Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"I was first introduced to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the 1980’s in St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Liberty, NY. I was invited by some friendly people to attend Adoration on the First Friday of the month. This became a regular visit. In those years, I was busy with my husband and growing children at home. I was still mourning the loss of my youngest sister’s sudden death and a miscarriage early-on in a pregnancy. It was during those quiet hours in the evening in the church, talking to Jesus in this most intimate way, sometimes in tears, that I began a path to inner peace. Adoration led me to spiritual reading, learning more about the faith I grew up in, to regular Confession, to talking more to our priests and others. I became involved in activities in my own parish, helping with the Altar Rosary Society, religious education, projects to raise funds, pro-life work and Bible study. In the local newspaper, I read about an Adoration event happening at St. Joseph’s C...

" O dearest Jesus, I am so very grateful for the times that I spend with You in Adoration. You have chosen to be a prisoner of the tabernacle for my sake, but You are not restrained there. Whether I kneel or sit, You are so very close to me, indeed, right by my side. I feel Your Presence with me. I am so blessed to have these encounters with You. What a privilege it is for me! Then I remember that so many of Your flock do not realize that You are waiting for this intimacy with them. Please, Lord, Your world needs You. Your people need You desperately. Many are lost and hurting. Good Shepherd, many have wandered from the fold, caught up in the distractions of the world. Let Your children experience Your Presence in their lives. Call them back home. Heal them in the manner that they need to be healed. Restore them to right relationship with You. Advent is a season of joyful anticipation of Your coming, and I pause then to reflect on Your three-fold coming that we celebrate. I ca...

"Home... That’s the word that the Lord lays on my heart when I walk into the Adoration Chapel. But it wasn’t always that way. For a couple of years, I went to Adoration, to beg, borrow, plead, and to try and 'make a deal' with God; what I’d do for Him, if He’d only do what I wanted for me. But that isn’t how God works. He loves us too much to give us what we 'want,' instead, in His Love for us, He gives us what we 'need.' And often times in my life, well, in my 'old' life, those two things were rarely the same. And so, I literally spent hundreds of hours in Adoration, trying to 'convince' God that I knew better. But today, I thank God without ceasing for loving me too much to give me what I 'thought' was best, instead; because of His love for me, He chose to give me more than I ever could have imagined or even conceived of asking Him for. And since He’s given these things to me, has my life smoothed out and gotten happy, or fun, or e...

    Oh, my dear silent One. Let me hear Your voice again. Let me rest my head so close on Your heart that I may HEAR the sound of Your heartbeat. Let it lull me to sleep, the sleep of the saints who rest in the peace that transcends understanding.   Let the sound of Your heart then move me to humility, obedience, charity. You sought the Lowest place. Here I am, may you once again reach down to me in mercy.   Move my heart from fear to trust, to transformation, to the union You desire with me.   Let me meet Your gaze with mine that I may SEE Your tender wounded heart and it’ transforming love for me. In my weakness Let me Adore this Sacred Heart in union with Mary and the Saints.   Let the sight of the thorns that surround Your heart, lead me to take but one and replace it with a Rose of Sacrifice.   With a Rose of Sacrifice, a sacrifice of a heart content with the prayer and trials You want to give me;...

[The following is just one of 175 reflections on the Eucharist that are bound to touch your heart and stir your soul. You will find all of them in Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharisitc Adoration .] "The first time I witnessed people adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, was because I showed up for a novena where there just so happened to be Exposition - Jesus, in the Eucharist on the Altar, in the Monstrance. I did not know what to do or what it was. I found myself asking the question, “What is this?” I was amazed and I knew in my heart it was extraordinary, but I did not know what the monstrance was etc. I asked God to help me to pray and to understand. Later, I realized the real question to ask is “Who is this?” That was a long time ago. I now attend at least one hour of Eucharistic Adoration weekly and sometimes I ask questions but more often I hear the questions being asked by Jesus left alone on the Altar: “Who do you say that I ...

  It means being in the presence of Jesus Himself. Really, actually—not just thinking about Him, or even praying to Him, which I can do anywhere. Jesus is really right there in the same place as I am—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. I have had the privilege of being in His presence in a very small chapel, where it literally was just me and Him! Nothing extraordinary happened. No special feelings or revelations. Just Jesus and me. There was, once, an occasion when I felt that Jesus actually spoke to me in words. It certainly seemed like that. I was on retreat and woke up in the middle of the night. I had a choice of going back to bed or getting up and going to the Eucharistic chapel where Jesus was, in the monstrance, waiting. I went there and that’s when I thought I heard Him tell me to go to a certain priest for spiritual direction. I followed through and have been blessed by this kind and understanding priest ever since.    On another occasion when I was on retrea...

The Lay Dominicans of St. Joseph Province invite you to spend some time with our Eucharistic Lord. They pray that the reflection that follows (as well as the other 174 in their book, Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoratio n ) will draw you to Him and provide you with much to  ponder, meditate and contemplate.  "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Last night, Lord, on a dark and starless night, with no moon in evidence, a lone star was shining and breaking through the darkness. It had a brilliant radiance. The star was surrounded by the reaching branches of trees, which seemed so much like the distractions and the problems of our lives which try to tear us from our focus on the Light. The radiance of this star kept calling to me again and again, drawing my attention to the radiance. I was unable to tear my gaze away. Is this what the star of Bethlehem was like? Did it so penetrate and permea...

" You must spend time in the Presence of God! When you go to church to spend time at Adoration, give your full attention to the Lord. Talk to Him just as if you were talking to a friend or relative. Know that He is there in front of you, waiting for you! All you need to do is to open your eyes and your hearts to God. Even though God knows everything that is in your heart, He wants you to share those thoughts with Him. He is waiting for you to ask Him to help you, your loved ones and others in need. Only He knows what you and they need and what is best for the salvation of your soul and theirs. Be grateful that you can come into His Presence and be with Him.   Remember that everything we have is a gift from God. He may not always give us what we request, but God will always give us what we need. Should we not offer all the joys and tribulations of our lives to Him? Should we not worship and love Him as He asks? Should we not ask Him to change our hearts and teach us how to love...

Plan on visiting our ever-present and loving Lord: "I visit for love. To both give my love and to receive His love.   This all-knowing Love that embraces, corrects, restores, and sees exactly who I am.   I come to remember John 3:16: “ For God so loved the world ”… and the love that He gives is here in the Blessed Sacrament, His Son Jesus Christ.   When I enter, the Church aura is heavy with love.     His love for us His adorers. Our love for Him the One adored.   The love shared between fellow adorers, and the love of the Heavenly adorers for Him and for us. I am here both alone in love with Him, and yet in a cherished communion with all who seek to adore. When I am a lover, at my very best, I approach with gratitude, praise, and thanksgiving. I wish to give love for Love, no matter what the time 5 minutes or 3 hours. I give my love, as best I can, yet often a cacophony of need can consume me. My thoughts burst into the silence with my challenges, so...

Homiletic and Pastoral Review Magazine  Book Reviews – November 2023 Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore  – Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic.  Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore: Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration . Hammondsport, NY: The Lay Fraternity of St. Dominic, 2023. 351 pages. Reviewed by Fr. Ignatius John Schweitzer, OP.  ( Reprinted here with permission ) As part of the effort toward Eucharistic Revival, the Dominican Laity have released an inexpensive new book on Eucharistic Adoration,  Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore: Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration . It is a unique and exceptional book worthy of the parish’s adoration chapel and also as a gift for a friend who has yet to discover the Eucharist. The book gathers together about 175 reflections of Lay Dominicans on what Eucharistic adoration means to them, what they do during a holy hour, ways that the Eucharist has transformed them,...

What follows is just one of 175 Eucharistic Reflections intended to draw you closer to our Eucharistic Lord.  Have you gotten your copy yet? Here You are, quietly waiting…waiting for me to come and spend some time with You. I could have chosen not to come…You give me the freedom to say no. A thousand and one excuses could have kept me away. Even so, You would have waited patiently for me. Why do You wait? You wait only for me to give back to You a few minutes of the precious time that You have given me as a gift…time I often fill with mindless activity or useless worry. Of what value is my time to You? You created the universe and hold everything in existence. You created me. You know me through and through—better even than I know myself. You know my every thought. And still, You wait for me in silence. I come. Do I realize the privilege of being alone with You in this quiet place? Or am I distracted, thinking of the many other things I could be doing? Again, you wait, whil...

"Our Lord is here in all His Divinity and Humility in the Holy Eucharist, waiting for us to come. To come, to spend time with Him in Adoration, to receive Him into our bodies during Mass, to unite with Him. Our ever loving, merciful Father is present with us, we can look upon Him, speak to Him. God our Father is waiting to hear our joys and sorrows, triumphs and failings. Waiting. Waiting for our attention in the busyness of life, to pause, to worship, to adore, to praise our merciful God who loves us, provides for us and bestows abundant graces upon us so that we have eternal life with Him. Can we pause? Can we listen for the voice of God in the quietness? Can we give the gift of our attention to God? He is waiting." (Dr. Kathleen Cuddihy, OP, from Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore - Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration )

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. A Lay Dominican from the St. Joseph Province “In a world with noise, finding silence is a task.  Adoration may be the only place of silence for you all throughout the week. Sanctify it!" (From Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore – Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration )   Catherine Doherty, Servant of God “Joy is very quiet and full of wonder. It is like a light that shines in the darkness and is connected with hope and with love. To give you an idea of my joyous moments, the first occurs when I wake up every morning with the incredible thought that here God has granted me another day to love Him and to serve Him. Simultaneously, other thoughts come to me from Satan and from my own humanity and emotions. They creep in like shadows over the shining light of my joy They whisper: ‘Look you are going to have a full ...

  It is More Than a Book – It is an Invitation to Adore Our Loving Lord Present Here Among Us! Father Ignatius John Schweitzer, O.P gave birth to Godhead Here in Hiding Whom I Do Adore – Lay Dominicans Reflect on Eucharistic Adoration last year when he invited the Lay Dominicans of the Province of St. Joseph to share their thoughts on the Eucharist and Eucharistic Adoration. He did this not knowing how many would respond or in what genre they would write. As a result of Father’s invitation, we now have a symphony of diverse reflections – from the simple to the sublime. Each reflection is a gem in its own right. Each one an invitation to a greater belief in, and reverence for, God’s Presence among us. As Father Ignatius states in his Introduction to the book: “The Lay Dominicans in this book have discovered the secret! They have discovered the all-surpassing treasure and value and meaning we have in our Eucharistic Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration. Their d...