Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

 

 

 

If you care about the salvation of souls (your own and those you love) get a copy of  Accompanying A Dying Soul . It is a brief but powerful read and spiritual aid.

“All grace flows from mercy, and the last hour abounds with mercy for us. Let no one doubt c oncerning the goodness of God; even if a person’s sins w ere as dark as night, God’s mercy is stronger than our misery. One thing alone is necessary: that the sinner set ajar the door of his heart, be it ever so little, to let in a ray of God’s merciful grace, and then God will do the rest."                                                 (Saint Faustina Diary, 1057)  

 

 

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. Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart.  "Life is a journey. Provided we keep going, all is well. What God cannot tolerate - what is, indeed, intolerable - are those stationary souls who either are inert by nature or persuade themselves that they have reached the summit, and that there is nothing more for them." (From Where Silence Is Praise: From the Writings of Dom Augustin Guillerand, O. Cart. )   Father Dismas Sayre, O.P In our modern world, man sees Jesus's forgiveness and mercy as almost givens, taken for granted. Of course, even the most permissive and “merciful” want whatever they might consider evil to be punished, but never their own evil . It's funny how that works. As has often been stated by various authors, two thieves were crucified with Christ. One was saved, so we should not despair, but one was lost, so we should not ...

"In our modern world, man sees Jesus's forgiveness and mercy as almost givens, taken for granted. Of course, even the most permissive and “merciful” want whatever they might consider evil to be punished, but never their own evil . It's funny how that works. As has often been stated by various authors, two thieves were crucified with Christ. One was saved, so we should not despair, but one was lost, so we should not presume. Yes, it is very possible for us to lose our salvation, to lose our way eternally. Our Lord is crystal clear on this point in His many parables, as much as He is crystal clear on the need for forgiveness and mercy. But the goal of God's justice is not to separate us eternally but to restore us." (By Father Dismas Sayre, O.P. published in the July August 2025 issue of Light and Life entitled Is God just, holy and merciful? )  

We are often prone to despair and self-pity. We are quick to abandon fundamental Truths when confronted with adversity.  We forget that we are the adopted children of God and think that He has abandoned us.  We don't  believe that He has a plan for our lives or that with Him all things are possible.  We refuse to believe  everything that God allows in our lives is intended to  assure our eternal salvation. So we avoid Him at all costs and go to  people, places and activities that can never make us truly happy. We convince ourselves that we don't need God. We so despise ourselves that we hang our heads low, fearful of seeing an image of ourselves in the glass panes of the store fronts we walk by.  But we must look up. We must look into the cracked windows of our souls so that we can see ourselves as God sees us - as unique, magnificent treasures  made in His image . Once we open our eyes to this Truth, ...

 

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.     Venerable Fulton J. Sheen   “The Christian soul knows it needs Divine Help and therefore turns to Him Who loved us even while we were yet sinners. Examination of conscience, instead of inducing morbidity, thereby becomes an occasion of joy.  There are two ways of knowing how good and loving God is. One is by never losing Him, through the preservation of innocence, and the other is by finding Him after one has lost Him. Repentance is not self-regarding, but God-regarding. It is not self-loathing, but God-loving. Christianity bids us accept ourselves as we really are, with all our faults and our failings and our sins. In all other religions, one has to be good to come to God—in Christianity one does not. Christianity might be described as a 'come as you are' party. It bids us stop worrying about ourselves, stop concentrating...

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. Ven. Fulton J. Sheen “So long as mercy is available for all who despair of their own confusion and conflicts and inner incompleteness, it follows that sin is never the worst thing that can happen to man. The worst thing is the refusal to recognize his sins. For if we are sinners, there is a Savior. If there is a Savior, there is a Cross. If there is a Cross, there is a way of appropriating it to our own lives and our lives to it. When that is done, despair is driven out and we will have the 'peace which the world cannot give’.” (From the Fulton Sheen Institute - March 17,   2024)   St. M. Faustina Kowalska “[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy...Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me! To such souls, I grant even more graces than they...

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...

 

  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.     Antony The Great “Antony said, ‘Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their prayer chambers or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of their inner peace. So, like a fish going toward the sea, we must hurry to reach our prayer chamber. If we delay outside, we will lose our interior watchfulness’.” (From The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers )   Father Peter Hannah, O.P. "[Pope Benedict XVI reminds us]: Truth should be spoken with charity; but charity demands that one is actually speaking truth. Charity, Benedict wrote,   ‘is of fundamental importance in human relations’, but ‘without truth, charity degenerates to sentimentality…more or less   interchangeable with a pool of good feelings, helpful for social cohesion but of little re...