Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) 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. Catechism of the Catholic Church “It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens ...lt is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice." (CCC 2442) Monsignor Romano Guardini "No one has ever died like Jesus Christ, because He was Life itself. No one has expiated for sin like Him, for He was purity itself." (From Our Lord ) Second Vatican Council "...when religious education is neglected or shortcomings made evident in the religious, moral and ...

"[Adoration] is as necessary to man's spiritual existence as the laws of logic are to the intellectual life or the spatial order is to his physical existence. Or, using a different analogy, we may say that adoration is to man's spiritual vision what light is to his physical eye. Human existence is founded in truth, and the foundation of all truth is that God is God - unique, alone, and unto Himself; and that man is God's creature. By recognizing this fundamental truth and by acting in accordance with it man maintains his intergrity and his wholeness. Adoration is the act in which this truth continually rises resplendent, and in which it is acknowledged and consummated. It is important that we practice adoration because normally we tend in our prayers to put too much emphasis on asking. Of course we should ask, but let us not forget what Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount: "For your Father knowweth what is needful for you, before you ask Him." More i...

Let us end this year and enter the new one pondering the vastness of the following Truth and how we should respond to It: The act of adoration expresses the realization that God is greatness, pure and simple, and that man is smallness, pure and simple; that God exists by reason of Himself and in Himself, but man only through God and by God's grace. Adoration affirms: "Thou are God; I am man. Thou art the One that truly is, self-created, substantial from all eternity. I am only through Thee and in Thy sight. Thou has plentitude of being and all fullness of value, all sublimity of meaning; Thou are Lord and unto Thyself. The meaning of my existence, however, is derived from Thine. I live in Thy light and the measure of my existence is in Thee."   (From the Art of Praying by Monsignor Romano Guardini) Let us also end this last blog entry for 2011 with an inspiring hymn and a heartfelt blessing for a happy and holy New Year !    ...