Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

It is a privilege  to share one of my posts with Allison Gingras at Reconciled to You and Elzabeth Riordan at Theology is A Verb as part of their weekly Worth Revisiting promotion. Stop for a visit here . My contribution this week is short and direct: Our duty and primary mission as Catholics is to make Him known by the way we live our lives. Guess we have a bit more work to do!

Another Wednesday and another opportunity to thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for their weekly invitation to re-post our favorite articles on Worth Revisiting . Go there now (and every Wednesday) and let an interesting group of Catholic bloggers nourish you in your Faith journey. V isit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of each week.   You will enjoy your visit. This is what I am sharing:   Is This How You See Sin? (Originally posted June 22, 2015)

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. But first a heartfelt prayer for a happy and blessed Thanksgiving ! Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. "So long as God, who is all good, wills a thing, we are fools if we do not say Fiat – and thus will it with Him. The lone exception is sin." (From God, A Woman and The Way )  

“ The efficacy of an apostolate almost invariably corresponds to the degree of Eucharistic life acquired by a soul. Indeed, the sure sign of a successful apostolate is when it makes souls thirst for frequent and fruitful participation in the Divine Banquet. And this result will never be obtained except in proportion as the apostle himself really makes Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament the source and center of his life. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Like St. Thomas Aquinas, who practically entered the Tabernacle, so to speak, when he wanted to work out a problem, the apostle also will go and tell all his troubles to the Divine Guest, and his action upon souls will be simply his conversations with the Author of Life put into practice. Our wonderful Father and Pope, Pius X, the Pope of Frequent Communion, was also the Pope of the interior life. ‘Re-establish all things in Christ’ was the first thing he had to say, above all to active workers. It summarizes the program of...

There are still Catholics (albeit their numbers are dwindling) who attend Mass on Sunday, even though some of them often complain that Mass is boring and/or that they get nothing out of it.  Let me ask two questions. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) When was the last time you really looked at a crucifix? I mean really gazed at one and pondered the realities it depicts. When was the last time you went to Mass and reminded yourself that you were about to spend time at the foot of Jesus' cross? If you have never done either of theses exercises or it has been some time since you did,  take a few minutes today to read and meditate on the following reflections of Father Raymond and author John Lynch. Then when you next go to Church, arrive a few minutes earlier than normal. Gaze upon the crucifix and recall what is about to take place at the Altar of Sacrifice.  “You have never looked upon a crucifix and seen what the early Christians saw...

(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. Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O . “Do we believe that when we sin we are Pilate ordering the cross and the nails; we are Judas taking the thirty pieces of silver and kissing the Christ; we are Annas and Caiphas and the rest of the Sanhedrin urg­ing the people on to cry "Away with this Man; give unto us Barabbas!" Do we really believe that when we sin we take hammer and use it on a nail that goes through the flesh of God? Or have we, too, lost our sense of sin? (From God, A Woman and the Way )

Our duty and primary mission as Catholics is to make Him known by the way we live our lives. Guess we have a bit more work to do!

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. Catherine of Siena “0 blind humanity, to have so lost sight of your dignity! You who were so great have become so small! You who were in command have' sold yourselves into servitude to the vilest power there is, for you have become the servants and slaves of sin. Yes, you have become a nothing, since you become like what you serve, and sin is nothingness. It has taken life from you and given you death in its place.” (From The Dialogue )   St. Augustine "I ask you, Christian soul: if you were told, as was that rich man, 'You also, go, sell all that you possess and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Christ, would you go away sad as he did?" (From Sermon ) Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. “We moderns shrink from pain; we shun all that can afflict body or mind. We have forgotten ...

May the following words penned more than 50 years ago by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. encourage us during these trying times and our pending exile in a world that has, for the most part, turned its back on the Lord who created them, died for them, yet still offers all of us eternal life: (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "There was pain in Egypt - yet, I say it was heaven. Mary saw raw, rampant paganism all about her, yet she nursed God at her breast; she had to listen to false gods being called upon, yet she heard the Word of God utter His first human word. And while the sight of pyramids standing out against a setting sun, and the shimmer on the waters of the Nile told her not only that she was in exile, but that her whole people had once been here, yet when she gazed into the starry light in His eyes and knew that it had been kindled from light in her own and that He was the Maker of the stars, Egypt and exile was heaven. It was here she saw Him take His ...

When man rejects God's law, there is one most appropriate and necessary response that all who love their Suffering Savior should offer Him:

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) The night before [Jesus] died He said “This is my body – This is my blood.” Every day that we live, we are to hold out on the paten of our hands our hearts, and minds, and wills, our all, and say: "This is my body - this is my blood. Take them. And what You do with wheat and wine and these awe-filled words, do with me! Let the outward appearances remain; my face, figure, height, and breadth; but the inner substance, change! Change it so that it will no longer be mine, but Thine. Change it so that I will always be what transubstantiated Wheat and Wine ever remain - Thee!" (From God, A Woman and The Way by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.)

It may not be much longer before someone comes to collect:

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 Federico Suarez  "The Cross, then, is the great place of prayer, just as it is the great altar, the great monstrance, and the first tabernacle. It is not in vain that we are told to begin and end our prayers with the sign of the Cross." (From The Sacrifice of the Mass )

Looking for an explanation for the craziness in our world? You will not find a more truthful one than this: (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “Modern man has forgotten his origin and his end; forgotten his dignity and destiny; forgotten his innate nobility and towering superiority over everything material. Modern man with his vaunted progress reminds one forcibly of that traveler Marcus Aurelius told about; the one who was feverishly hurrying on, but had forgotten where he was going. Modern man has outdone this one; for modern man has forgotten even whence he set out. He has forgotten that he is a man and not a machine, the masterpiece of visible creation and not the product of blind forces, an immortal living in time, an exile with a home in a far country, a breath of God in a vessel of clay. He has forgotten his own identity and his essence. That is the amnesia which must be cured. It is man's memory, not man's mind, that demands the treatment. If he can be ma...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) Today on this memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, let me share a unique reflection offered by the late Father Raymond, O.C.S.O. in his book, God, A Woman and The Way - a book I highly recommend you read. One of the seven dolors of our Blessed Mother; The Flight and Exile into Egypt: “There was pain in Egypt - yet, I say it was heaven.

(Source:unprofound.com)  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 Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. “The secondary purpose of the grace which the priest receives at ordination is the sanctification of the faithful. If the priest has the care of souls, he has a special obligation to strive for holiness of life because of his duty toward the Mystical Body of Christ. In no other way will he be able to sanctify the souls committed to his charge or avoid the dangers of the world which are not to be found in a monastery. (Cf. St. Thomas, loc. cit.)