Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

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. Robert Cardinal Sarah “Relativism, that terribly effective bleach, has wiped out everything in its path. Doctrinal and moral confusion is reaching its height. Evil is good, good is evil. Man no longer feels any need to be saved. The loss of the sense of salvation is the consequence of the loss of the transcendence of God.”   (From  The Day Is Now Far Spent) Father Thomas Dubay "God gives prayer growth precisely according to our degree of readiness for it. He forces no one. According as we are more or less receptive, He bestows more or less depth of communion. In the same manner, five hundred people in a parish church all hear the same sound waves during the homily, but they profit from it exactly as they are or are not disposed for the message. Jesus taught the same truth in his parable of the sower: from the wor...

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.   Full disclosur e: This week’s post differs from what you ordinarily find here in that its three thought-provoking quotations come from books I compiled, edited and published. The Catholic Writer’s Guild issued its Seal of Approval to each of the three books from which the following material was excerpted. They are cited here, not to promote myself, but in hopes that something you read will touch your heart and stir your soul.    Mr. Michael Seagriff, O.P. “Our God does not need any of us, not even for a millisecond. Yet, as Jesus hung from the cross more than 2000 years ago, He let us know He was thirsty – not a physical thirst - but an unquenchable spiritual thirst as our Lord, Savior and Redeemer to be loved by those He created and for whose eternal benefit He died. In the ensuing centuries, not enough of us have made suf...

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 J. Augustine Wetta, O.S.B.   "A brother said to Father Poemen, ‘The Devil is attacking me, and I am very discouraged.’ The old man replied, ‘The Devil only attacks his enemies. Be discouraged when he stops'." ...

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 ...

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. Patrick Stewart     “…the most important thing about the duty of the moment is this: the duty of the moment is where we meet Christ. He’s waiting for us in the duty of the moment, in His will for us. Where am I supposed to be  now ? What am I supposed to be doing  now ? That’s where Christ is. That’s where He is waiting for me. Not in the chapel. Of course, He’s in the chapel, but if I’m supposed to be chopping wood right now, he’s not in the chapel waiting for me. He’s at the woodpile. If I’m supposed to be cleaning the dorm, that’s where He is waiting for me. Where am I going to meet my Beloved? Wherever I am supposed to be. It’s so simple. And so wonderful.”  (From the July-August 2022 issue of  Restoration , the monthly newspaper of the Madonna House Apostolate ( https://www.madonnahouse.org ).   Willia...

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. Vinny Flynn "A spiritual Communion acts on the soul as blowing does on a cinder-covered fire which was about to go out. Whenever you feel your love of God growing cold, quickly make a spiritual Communion.’ ‘Quickly!’ There’s a sense of urgency here. The saints are trying to tell us that we should not limit our union with Christ in the Eucharist to sacramental Communion once a week, or even once a day. We need Christ’s living presence in our lives moment-by-moment to nourish us and protect us from sin, so we need to renew our union with Him regularly, especially any time we feel ourselves drifting away. Christ is not merely present in the Eucharist during Mass! The Eucharist is an ongoing fulfillment of Christ’s Gospel promise to remain with us: ‘Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age’ (Mt. 28:20)."   (From...

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 Tr uth   is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time. St. John of the Cross "What more do you want, O soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom - your Beloved Whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately by seeking Him within you." (From The Spiritual Canticle ) Mother Julienne Morrell, O.P. “Human praises are indeed to be shunned on account of the great harm they produce. They are nothing else, in the words of St. Bernard, but a hollow whistle, a little wind in the ears, blinding and inflating the...

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. Leonard of Port Maurice "To be saved for all eternity, to be damned for all eternity, and to not make your every effort to avoid the one and make sure of the other, is something inconceivable." (From The Little Number of Those Who Are Saved ) Lisa Brenninkmeyer "Let’s take a closer look at the people Jesus loved in the Gospels. It wasn’t just the cleaned-up, spiritually open, nicely behaved people. Jesus loved the ones with scandalous sexual sins, the perfectionists, the dirty outcasts, the cheaters, the ones who were lying to themselves, and the ones who spent most of their lives ignoring Him." (From   Rest: 31 Days of Peace Devotional -  (Daily Catholic Wisdom )   St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. "If you truly want to help the soul of your neighbor, you should approach God first with all your heart. Ask him simply to fill you ...

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. Catherine Doherty, Servant of God "God invites us to accept the loneliness of walking alone with Him. He says: ‘Yes, you need help from other people, but first get it from Me. Attach yourself to Me. I will give you everything you need, for I am the Lord of everything. I will renew and restore you and you will have new eyes and new ears." (From Are You Ever Lonely? March 2023 issue of Restoration )   St. John Marie Vianney "What a sad life does he lead who wants both to please the world and to serve God! It is a great mistake to make, my friends. Apart from the fact that you are going to be unhappy all the time, you can never attain the stage at which you will be able to please the world and please God. It is as impossible a feat as trying to put an end to eternity. Take the advice that I am going to give you now and you will be les...

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. John Cardinal O’Connor “I believe that suffering is of the essence of the priesthood. The priest is preeminently a man of sacrifice...It has always impressed me that even His risen body was scarred with the wounds of the crucifixion. I cannot imagine an unscarred priest, a priest without wounds, because I cannot imagine an unscared Christ.” (From his September 8, 1989 Pastoral letter on the priesthood, titled,  Always a Priest, Always Present ) Richard Rolle   “If you will be well with GOD, and have grace to rule your life, and come to the joy of love: this name JESUS, fasten it so fast in your heart that it come never out of your thought. And when you speak to Him, and through custom say, JESUS, it shall be in Your ear, joy; in Your mouth, honey; and in Your heart, melody: for men shall think joy to hear that name be named, sweetness to ...

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.       Peter Kreeft, Ph.D. "There are only two kinds of people in the world: saints, who know they are sinners, and sinners who think they are saints. Your entrance card to Doctor Jesus’ office is your spiritual sickness; He treats only the needy. Do you qualify?"  (From The Man Who Left His Mark: How Mark’s Gospel Answers Modern Questions )     Alexander de Rouville "We should speak only when circumstances or the glory of God or love for our neighbor requires it. Apart from these cases it is better to be silent. In silence we find the spirit of recollection and the grace of God which is its source. We learn that to be recollected and interior people we must speak but little, and then say what the Spirit tells us in our heart we ought to say...Sentiments of piety easily vanish in the course o...