Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"..Jesus has been the Bread of life for so many centuries, and yet during all those centuries countless souls have died of hunger. Many never knew Him, many never saw him again once the day of their First Holy Communion was over. Even now there are many who are at once sick and tired of it, not to say disgusted, when you begin to speak to Him; many only then make up their minds to receive Him when a threatening voice speaks within them and fills them with fear... So there He is, the God who has loved them from all eternity and Who ceases not to love them now; and He must look upon them while they waste away and die of hunger. He can do nothing for them; their sad indifference repels Him when He would approach, bind those divine hands that would bless and do good. The Savior without souls! Poor Jesus!" ( Eucharistic Whisperings , Father Winfrid Herbst, SDS)

 

"In last week's post , which explored t he dishonor accorded the sacredness of the Mass, I asked: "How can we expect the current efforts toward Eucharistic Revival to bear fruit when we have not addressed the real and obvious reasons why so few Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament? This week I invite you to read the following post on lack of reverent silence and sacredness within our Churches. Are there any specific Revival efforts planned to catechize and instruct souls as to how they should conduct themselves while in the Presence of God?  Without Reverent Silence Nothing Else We Do Will Be of Any Value A Forgotten Truth :  "The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy." - St. John Henry Cardinal Newman: A Catholic Church must be unlike any other building in the world because God resides there....

"If, amidst the impiety which Jesus Christ meets with at the hands of heretics, He at least were honored and ardently loved by the faithful, we might in some degree console ourselves for the outrages of the one, by the love and sincere homage of the other. But alas! Where are we to look for that crowd of adorers, earnestly bent on honoring Jesus Christ in our Churches?   Are not our Churches deserted?   Can there be greater coldness and indifference than what is shown towards Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament? The scant number that are to be seen in our Churches during the greater part of the day, are they not a visible proof of the forgetfulness and want of love of almost all Christians? Those who approach our Altars most frequently, familiarize themselves with these most august mysteries. It may be said, that there are Priests, whose familiarity to Jesus Christ goes so far as to grow into indifference and contempt."   ( Devotion to The Sacred Heart - Father ...

"And meanwhile, for the most part, we come to church without reverence, without love of God, without knowing even what we have come to do. Some let their minds and hearts dwell on a thousand worldly matters. Others are there reluctantly and are bored. There are some who scarcely kneel whilst a God pours out His precious Blood for their pardon, lastly others are in such haste to leave the church, they do not wait for the priest to come down from the altar. My God what little love Your children have for You, or rather, how they scorn You! Indeed, what a spirit of frivolity and distraction appears when people are in church. Some sleep, others converse together, and nearly everyone is taken up with what he has to do."   (From  THE EUCHARISTIC MEDITATIONS OF THE CURÉ D’ARS )

“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...