Yikes! The stark reality of being exposed as a coward smarts! It should!  "For evil to prevail," Edmund Burke is reported to have said, "good men need do nothing."  Remaining silent about this massacre of innocent life can longer be an option for any of us. But what can we do? For starters,  we can use existing resources to simply point out the absurdity of the language pro-choice groups use. We have the technology that allows us to peer into the womb of any pregnant woman and clearly see the human life within her. How many women would still abort if they were shown  this  ? I suspect that for some individuals, however, an even more direct and unambiguous approach might be required. End your silence by passing this on. (With thanks to SignalHill.com, mistervenable and...