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.     Johann Tauler, O.P. "Priests, on account of their dignity, have a right to more honor and respect. They represent the sovereign Priest, Jesus Christ; you owe them therefore a very profound respect. They may be good to you and treat you with condescension, but never let a layman dare to make himself the equal of a priest and treat him with familiarity. Never consider them as your comrades, but as your superiors. Remain in your place; and if one of them wants to condescend to your level, do not take advantage of it in any other way than to put yourselves still lower." (From Spiritual Conferences )      St. Peter Julian Eymard "Since Jesus Christ has loved me, I will love Him in spite of everything and nothing will ever prevent me from loving Him! The events of the time, the spiritual forces, hunger, nakedness, the sword o...

Photo©Michael Seagriff 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 Federico Suarez "If there are so many Christians who today live aimlessly with little depth, and hemmed in on all sides by narrow horizons, it is due, above all, to their lack of any clear idea of why they, personally exist...What elevates a man and truly gives him a personality of his own is the consciousness of his vocation, the consciousness of his own specific task in the universe." (From Mary of Nazareth)

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. Blessed Pop e Paul VI "The dialogue of salvation is not based on the personal merits of those with whom it is carried out or on the results that may or may not come about. Our Lord teaches: 'It is not the healthy who need a physician...' The dialogue concerning salvation is open to everyone without distinction. Similarly, our own conversations should be potentially universal and capable of embracing all." (From Encyclical, Ecclesiam suam )  C.S. Lewis "Enemy-occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage."  (From Mere Christianity )  Father Federico Suarez "Silence is an indispensable condition for keeping things and pon...

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on Revisiting Wednesdays. Do yourself a favor- go here now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in Faith journey. During the rest of each week. visit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb .  You will be pleased with what they share. This is the post I have chosen to share: Monday Musings - So What’s the Rush? (Initially published April 27, 2015) (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Many professing to be Catholic - even among those who attend Sunday Mass regularly - have lost the sense of the Sacred and their belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The many reasons for this are beyond the scope of this brief reflection. Let me mention just two   (1) the ...

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. Josemaria Escriva "Mortification does not usually consist of great renunciations, for situations requiring great self-denial seldom occur. Mortification is made up of small conquests, such as smiling at those who annoy us, denying the body some superfluous fancy, getting accustomed to listening to others, making full use of the time God allots us...and so many other details. We find it in the apparently trifling problems, difficulties and worries which arise without our looking for them in the course of each day." (From Christ is Passing By )

(Image 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. Francis de Sales "We blame our neighbor for the slightest faults, and we condone the greatest ones in ourselves. We want to sell dearly, but buy cheaply. We want justice done in the home of others, but mercy in our own. We want our words to be taken kindly, but we are offended by those of others. If an inferior is not well-mannered with us, we are irked by whatever he does; but if we find someone agreeable, we excuse him, in any action. We firmly demand our rights, but we want others to be tem­perate in demanding theirs. . . . What we do for others always seems a great deal, what others do for us seems nothing." (From Letters From John Paul I )

What better day than a Sunday to acknowledge this fundamental Truth: Next to the Eucharist, the greatest gift God has left us is His priests.  Were there no priests, there would be no Eucharist. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) How many of us treat our priests as the treasures they are? Do we pray for them and encourage them to live courageously and fully their priestly vocation? What are we waiting for? May the following observation of Father Suarez spur us to do both and also serve to inspire the priests who serve us:

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 Federico Suarez  "The Cross, then, is the great place of prayer, just as it is the great altar, the great monstrance, and the first tabernacle. It is not in vain that we are told to begin and end our prayers with the sign of the Cross." (From The Sacrifice of the Mass )

The best homilies are those which challenge us to look objectively at our relationship with God and how we live out our faith. We need to be reminded of the great chasm that often exists between what we profess to believe and how we actually live our lives. We must be encouraged to seek God's grace and forgiveness if we are ever to bridge that gap. How can that be done? Father Suarez has some unambiguous suggestions:

Image 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.     Georges Chevrot   “You are often mistaken when you say, 'I brought my children up wrongly', or 'I did not know how to do good to those around me.' What happens is that you have not achieved the result you were hoping for, that you do not yet see the fruit you would have wished for, because the harvest is not yet ripe. What does matter is that you have sown the seed, that you have given God to souls. When God wants, those souls will return to him. You may not be there to see it, but there will be others who will gather in what you have sown.'1 What matters is that Christ, on whose behalf we have made so much effort, will be beside us. (From The Well of Life )