Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

    "I was listening to the radio yesterday when the host said something that stayed with me: God will not judge me for how others treat me, but for how I treat others. They were talking about how to respond when someone doesn’t treat you well. It is easy to slip into negativity when negativity surrounds us. It is easy to mirror what we receive instead of choosing what we want to give. His message was about choosing differently-choosing to stay positive, choosing to do the right thing, choosing to let God’s love be the pattern we follow rather than the negative behavior around us. Oh what a wonderful world it would be if we could all choose God’s love all the time. For me, the reflection becomes personal: How can I do my part? How can I make sure I am choosing to share God’s love, even when the circumstances make it feel difficult? How can I let His grace shape my response more than my frustration does? Lord, help me meet every person with the love You place in my heart, e...

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 Henri Dominic Lacordaire, O.P. “What is difficult is to carry the cross each day, the cross which is not blood-stained but which bruises the skin a little without making it bleed, and which is composed of restraint, tediousness and languor. If one could only mount Calvary once and for all, and give one's body once and for all to the executioners, what pleasure! But no, the torment is in detail: a little cut of the whip, a little slap in the face, a little humiliation.” (From  St. Dominic’s Family   by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P.)   Plinio Correa de Oliveira “If I am truly grateful for the fact that our Lord is my God and my Savior Who shed His blood to the last drop for me and would have done it for me alone, I must react when I see Him attacked, insulted derided, blasphemed and His Church persecuted. That is t...