Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

“Lord, you know that I love You. But You also know that my love for You has not always been constant and unconditional. I spend time each day in prayer but too often do so in a routine, haphazard, and inattentive manner - sometimes just to check “the prayer box off”. I rely too much on the words of others rather than those which have been birthed in my own heart. You also know Lord that at times, I have acted in a manner inconsistent with my professed love for You and in ways that are inconsistent with what I profess to believe. How many times Lord have you prompted me to do or not do something, to contact or assist someone – to love someone on Your behalf but I refused or failed to do so? It is so easy Lord for me to mouth the words I Love You , but far more difficult to actually live out those words in my life. You loved me so much Lord that you died for me. No matter how many times I have sinned against You, You have always forgiven me when I sought your forgiveness in the c...

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. Vincent de Paul   "I am sent not only to love God but to make Him loved. It is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor does not love Him." (From Always a Joy Blogpost ) St. John Bosco "Health is God’s great gift, and we must spend it entirely for Him. Our eyes should see only for God, our feet walk only for Him, our hands labor for Him alone; in short, our entire body should serve God while we still have the time. Then, when He shall take our health and we shall near our last day, our conscience will not reproach us for having misused it." (From  Christian Quotations by Don Bosco )    St. Pio of Pietrelcina “Confession is the soul’s bath. You must go at least once a week. I do not want souls to stay away from confession more than a week. Eve...

 

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. Jesus to Saint Catherine of Siena “I require that you should love  Me with the same love with which I love you. This indeed you cannot do, because I love you without being loved. All the love you have for Me you owe to Me, so that it is not of grace that you love Me, but because you ought to do so, while I love you of grace, and not because I owe you My love. Therefore to Me, in person, you cannot repay the love which I require of you, and I have placed you in the midst of your fellows, that you may do to them that which you cannot do to Me,  that is to say, that you may love your neighbor of free grace, without expecting any return from him, and what you do to him, I count as done to Me, which My Truth showed forth when He said to Paul, My persecutor - 'Saul, Saul why persecute you Me?' This He said, judging that Paul persecuted Him in His...

[I wrote this more than 10 years ago. It seems both appropriate and necessary to share this post again today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.]   Too often we have taken God for granted. So sometimes He asks others “to shake things up.” Today may be one of those days. Here is a question worth pondering now and in the days to come: “What if God loved you only as much as you loved Him?” ( Father Francis Hudson, S.C.J.) Have you ever loved someone so much that you could hardly wait to hear from them, to speak with them and to see them? How often have you looked forward to a visit from someone you deeply love only to have that person not come? How hurt have you felt when you were ignored and your love not returned? Imagine then how God - Who is Love – Who loves us more than words can describe - feels when we fail to demonstrate our love for Him? He waits in our churches hour after hour just to hear our voices and to see our faces. Yet, f...

T hank you Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers .  Here is my contribution. The Kind Of Prayer We Need Today (Originally posted on October 25, 2019)   Servant of God Catherine Doherty is correct: we have forgotten how to pray. Let her refresh our memory:  “Prayer now is the last resort. We have forgotten how to pray. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) We have forgotten that there must be a time when we are silent so we can hear what God wants to say to us. Yes, my friends, we must pray. It must be the prayer of two people in love with each other who cease to talk…Two people in love! When you are in love with God you will understand that He loved your first. You will enter into a deep and mysterious silence and in that silence become one with the Absolute…Your oneness with God will overflow to all your brothers and sisters. My fr...

Servant of God Catherine Doherty is correct: we have forgotten how to pray. Let her refresh our memory:  “Prayer now is the last resort. We have forgotten how to pray. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) We have forgotten that there must be a time when we are silent so we can hear what God wants to say to us. Yes, my friends, we must pray. It must be the prayer of two people in love with each other who cease to talk…Two people in love! When you are in love with God you will understand that He loved your first. You will enter into a deep and mysterious silence and in that silence become one with the Absolute…Your oneness with God will overflow to all your brothers and sisters. My friends this is the kind of prayer we need today. If you pray like this you will be overshadowed by the wings of a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit. On those wings your prayer of silence will be lifted into the hands of ‘the Woman Wrapped in Silence,’ and she will lay it at t...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Let's be honest. We need to take a closer look at how we treat the God we profess to love. Listen here.

Dr. Peter Kreeft - teacher and author extraordinaire -  is one of those gifted men blessed with the ability to answer complicated philosophical and theological truths with just a handful of words.  Let me illustrate this point by sharing the following two sentence paragraph excerpted from his book, Christianity for Modern Pagans , a commentary and explanation of  Blaise Pascal's classic, Pensees: "Here is a test whether you really love God. Have you done or avoided or given up a single thing today solely because you believed that God wanted you to?" Chew on this for awhile and then get a copy of his book.

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 Achille Gagliardi  “All perfection is found upon only two principles…The first principle is a very low esteem for all created things but above all, for ourselves. This low esteem should show itself, in practice, by renouncing ourselves and all creatures…especially by manifesting contentment and cheerfulness when the Lord takes from us any good The second principle is a very high esteem of God…From this esteem there must certainly arise in us a great submission of will, and of every power and faculty, to His greater glory, without any mingling of our own interest, though it be ever so holy….there will be great conformity with the Divine Will…” (From A Year With the Saints – A Virtue for Every Month of the Year )

“How painful it is when a man or woman takes their spouse for granted? There is no longer love and appreciation for the one who should be loved most in the world. Indeed, this could be the start of a desire to actually separate: when one does not feel loved or appreciated.                                                       (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Likewise, it is all too common to simply take Jesus for granted and fail to appreciate who He is, what He has done for us and where He is to be found. This nonchalant, flippant, “take for granted” type of attitude pierces the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the very core and center of His loving Heart. Let us never fail to appreciate this most sublime gift of Jesus in Mass and Holy Communion. Receive every Hol...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) “Our union with Christ in the Eucharist must be expressed in the truth of our lives today – in our actions, in our behavior, in our life-style and in our relationships with others. For each one of us the Eucharist is a call to ever greater effort, so that we may live as true followers of Jesus: truthful in our speech, generous in our deeds, concerned, respectful of the dignity and rights of all persons – whatever their rank or income – self-sacrificing, fair and just, kind, compassionate and self-controlled…The truth of our union with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is tested by whether or not we really love our fellow men and women; it is tested by how we treat others; especially our families…, by whether or not we try to be reconciled with our enemies, or whether or not we forgive those who hurt us or offend us.” (St John Paul II from Homily in Phoenix Park, September 29, 1979)