Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers . More from In Sinu Jesu : Put God First - Love and Console Our Lord! (Originally published June 7, 2012) The Eucharist must be the source and center of our lives. If we and our priests prefer Him over all others and all things, He will transform us and our world - one heart at a time. We can never share this Truth enough! Please spend time mining this spiritual treasure from  Father Mark at Vultus Christi  and then share it with all whom you love, especially your priests! Put Nothing Before My Love for You You have only to prefer My company to every other companionship, the love of My Heart to the love of every other heart, and the sound of My voice in the silence of your soul to every other voice. I have calle...

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for another opportunity to re-publish our favorite posts on  Worth Revisiting . Go there now  and be nourished spiritually. Be sure to visit Allison at  Reconciled to You  and Elizabeth at  Theology Is A Verb  during the rest of the week. You will enjoy your visit. Here is my contribution this week: God Calls us to Come and Adore Him! Why Do We Ignore His Invitation? (Originally posted on September 11, 2013) Few individuals write as passionately and fervently of the need for us to adore Our Lord, Who though still physically here with and among us, is for the most part ignored and left alone, than Father Mark. Visit him regularly  at Vultus Christi . He speaks particularly to his brother priests - a message we must help him share. This week is no exception. Do yourself, your loved ones and the priests you know a favor - read, ponder and share the two articles Fathe...

From Vultus Christi - Prayer of a Priest [What follows is another gem from Father Mark at Vultus Christi . I thought you might want to print this and give it as a gift to your priest. It is a great reminder for us to prayer for them as well.]   (Image Source: Vultus Christi ) "Convert Thou me entirely, O my beloved Jesus, that I may live every moment— up to and including the very moment of my death — with my eyes fixed on Thine adorable Face, and with my heart hidden in Thy piercèd Heart. Make me, I pray Thee, what Thou hast called me to be. Let me so love Thee and adore Thee that I may be for Thine afflicted Heart the consoling friend for whom Thou hast waited so long. Leave me not alone, never forsake me, so that I may never leave Thee alone, and never forsake Thee. Fix my vagrant heart before Thy tabernacle — before the one where Thou art least adored and most forgotten — that I may persevere in a watch of adoration, of reparation, and of l...

Thank God for the gift of Father Mark at Vultus Christi !, who recently reminded us: “There is nothing…as compelling as the sight of a priest in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. In an age of locked churches, of churches opened only for ‘services’ … it is a rare thing. And yet, there is no more effective way of communicating to souls the truth about the Most Holy Eucharist.” (See his full post - When A Priest Adores here ) I certainly concur with the good Father and thank him for both translating and then sharing this excerpt of a November 1855 letter from the Bishop of Lucon to Virginie Danion:

Those who have visited here, read my book, I Thirst For Your Love , or frequent Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation , know how much I value and promote the work of Father Mark and his community, The Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration . Father Mark graciously consented to my including several of his reflections in I Thirst for Your Love. While I find all his postings, particularly those on the Eucharist and Adoration must shares, the article that follows [that I share with his permission] is really one that deserves and needs widespread distribution. I share his increasing sense of urgency. If, after reading it, you agree, would you pass it on to as many priests, religious and lay men and woman as possible? O Come Let Us Adore Him While We Can! Lest Thy Church suffer too great a darkness Beloved Lord Jesus, I adore Thee, who art present here, with all the love of my heart. Sinner that I am, I would offer Thee reparation for all the irreverence, coldnes...

I wait for my priests. (Image Source: Vultus Christi ) I long to see them enter my sanctuary and approach the tabernacle of my abiding presence. I wait for them in the Sacrament that I left for their sakes as the expression of my Divine Friendship for my priests, as their consolation in loneliness, their strength in weakness, their sweetness in life's bitterness.

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) In a world which, for the most part, no longer recognizes sin or the eternal consequences of sin, and where so many summarily announce that everyone will go to heaven, “reparation” is oftentimes an unwelcomed word and theological concept. How gravely mistaken are the souls who feel this way. So what does “reparation” mean?   The late Servant of God, Father John A. Hardon S.J, offers this simple explanation:  “Reparation is the act or fact of making amends. It implies an attempt to restore things to their normal or sound conditions, as they were before something wrong was done. It applies mainly to recompense for the losses sustained or the harm caused by some morally bad action. With respect to God, it means making up with greater love for the failure in love through sin; it means restoring what was unjustly taken and compensating with generosity for the selfishness that caused the injury.” Obviously there is much more ...

What follows is another magnificent reflection from Vultus Christi .  Oh, how we take our Eucharistic Lord for granted!  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons )   Oh, how differently our lives and our world would be if we would spend time with our Hidden Lord, locked and ignored in the tabernacles of His Churches. Please prayerfully and financially support the work of Father Mark's community, The Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration. Their charism - praying for the sanctification of all priests - is a most needed gift to our Church and our priests. You can make a contribution by going here .                                     Hide Yourself In Me I am a hidden God and those whom I call to adore Me must hide themselves in Me, becoming hidden from the eyes of the world, and hi...

What follows is a magnificent exhortation to our priests. It originated on Vultus Christi , a site you must visit regularly.  I have taken the liberty of posting this here since Father Mark has allowed me to do so in the past and because I am convinced it must be disseminated as widely as possible. I am asking three things of those who read this post: (1) Ponder this powerful profound reflection.  Revisit and read it from time to time; (2) Copy and paste this reflection, add a personal note of gratitude and a promise of prayerful support to it, then give the copy to your pastor and all other priests whom you know. Never stop praying for them and their sanctification; and (3) Consider going to the Silverstream Monastery icon in the right column and making a contribution to the work of this unique and vital religious community. Now the reflection:   Nothing of What I See Escapes the Reach of My Mercy Every priest of Mine is in passage from this world to t...

Another gem from Father Mark at Vultus Christi on this the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Nourish your heart and soul by reading and pondering this beautiful reflection. Consider supporting Father Mark and his community,  by clicking on the icon of the Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration in the right column or by buying a copy of I Thirst For You by clicking on the book's icon in the column to the left.

Photography©Michael Seagriff Few individuals write as passionately and fervently of the need for us to adore Our Lord, Who though still physically here with and among us, is for the most part ignored and left alone, than Father Mark. Visit him regularly  at Vultus Christi . He speaks particularly to his brother priests - a message we must help him share. This week is no exception. Do yourself, your loved ones and the priests you know a favor - read, ponder and share the two articles Father posted this week. In Faith: a Spark of Fire and Light , he discusses how our visits to the Blessed Sacrament are both an act of faith and a means to make our sufferings and those we love more bearable. Father invites us in I Know Your Heart's Desire to love Him in the Eucharist not only for ourselves but also for priests "whose hearts have grown indifferent and cold". There is nothing more important or more needed than making the Eucharist the sou...

"There are so many tabernacles on earth where I am, for all intents an purposes, like one buried, hidden, forgotten and out of sight. My divine radiance is diminished because there are so few adorers to act as the receptors of My radiant Eucharistic love and to extend My radiance through space and into the universe of souls." (Father Mark from Love's Invisible Radiance at Vultus Christi )

The love of Father Mark for the Eucharist is once again reflected in the following prayer that he offered after Christmas Day Vespers and that he posted on his blog , Vultus Christi. THY GLORY SO HIDDEN, AND THY LOVE SO DESPISED Lord Jesus Christ , God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten of the Father before the daystar, and consubstantial with Him, born in the fullness of time of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I adore Thee, who art truly present here, and, out of my own poverty and weakness, I desire to make reparation for those who do not adore Thee in this wondrous Sacrament, and for those who deny the mystery of Thy real presence. I would make reparation as well for those who approach Thee without reverence, for those who touch, and handle, and receive Thy adorable Body with coldness, with indifference, and with little awareness of the immensity of Thy charity burning in this Most Holy Sacrament...

  Take some time away from the worldly distractions of this season and prayerfully, slowly and reflectively let these Truths shared by Father Mark take root in your heart:   Adore te devote, latens Deitas      O hidden God, I adore Thee.   O silent God, I adore Thee.   O utterly humble God, I adore Thee.   O ineffably obedient God, I adore Thee.   O God, faithful and constant, I adore Thee.   O piteously vulnerable God, I adore Thee.   O God delivered into the hands of sinful men, I adore Thee.   O God held lightly in the hands of Thy priests, I adore Thee.   O God most fragile in appearance, I adore Thee.   O God, offering Thyself to be broken and consumed, I adore Thee.   O God, ready to descend into the souls and bodies of poor sinners, I adore Thee.   O God, ignored by the multitudes, I adore Thee.   O God, whose real presence ...

  In his blog entry this morning, Father Mark shares a report from an Irish parish where someone broke in and stole the Blessed Sacrament and all the sacred vessels. Father suggested we pray for those who committed this sinful act and to offer the following act of reparation:   Act of Reparation   Beloved Lord Jesus Christ, hidden in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar; silent, humble, defenseless, and motionless in the Sacred Species; handled by the faithless and, alas, even by those who having received the faith, have fallen into darkness and spiritual perversion; we offer ourselves to Thee in adoration, to make reparation for every sin of irreverence, sacrilege, blasphemy, and hatred of Thy Divine Person in the Sacrament of Thy Love. We further offer ourselves to Thee in adoration, believing for those who do not believe in Thee, hoping for those who have lost hope in Thee, loving for those who do not love Thee. Avenge this act of sa...

Monday Musings If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic Monday Musings generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.   [Question: Why are you posting the first installment of “Monday Musings” on Saturday? Answer: I won’t have internet access on Monday as my wife and I are leaving for a trip tomorrow. This needs to be acted on now) YOU HAVE GOT TO DO SOMETHING VITALLY IMPORTANT! At the end of this post, I am going to ask you to help get the poignant reflection of Father Mark set forth below into the hands of every Bishop and priest in this country. We can do it! But first I want to share a few thoughts that have long been embedded in my heart. That which is most essential for our sanctification and salvation is that which we most frequently ignore   – The Eucharist.   The late Apostle of the Eucharist, Father John Hardon, S.J., realized “that everything, e...