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.   Peter Kreeft   "There are only two persons you can never, ever escape, not for one moment, either in time or in eternity: God and yourself." (From How to Be Holy: First Steps in Becoming a Saint )   Father Charles Arminjon   “In truth, if the earth and all it contains must one day disappear by fire, the goods of this world are no more to be esteemed than wood and straw. What point is there, then, in making them the object of our desires and cares? Why seek to build and leave marks of our genius and power where we have no permanent abode, and where the form of this world will be removed, like a tent that has no travelers to shelter? It may be said that it will be a thousand years before this frightening cata...

 

 

 

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.  A little different twist this week in that all three quotations are attributed to St.    Catherine of Siena  - someone you will want to know - saint, Lay Dominican and mystic! “When the Christian soul realizes that its fervor is diminishing because of some fault or temptation permitted by Providence, it should continue its spiritual exercises and even multiply them, rather than abandoning them or lessening their intensity.” (From  the Life of St. Catherine of Siena  by Blessed Raymond de Capua, O.P. de Capua, O.P.) "I've appointed the Devil to tempt and to trouble My creatures in this life [St. Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her]. I've  done this, not so that My creatures will be overcome, but so that they may overcome, proving their virtue and receiving from Me the glory of victory...

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.  "Here is one of the most wonderful and terrifying sentences I have ever read, from William Law’s S erious Call:  'If you will look into your own heart in utter honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not even now a saint.  You do not wholly want to be'.”  (From  How to Win the Culture War: A Christian Plan   Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena  “My daughter, if you wish to acquire strength, you must imitate Me. I could, with My divine power, have thwarted Satan’s efforts and taken other measures to nullify them, but I wish to instruct you through My example and teach you to conquer him through the Cross. If you wish to have power over your enemies, take the Cross as your safeguard. Have not My apostles taught you that I ran with joy to a ...

  No surprise - our world is in utter chaos and confusion.  Conduct that has always been deemed morally wrong is now proclaimed right and woe to those who have the audacity to disagree.  (Image Source:  Wikimedia Commons ) More tears and public angst fill our airwaves and cyberspace over an American dentist who killed a lion in a wild life preserve, whales that beach themselves on our shores, or the callous destruction of baby swan eggs than the brutal dismemberment and murder of human life encased within a mother's womb or the subsequent sale of their body parts.  We refuse to recognize the child in  utero  as a person whose life is protected under both God's law and our Constitution, yet think nothing of trying to convince a Court to extend constitutional protection and rights to animals or to rule that it is preferable for farms and humans to go without water than to disrupt the habitat of some snail. Let us pray that we will come to our senses, whi...

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.   "The object of faith is not feelings but truth, and the subject and agent of faith is will, not feelings. The will is like the ocean, and the feelings are like the waves. The ocean is always reliably there even though the waves are high one day and low the next."  (From his book Calvinist to Catholic )   St. Catherine of Siena   "I've appointed the Devil to tempt and to trouble My creatures in this life [St. Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her]. I've done this, not so that My creatures will be overcome, but so that they may overcome, proving their virtue and receiving from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil tha...

 

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 Jose Gonzalez “Reflect upon the unique mission that God has given to you whatever he has called you to do with your life it is a calling given only to you do not run from it do not reluctantly accept it instead run to it with your whole being and allow God to do great things through you.” (From Catholic Daily Reflections -   October 20, 2024)   St. Teresa of Avila "We must beg God constantly in our prayers to uphold us by His hand; we should keep ever in our minds the truth that if He leaves us, most certainly we shall fall at once into the abyss, for we must never be so foolish as to trust in ourselves. After this I think the greatest safeguard is to be very careful and to watch how we advance in virtue; we must notice whether we are making progress or falling back in it, especially as regards the love of our neigh...

  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. Bonaventure "If you would suffer with patience the adversities and miseries of this life, be a man of prayer. If you would obtain courage and strength to conquer the temptations of the enemy, be a man of prayer. If you would mortify your own will with all its inclinations and appetites, be a man of prayer. If you would know the wiles of Satan and unmask his deceits, be a man of prayer. If you would live in joy and walk pleasantly in the ways of penance, be a man of prayer. If you would banish from you soul the troublesome flies of vain thoughts and cares, be a man of prayer. If you would nourish your soul with the very sap of devotion, and keep it always full of good thoughts and good desires, be a man of prayer. If you would strengthen and keep up your courage in the ways of God, be a man of pray...

Today we Dominicans joyfully remember our beloved sister, St. Catherine of Siena.    [I am re-publishing this post since the words of this fearless servant of God are as relevant today as they were when she wrote them more than 800 years ago.] (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) What a treasure St. Catherine of Siena is! One does not become a Doctor of the Church by being fearful to express, teach and live God's Truth in its entirety.  How ill-advised we are to discount, ignore or try to nuance the wisdom God has shared over the centuries through such faithful servants as she.  Less likely would we be to commit this error if our primary concern was the salvation of souls. No wonder those who wish to only tickle our ears and destroy our consciences ignore these great spiritual writers, abandoning God's Truth for a less demanding and counterfeit one. The following words  Jesus shared with St. Catherine in the 14th century are clear and unam...

Pondering Tidbits of Truth i s my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time. St. Catherine of Siena "The wound in the side of Christ, the Precious Blood and the Pierced Heart were a constant preoccupation of St. Catherine of Siena. In a beautiful passage in one of her letters, she summarizes the inner meaning of these devotions: 'Place your lips to the side of the Son of God, for it is an opening which emits the fires of charity and pours forth its Blood to wash us from our iniquities. The soul which reposes there and looks with eyes of its soul on the Heart opened and consumed by love will be made comformable to Him, for seeing itself so much loved it cannot fail to love in return. That soul becomes perfect because what it loves it loves for God and it loves  nothing outside of Him. In desire it becomes to Him another self, since is has no other will but that of God'. " (From Dominican Spirituality - Prin...

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. Augustine We cannot keep ourselves on the road to perfection and prevent ourselves from failing except by efforts to climb higher. As soon as we begin to stop, we regress, with the result that, if we do not wish to fall back, we have to run ahead always, without slowing down." (From Instructions for Novices by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie Cormier, O.P.) St. Catherine of Siena "If sensual affection wants to love sensual things, the eye of understanding is moved in that direction. It takes for its object only passing things with selfish love, contempt for virtue, and love of vice, drawing from these pride and impatience. And the memory is filled only with what affection holds out to it. This love so dazzles the eye that it neither discerns nor sees anything but the glitter of these things. Such is the glitter that understanding sees and affec...

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 “There are two goals, vice and virtue, and both require perseverance. If you would reach life, you must persevere in virtue, and if you would reach eternal death, persevere in vice.” (From The Dialogue )   David Torkington “[With respect to prayer] the important point to remember is there is no magic formula no infallible method or technique. There are just hundreds of different ways of prayer to do one and the same thing. A means of prayer is good for you if it helps you, here and now, to keep gently turning your heart back to God. What might help you at the beginning of your spiritual journey may be of no use later. What helps in the morning may not help in the evening. What helps you one minute might not help you in the next. So please move from one method to another with complete freedom. Remember that these...

 

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 “To join two things together, there must be nothing between them or there cannot be a perfect fusion. Now realize that this is how God wants our soul to be, without any selfish love of ourselves or of others in between, just as God loves us without anything in between.”   (From thehookoffaith.com )   Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen   “How God will judge my life I know not, but I trust he will see me with mercy and compassion. I am only certain there will be three surprises in Heaven. First of all, I will see some people whom I never expected to see. Second, there will be a number whom I expect who will not be there. And – even relying on God’s mercy – the biggest surprise of all may be that I will be there. When the record of any human life is set down, there are three pairs of eyes who see it in a...

 

“I am your unchangeable God, and I never change. I will not draw back from any creature who wants to come to Me.”  Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena