Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention. Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not having eternal life. Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity. Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily. When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about to receive the Body of Our Lord: 'O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.'  My children, listen we...

(Image Source: Hands At Mass ) Oh, how beautiful will be a soul that has often and worthily received the good God! It will be united to the soul of Our Lord. Then it will enjoy a happiness pure and perfect. It will shine like a beautiful diamond, because God will be reflected in it.  When the soul of a Christian who has received Our Lord enters Paradise, it adds to the joy of heaven. The Angels and the Queen of Angels come to meet it because they recognize the Son of God in this soul. Those who receive. Holy Communion at the moment of death are very fortunate. At the particular judgment which takes place immediately after death God the Father sees His Son in them! He cannot condemn them, Oh! no. (From The Eucharistic Reflections of the Cure of Ars )

It [Holy Communion] repairs the strength and appeases the hunger of the soul, and enables it to carry out joyfully and with fervor all the duties of the Christian life. When you have had the happiness of receiving the good God, you feel, for some time, a joy and comfort in your heart. Pure souls are always in that state, this union is their strength and their happiness.  Oh! how sweet is this life of union with the good God! It is heaven on earth. There are no more troubles, no longer any crosses! Without the Blessed Eucharist there would no longer be any happiness in this world, life would be unbearable. When we receive Holy Communion we receive our joy and all our good... Oh! if you knew how this heavenly Bread sweetens the sorrows of life! Oh! If once you had tasted how kind and generous Jesus Christ is to those who receive Him in Holy Communion! . . . Go, my children, eat this Bread of the strong and you will return filled with joy and courage, you will desire more sufferings, ...

(Image Source: Hands at Mass ) "A Christian on leaving the holy place moved by the holy thoughts that have been aroused in him by the sight of the ceremonies he has seen, and the prayers that he has said, ought to say to himself: 'I have just come from assisting at Holy Mass, a God has immolated Himself for me; He has shed His Blood for the salvation of our souls; what more could He do?'  Oh! how miserable I am, I who for so many years have refused Him my heart, which He has created for Himself and which He asks of me only in order to make it happy. I have just celebrated the praises of God with this same mouth that I had often sullied by all sorts of sins. Oh! my God, shall I always then beg from creatures the peace they are powerless to give me! My tongue shall it serve sometimes to praise You, sometimes to mispraise You.  No, Lord, I now wish only to bless and to love You.  Any Christian who has not, in going over these thoughts in his heart, assisted at the Holy Mass ...

(Image Source: Hands at Mass ) There are two kinds of food - that of the soul - and that of the body which the earth brings forth. Our body which is only dust lives on the earth, but the food of the soul is the Body and Blood of a God. O beautiful food! it is enough, if one thinks of it to make one lose oneself in this abyss of love. My Father is God! my good is (Imageheaven! my food the Body and Blood of God Himself! O man, how happy thou art! Thou are made to adore, to love and to receive God!  The bread of souls is in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the storeroom of Christians. Oh! how wonderful it is my children! when the priest holds up the Host and you see It, your soul can say: 'there is my food.' 0! my children, we are too well off. We shall only understand it in heaven. What a pity! If we could conceive a little of the grandeur and happiness of Communion, we would desire life only to have the happiness of making Jesus Christ our daily bread. All created things would ...

"Eternal High Priest, make me an entirely Eucharistic soul according to the desires of Thy Sacred Heart and the designs of Thy merciful goodness upon my life. I desire only to love Thee more each day, and to be, by Thy grace, the faithful adorer of Thy Eucharistic Face and the consoling friend of Thy Sacred Heart hidden in the tabernacles of the world, where It beats, wounded by love, forgotten, forsaken, and waiting for the adoration and for the love of even one priest. Amen." St. John Marie Vianney

"When you have received Holy Communion, rise up reverently, return to your place and kneel down; do not at once take your book or your beads. I do not like to see people begin to read as soon as they have come from the altar.  Oh no, of what use are the words of men when it is the good God who speaks? We must be like someone who is curious and who listens at doors. We must listen to what the good God says at the door of our heart." (From The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars )

"You who only communicate rarely are like someone between two sleeps. You know that Jesus Christ is truly in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, that this food is absolutely necessary for your poor soul. Nevertheless, one sees in you little desire. There are long intervals between your Confessions and Communions. You decide to go because of a great feast or a jubilee or a mission, or because others are going, and not because your poor soul needs it. Not only do you not try to merit this happiness, but you do not even envy those who taste it more often. Thus you imitate the Jews.  They are reproached for refusing shelter to Jesus Christ on the first Christmas night although they did not know Him. You treat Him with the same discourtesy, you who neglect to receive Him into your hearts in Holy Communion.  Do not forget that at the Particular Judgment Jesus Christ will judge us on all the good we could have done. He will show you all the sacraments that you could have received during ...

"When you have had the happiness of receiving the good God [in Holy Communion], you feel, for some time, a joy and comfort in your heart. Pure souls are always in that state, this union is their strength and their happiness. Oh! how sweet is this life of union with the good God! It is heaven on earth. There are no more troubles, no longer any crosses! Without the Blessed Eucharist there would no longer be any happiness in this world, life would be unbearable. When we receive Holy Communion we receive our joy and all our good.  O, my children! the Blessed Victoire used to say why do you crawl along in the way salvation? Why have you so little courage to work to merit the great happiness of going to the Holy Table, and to eat there the Bread of Angels, which gives such strength to the weak. Oh! if you knew how this heavenly Bread sweetens the sorrows of life! Oh! If once you had tasted how kind and generous Jesus Christ is to those who receive Him in Holy Communion! . . . Go, my...

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. Cardinal Francis Arinze   “The lay faithful as parishioners are the people who are called upon to witness to Christ at the level of the family, the place of work or recreation, in trade and commerce, in politics and government, and in other social areas of daily life. From them, people in society see what the parish is or should be.”  (From  The Evangelizing Parish ) St. John Marie Vianney “If a priest is determined not to lose his soul as soon as any disorder arises in his parish, he must trample underfoot all human considerations as well as the fear of contempt and hatred of his people. He must not allow anything to bar his way in the discharge of duty, even were he certain of being murdered on coming down from the pulpit.” (From  The Curé d’Ars  by François Trochu   Saint Philip Neri  “If a ma...

"If we really love the good God, we will find it a joy and happiness to spend some time near Him, to adore Him, and keep company with so good a friend. He is there in the tabernacle. What is He doing, this good Jesus, in the sacrament of His love? He is loving us.  If you pass a church then, go in to salute Him. Would you pass the door of a friend without saying good-day? And Our Lord is a friend who has been so good to us. It would be a very ungrateful person who would not visit Him.  Come to adore Him because He is your divine friend, your Creator, and your sovereign Master? You owe Him the homage of your whole being. Bow down before Him and praise Him. Come to keep Him company in the solitude in which the Christians leave Him.  Come, my soul, redouble your fervor. You are alone to adore your God. His eyes regard you alone. Come to His feet to thank Him, and then recall the benefits of redemption; the adoption of sons; the right to eternal life; so many pardons; so many...

"There is in every house a place where the provisions of the family are kept: the storeroom. The church is the house of souls. This house belongs to us who are Christians.  Well, in this house there is a storeroom. Do you see this tabernacle? If one asks Christian souls, what is that? Your souls answer: 'it is the storeroom. It is there that the Body and Blood of Jesus is, and this good Savior says to us: ‘Take and eat . . . take and drink’.'  A mortal man, a creature, feeds himself, satiates himself with his God, making of Him his daily food and drink! O miracle of miracles! O love beyond all love! O happiness beyond all happiness! I thank you, O my God, and I ask of you the grace to hunger always for this heavenly food." (St. John Marie Vianney from The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars )

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons ) "All creatures have need of food in order to live, that is why God has made the trees and plants. It is a table well served where all the animals come to take the food which suits each one. But the soul also must be fed. Where then is its food? When God wished to give food to our soul to sustain it in the pilgrimage of this life, He looked over all the creation and found nothing worthy of it. Then He fell back on Himself and resolved to give Himself.  O my soul, how great thou art since only a God can satisfy thee! The food of the soul is the Body and Blood of a God! What beautiful nourishment! The soul can only feed on a God! No other than God can suffice. Only God can satisfy its hunger. It needs God absolutely. O my soul, bless this God who is so magnificent. Come often to this divine banquet to satiate thyself with justice and holiness. Those who refuse to sit down here or who partake of it only at long intervals, condemn th...

"St. Paul tells us that at Athens he found written on an altar: 'To the unknown God.' Alas, I might say the opposite to you! I am about to preach to you a God that you do not adore, and whom you know to be your God. How many Christians have time on their hands and who never deign to come alone to visit their Savior. Oh! what a shame on us! If some novelty turns up, one leaves everything and runs to it. As for our God, we fly from Him. We find the time we spend in His presence hard. Oh! what a difference between the first Christians and us! They spent entire days and nights in the churches to sing the praises of the Lord, and to weep over their sins, but today it is not the same. Jesus is forsaken, abandoned in the sacrament of His love." (From The Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars )

"What does Jesus Christ do in the Eucharist? It is God who, as our Savior, offers Himself each day for us to His Father's justice. If you are in difficulties and sorrows, He will comfort and relieve you. If you are sick, He will either cure you or give you strength to suffer so as to merit Heaven. If the devil, the world, and the flesh are making war upon you, He will give you the weapons with which to fight, to resist, and to win victory. If you are poor, He will enrich you with all sorts of riches for time and eternity. Let us open the door of His Sacred and adorable Heart, and be wrapped about for an instant by the flames of His love, and we shall see what a God who loves us can do. O my God, who shall be able to comprehend?"   St. John Vianney    

"The visit to the Blessed Sacrament is a source of so much sweetness because we have in the tabernacle, the same God who is the source of happiness for the elect in heaven. The Eucharist becomes thus an earthly paradise. One asked a saint if it were hard for him to remain so long in the church. 'Ah!' he answered, 'I would spend an eternity there!' He was right. Our Lord is in heaven; He is also in His tabernacle. What a joy! The saints in heaven are they weary of contemplating, adoring and praising Jesus Christ or of remaining in His presence? We ought to experience a happiness like theirs near the tabernacle where the same God dwells. " (From the Eucharistic Meditations of the Cure of Ars )

"There are some people who go to Holy Communion to gain the esteem of the world. It avails them nothing. Others go out of habit. Poor Communions, they have not the right intention.  Go to Communion to obey Jesus Christ, who has commanded you to do so, under pain of not having eternal life. Go to Communion to obtain the graces that you need, humility, patience, purity. Go to the Holy Table to unite yourself to Jesus Christ so that He will make of you other Christ’s, which happens to those who receive Him worthily. When you go to Holy Communion you should always have an intention, and say when about to receive the Body of Our Lord: 'O my good Father, who art in heaven, I offer you, at this moment, your dear Son, such as He was when He was taken down from the Cross, and laid in the arms of the Holy Virgin, and as she offered Him to You in sacrifice for us. I offer Him to You by the hands of Mary, to obtain such or such graces, faith, charity, humility.'  My children, listen w...

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. John Marie Vianney "I can't stop praying for poor sinners who are on the road to hell. If they come to die in that state, they will be lost for all eternity. What a pity! We have to pray for sinners! Praying for sinners is the most beautiful and useful of prayers because the just are on the way to heaven, the souls of purgatory are sure to enter there, but the poor sinners will be lost forever. All devotions are good but there is no better one than such prayer for sinners." (From I Thirst For Your Love )   Alexander de Rouville  My child, God will not allow you to be tempted, tested or tormented beyond your strength. His help will always be equal to the trial He sends.  Give heed to His grace, for it already speaks to you, and respond to His inspirations. If God has more crosses in store for someone, He gives ...