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. Dan Burke and Connie Rossini   “When we have too many vocal prayers to say, our goal easily changes to getting them done instead of praying them well. They become less, rather than more, contemplative. The Holy Spirt might be moving us to linger silently on the meditation of a mystery, but we feel that we can't stop or we will never fit all our prayers in. So we find ourselves working against the Holy Spirit...We forget that the very purpose of prayer is communing with the Lord."                                                           (From The Contemplative Rosary )     Thomas Howard   "This is why Cath...

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. John of the Cross "What more do you want, o soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness and kingdom - your Beloved Whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you." (From Spiritual Canticle ) Thomas a Kempis "You must first have peace in your own soul before you can make peace between other people. Peaceable people accomplish more good than learned people do. Those who are passionate often can turn good i...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) " … I will treasure more than anything else the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is often said that it is the Mass that matters. This means that Mass is the most important thing in the world. It is very true. But I really think that sanctifying grace matters most of all. Still, where do I get that from if not through the Sacrifice of the Cross which is continued in the Sacrifice of the Mass. I am afraid.   I do not think as highly of Holy Mass as I should. And this reminds me of a story I have often read about the Sacred linen in Greenland. It was in the sixteenth century. There had been a religious persecution in the island and all priests had been killed or driven out, so that for fifty years there was no Mass at all in Greenland. After fifty years, there were still some scattered Catholics left. They used to meet every year for a Christmas celebration in a lonely house almost covered by snow. On one such night they all gathered together in 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       Father Jacques Philippe The Eucharist is the highest expression of Divine Charity, of God's love for His creations. Through it, God shows how much He wants to be with us forever, sharing His own life with us, living with us and in us. As Father   Jean-Claude Sagne said, ‘What makes the Eucharist the Sacrament of love is that Jesus here gives Himself in person, in the fullness of His presence. He gives all that He is, the entirety of His life. More than any word or action, it is Jesus Himself who comes to us and delivers Himself into our hands. The Eucharist is a giving without limit on Jesus’ part: ‘This is My body, given up for you.’ What we receive in the Eucharist is Jesus in the very act of giving His life for all mankind, the act in which He personally loves each of us with the greatest of loves: ‘Greater love has no...

 

(Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash ) “My sisters, I regard the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the most magnificent feast, for in it we eat the flesh of the Son of God and we drink His Blood, so that the guests’ souls are completely filled with Jesus Christ. Consider we are filled with His divinity and His humanity, with His holy soul and all His infinite perfections and by concomitance, with the Farther and the Holy Spirit. This is what is offered in this precious mystery, which being too common is neglected and being so excellent is still understood only by a few…”   (Venerable Catherine Mectilde de Bar from The Mystery of Incomprehensible Love )