Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image Source: Unsplash ) "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."  ( God, A Woman and The Way - Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.) [This is just one of 250 powerful Eucharistic Reflections you will find in Stirring Slumbering Souls  - a must read during this time of Eucharistic Revival]

  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.      Johann Tauler, O.P. "Be sure of this: there is no creature ever made by God who can set you free or help you; only God can do it. Run about as you will, search high and low the whole world over, you will never find the help you need anywhere except in God. If the Lord chooses to use an instrument, man or angel, to achieve this, He can; but He must do it and no one else." (From Spiritual Conferences ) Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. "Today is a day of ultimates and of clear-cut choices. For the lines are sharply drawn. Either we stand with Mary beneath the cross, or we stand with the shouting rabble about the cross. We find ourselves either as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, or are found to be members of the mystical body of antichrist. We become totalitarian Christians and give our all to God, or we become totalitarian a...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) "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 Caiaphas 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?" (Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. f rom God, A Woman and the Way )  

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.   Dr. Peter Kreeft “In our day, the Sacrament of Confession has suffered a radical decline. In one large Dutch diocese during a twelve-month period there were no confessions. There is no place on earth the Devil fears more than the confessional. His desperate propaganda has been incredibly successful even within the Church.” (From Christianity for Modern Pagans - Pascal’s Pensees ) Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. “As I write this book [ God, A Woman, and The Way ], I know that out of the almost two billion persons on the earth at this moment [1954], not more than one third of them knows so much as the name of the One who died that they might live eternally. And as one very observant mystic remarked: ‘Out of that third, close to ninety-nine per cent of them know it in vain.’ Is that not enough to set the nine...

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers . Here is my contribution this week:   When Was The Last Time You Really Looked At A Crucifix? (Originally posted August 2, 2015) 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 the...

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers . Stop by for a visit now . We Stand With You Lord - No Matter The Price We May Be Asked To Pay!  (Originally published on June 29, 2015) 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 utt...