Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Over the years, I have been instructed and blessed by the work of Father Donald Haggerty. His recent book, The Hour of Testing - Spiritual Depth and Insight in a Tome of Ecclesial Uncertainty , is a book for our time. I highly recommend it. Just ponder this little this gem: “[God] comes as one who can be refused and denied admittance; His tapping at the door of the human heart can be ignored. Indeed, He is a God who can be cast outside into the cold. There are countless people who at some point in life callously occupy the home in their soul that belongs to God and evict Him.  He is a God of unfathomable humility, submitting repeatedly to crass gestures of rudeness from His creature. Until we realize this humility of God, we cannot love Him properly. He is vulnerable to being wounded and finds few people who are moved to see how, in His humility, He turns His face away, hiding it from view, not in anger, but to conceal the rejection He experiences from those indifferent to Him. It ...

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. Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration "The most powerful thing we can do on this earth with our time is to spend it in Eucharistic adoration. Nothing can do more to change the world, to bring about peace, to convert hearts, to make reparation for the many evils committed. Spending time in prayer may seem, on the outside, to be a passive thing; however, it is anything but! Our world is in desperate need of hope, of renewal, of a 'turning back' to the things of God. By visiting Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, we take up the best weapon for the battles of our age and contribute to the healing of our culture. Cultivating a Eucharistic life of adoration also bears tremendous fruit in our own hearts and lives. We cannot spend time in the rays of His Eucharistic Presence without receiving His grace, His love, His mercy, His peace. As we gaze...

 

  (Photo ©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with Permission) “If you want to grow in humility, spend time in Eucharistic adoration. In the silence of the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, we come face to face with the humility of God. There, Christ waits for us - not demanding, not forcing, but simply inviting. In adoration. we learn to quiet the noise of our pride and ambitions. We learn to listen more than we speak. We learn to rest in God's presence without needing to prove ourselves. Adoration teaches us that humility is not about doing but about being - being with Christ, who humbled Himself to be with us.” (Excerpted from L earning Humility from the Eucharist written by Father Richard D. Breton and published in the October 16, 2025 issue of The Wanderer)

 

 

Pondering Tidbits of Tr uth   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 by seeking Him within you." (From The Spiritual Canticle ) Mother Julienne Morrell, O.P. “Human praises are indeed to be shunned on account of the great harm they produce. They are nothing else, in the words of St. Bernard, but a hollow whistle, a little wind in the ears, blinding and inflating 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.       Pope Benedict XVI "God has done everything; He has done the impossible: He was made flesh. His all-powerful love has accomplished something which surpasses all human understanding: the Infinite has become a child, has entered the human family. And yet, this same God cannot enter my heart unless I open the door to Him." (From Urbi et Orbi Message - Christmas 2012)     Venerable Fulton J. Sheen "Alienation from self and from one’s fellow men has its roots in separation from God. Once the hub of the wheel, which is God, is lost, the spokes, which are men, fall apart. God seems very far away from the modern man: this is due, to a great extent, to his own Godless behavior." (From Go To Heaven )   Christine Watkins “As painful and humiliating as it may feel, practice h...

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. "Everyone should do for his neighbor what his neighbor  cannot do so well as he, and in this way, by his love for others, he thanks God for His graces. Be sure of this: if we are not useful, profitable and helpful to our neighbor, we shall have much to answer for before God. The Gospel says that everyone will have to give an account of his stewardship. Each one of us has an obligation to pay back as best he can what he has received from God, because God gave it to him for the benefit of others." (From Spiritual Conferences )    St. Peter Julian Eymard "Another characteristic of the charity of our Lord is humility. Our Lord did not regard Himself as anything but a servant of His Apostles. Never put your self above others; never believe yourselves greater than they on account of your learning or...