Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

As You know Lord, for much of my life, I rarely gave You any thought. You were not important to me. I went about my life without You, foolishly thinking I did not need You. I never considered how my disinterest in, and lack of love for You, made You feel. The audacity of a sinful creature to treat his Creator in such a despicable unloving way! But that began to change, slowly. Oh, how bitter I was when mom became ill and suffered so! How oblivious I was to being on the brink of eternal damnation when you sent people into my life to drag me back from the precipice. Oh, how upset I became when I could not understand why my efforts to come closer to You were thwarted? Why I caused so much pain to those who loved me. How often Lord did I scream out in anger and pain asking You. "Where have You had gone?" The more I prayed, the more I attempted to come closer to You, the further from You I felt. I realize now Lord that You have never abandoned me. You have always been at...

“There are three things which cast my small understanding into an abyss of astonishment. The first is that the times and moments of our lives, being given to us to trade for the blessedness of a sweet eternity - this is the least of our thoughts. Further, without reflection about the brevity of our days, we do not realize that upon leaving this life we will be required to give an account for our smallest vanities. What will the soul who has spent its life among creatures do at that meeting? O dreadful misfortune!    (Photo by Sylvain Brison on Unsplash ) The second thing which astounds me is that we live, breathe, are moved, and act within and in God, and meanwhile we are not at all focused on His presence and we live the majority of the time as if there were no God, without respect, without love, and without fear of His Majesty which is present. The third is that having Jesus Christ really and truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament and, where He is, all three divine Pe...

" In the Eucharist, Jesus exposes Himself without protection to the insults and outrages of the impious; and the number of his new executioners is very great.    Photo by Jacob Bentzinger on Unsplash His goodness is disregarded and despised by a large number of bad Christians. His Holiness is defiled by so many profanations and sacrileges and that by His own children and His best friends. The indifference of Christians leaves Him alone, abandons Him in the Tabernacle, refuses His graces, neglects and even despises Communion and the Sacrifice of the Altar. The malice of man goes so far as to deny His presence in the adorable Host, to trample it underfoot, to feed it to filthy beasts, and to use it in diabolical magic. At the sight of so much ingratitude on the part of man, Jesus must have been troubled and unsettled for a moment before instituting the Eucharist. There were so many reasons against it, the strongest of which was assuredly ingratitude. What a shame fo...

The heavenly host of angels cannot believe the ingratitude we sinful souls demonstrate to our ever-Present, loving, merciful and forgiving Lord:   " For centuries, I have carried in My Heart a sorrowful cross. How many souls are there redeemed by My Blood, yet, definitely lost! Although destined to be consumed in the fires of My Love, they have already fallen by thousands into the terrible and avenging flames. Yet they belonged to Me! Photo©Michael Seagriff Listen to them. From the depths of hell, they curse the crib of Bethlehem, My poverty, and My appeals to the World. They curse the blood-stained Cross imprinted on their conscience. They curse My Church which offered them the treasures of Redemption. They curse My Eucharist, they who would have spent eternity in bliss if they had been nourished by the bread of immortality, which I offer them in the Blessed Sacrament. Yet how many of these unfortunate souls like you came to kneel at My feet but afterwards, yielding t...