Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

T hank you Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers .  Here is my contribution.   Eucharistic Reflection - Have You Been To This Place?   (Originally posted on August 11, 2020)   "When the soul has given itself up to God, He makes it suffer, and will make it suffer constantly. This will be hard! In order to take complete possession of the soul, God annihilates it, as it were, and takes its place. And as it is continually assailed by the temptation to find itself again, God gives combat, makes it suffer; He effaces the spirit, stifles the heart. Photo by Joshua Eckstein on Unsplash When the spirit will not surrender unconditionally, God plunges it into darkness, into temptations against faith, and hope and confidence. All peace is lost until the mind surrenders and totally renounces its own lights. Against such a state, the director can do nothing.   ...

When the soul has given itself up to God, He makes it suffer, and will make it suffer constantly. This will be hard! In order to take complete possession of the soul, God annihilates it, as it were, and takes its place. And as it is continually assailed by the temptation to find itself again, God gives combat, makes it suffer; He effaces the spirit, stifles the heart. Photo by Joshua Eckstein on Unsplash When the spirit will not surrender unconditionally, God plunges it into darkness, into temptations against faith, and hope and confidence. All peace is lost until the mind surrenders and totally renounces its own lights. Against such a state, the director can do nothing. He reasons; he discourses on the goodness of God, which the soul alas, can no longer see. It is terrified by the past and trembles for the present. What is to be done? Accept everything. God wills this state for you and does not tell you why. He is waiting for you to say to Him: 'I am nothing but sin; I give myse...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "This is your mission, O adorers: to weep at the feet of Jesus despised by His own, crucified in so many hearts, and abandoned in so many places; to console the Heart of this tender Father Whom the devil, His enemy, has robbed of His children. A Eucharistic Prisoner, He can no longer go after His lost sheep, the prey of ravenous wolves. Your mission is to beg forgiveness for the guilty; to pay their ransom to Divine mercy, which needs suppliant hearts; to become victims of propitiation with the Savior Jesus Who, no longer able to suffer in His risen state, will suffer in you and through you." (St. Peter Julian Eymard,  from the Real Presence - Eucharistic Meditations )