Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

We humans have suffered from selective deafness  from the moment God created us. Over the centuries, He has sent countless prophets to guide us, but we have ignored them. He sent His only Son and our ancestors killed Him. We continue to torment Him  with our sins and ingratitude. Few books that I have read have had more of an impact on me than God, A Woman and The Way , written in 1954 by Trappist, Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. Unfortunately, getting copies of this superlative book now is a challenge. Today, we are quick to blame our bishops and priests for the sorry condition of our world and God's Church. It is true that far too many of them can be justly criticized for not teaching and defending the Truth, for creating ambiguity in the Church's teaching where none existed, and for living lives inconsistent with their call to be alter Christus . But their failures, however, do not excuse our own. We lay folk far outnumber our ordained and flawed shepherds. As Father Raymond po...

There was a time when everyone entering a Catholic Church knew enough to genuflect, to remain silent and to spend time in intimate interior conversation with their Loving Lord locked behind the tabernacle doors. God deserves nothing less today. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Back in that day, everyone knew they were there in the Presence of God to adore and worship Him, not to visit with their neighbor. Somehow, they were able to enter, remain and exit the Church in reverent silence and postpone their socialization and greetings until they were out on the sidewalk. God deserves nothing less today. These same individuals knew enough to refrain from receiving our Lord in Holy Communion unworthily. Our priests reminded them of that obligation, not only out of loving concern for the salvation of their souls but as a bulwark and protector against Eucharistic sacrilege. God deserves nothing less today  If necessary, these truths were reinforced from the pu...

Our failure to live this Truth has contributed to the destruction of our culture and  the loss of countless souls. It is time to engage the enemy...

Looking for an explanation for the craziness in our world? You will not find a more truthful one than this: (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “Modern man has forgotten his origin and his end; forgotten his dignity and destiny; forgotten his innate nobility and towering superiority over everything material. Modern man with his vaunted progress reminds one forcibly of that traveler Marcus Aurelius told about; the one who was feverishly hurrying on, but had forgotten where he was going. Modern man has outdone this one; for modern man has forgotten even whence he set out. He has forgotten that he is a man and not a machine, the masterpiece of visible creation and not the product of blind forces, an immortal living in time, an exile with a home in a far country, a breath of God in a vessel of clay. He has forgotten his own identity and his essence. That is the amnesia which must be cured. It is man's memory, not man's mind, that demands the treatment. If he can be ma...

When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being? Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature.   Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command? His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord , to whom shall we go ? You have the words of eternal life . ” So they stepped ou...

What if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was always and everywhere offered in accordance with the dignity, reverence and obedience our God merits? If we truly worshiped Him as He deserves, do you think more Catholics would willingly and lovingly come to Mass and give their Lord the worship and adoration He ought to receive? May the following reflection help move us in that direction wherever there may be a need to do so: When the Host is held on high and a chalice lifted…look up! Look up and see what Mary saw.   See a naked man squirming as He bleeds against a blackened sky; see a battered human body, writhing on a tree, prisoned there by savage spikes that have torn through Sacred hands and feet; see thorn-tortured head tossing from side to side as anguished torso labors, lifts and strains; see the eyes of God roll towards heaven beseeching, as broken lips blurt out that soul piercing cry: “My God, My God, Why has Thou forsaken Me?” What is this?   This is th...

           Far too many Catholics complain they find the Mass to be “boring” or that they “get nothing out of it”.   It is unlikely they would feel that way if they knew the answers to the following questions:   What is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? What happens at Mass? Who is present there? What benefits do we receive by participating at Mass?             In his powerful book, The Way to God, Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. tells us that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass “is not a mere commemoration of the sacrifice of the cross.   No it is the same, the actuality, the renewal, the continuation, the representation of the sacrifice of the cross… so that when I assist at Mass I am present at the Sacrifice of the cross as much as Mary, John and Magdalen were.   It is the unbloody renewal of the bloody Sacrifice of the cross.” Does this essential truth of our ...