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. Father Richard D. Breton “May our parishes become beacons of hope in a culture that thirsts for meaning. May they become places where people say” ‘Here I encounter Christ. Here I belong. Here I am sent to share His love.’ May we [our] priests lead the way, with the laity at our side, trusting the Holy Spirit, grounded in the sacraments, committed to truth and open to renewal.” (From A Transcendent Brand of Hope and Renewal -  A Priest’s Reflection published in November 6, 2025 issue of The Wanderer )     D r. Gregory Popcak   "When you are at Mass, don't just go through the motions. Ask God to help you find Him in the Eucharist. When you hear or read Scripture, prayerfully ask God what He is saying to you through the words. When you pray, don't just say words at God. Bring your whole self to it, rededicate your li...

"I came to Adoration tonight with my addled brain to talk to Jesus and see if He really wants me to continue with my apostolate. I prayed the Office and waited to hear what He had to say. No new words, just silence. A calm. An eternity. A fatherly gaze of understanding — nothing so definite as that, just warmth. Less than that. It was my intellect that told me He is in that monstrance and all His attention is on me. Knowing that enables me to feel it. A powerful whisper. Then a wordless sense of all the Scripture passages that move me, gathered together in His gaze. How many mistakenly come to ask Jesus for guidance and hear nothing because they have not heard what He has said already in scripture. “We played the flute and you did not dance; we sang a dirge and you did not mourn,” and again, “If you had believed Moses, you would believe me now.” How to encourage a hard heart to hear and to love? Maybe some do not want to hear because they want only a relationship with God ...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "When we see that Savior before our eyes of faith as the Scriptures portray Him, then our desire to receive Him in the bread of life increases. The Eucharistic bread, on the other hand, awakens our desire to get to know the Lord in the written word more and more deeply and strengthens our spirit to get a better understanding."                                Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

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. Whittaker Chambers  "...life and faith must be one . That is, the individual must not only have a lively faith, but must live his faith . He must believe with his whole being what he professes with his lips. He must say aloud his Credo , not with words, but with every action of his life. He must be a Catholic not only for the hour or so he spends in church on Sunday, but he must be Christ twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks of the year." (From God, A Woman and the Way )

Another Wednesday and another opportunity to thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for their weekly invitation to re-post our favorite posts 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. I wanted to share this:   Words Are Not Always Necessary - Reflection on St. Joseph (Originally published March 14, 2014) (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Scripture contains none of the words that St. Joseph shared with his Divine Son, his Virgin bride, his customers or those with whom he interacted daily. But that is okay as our Holy Father tells us: There are many additional reasons to love this great Saint. I have no doubt that you will enjoy the thoughts of Brother Joseph Martin Hagan, O.P. ...

Remember how the Israelites grumbled during their desert journey - there being no bread? And how they later rejoiced when they received manna from heaven to satisfy their physical desires?? (Image Sourc e: Wikimedia Commons ) Recall that it wasn’t too long after this food was showered upon them that they complained about seeing “nothing before us but this manna” and longing to have the food they enjoyed while in Egypt - meat, cucumbers, melons, leeks onions and garlic they enjoyed in Egypt? (Numbers 11:4-6) The Jews began to take this manna for granted. Instead of its arrival reminding them of the magnificence of the God who provided it to them and Who was delivering them from their Egyptian slave masters, they complained about what food they did not have. They preferred nourishment for their stomachs, rather than their physical and spiritual freedom. Are we Catholics much different from our Jewish ancestors in the way we treat and respond to the Eucharistic manna ...

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. From St. Thomas Aquinas “ Man should not consider his material possessions his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need. ” From St. Claude de la Colombiere, S.J. “Imagine the anguish and tears of a mother who is present at a painful operation her child has to undergo. Can anyone doubt on seeing her that she consents to allow the child to suffer only because she expects it to get well and be spared further suffering by means of this violent remedy? Reason in the same manner when adversity befalls you. You complain that you are ill-treated, insulted, slandered, robbed. Your redeemer (the name is a tenderer one than that of father or mother), your Redeemer is a witness to all you are suffering. He who loves you and has emphatically declared that whoever touches you touches the appl...

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. From Scripture (Hebrews 13:3) “Be as mindful of prisoners as if you were sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you may yet suffer as they do. From Saint Edmund Campion [When asked to save his life by renouncing his Catholic Faith, this saint had this to say;] “Your Majesty, for the past ten years I have given this matter thought. I thought about it seriously when I left the Church of England and went to the continent to be reconciled with Rome . I thought of it seriously when I entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest. And ever since I have been back in England , how many times I thought that I could indeed save my life if I turned traitor to my Lord Christ and His Church! But He Himself has said to us all: ‘He who would save his life must lose it.’ I remain t...