Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

 

"The Sacrament of the Body of the Lord puts the demons to flight, defends us against the incentives to vice and to concupiscence, cleanses the soul from sin, quiets the anger of God, enlightens the understanding to know God, inflames the will and the affections with the love of God, fills the memory with spiritual sweetness, confirms the entire man in good, frees us from eternal death, multiplies the merits of a good life, leads us to our everlasting home, and reanimates the body to eternal life."     St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P.

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) "The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love; It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life." St. Thomas Aquinas  

This is the fourth and final week I am posting quotations excerpted from St. Thomas Aquinas – Meditations for Every Day, translated and illustrated by Rev. E.C. McEniry, O.P .  I hope that you found much fruit for your contemplation. If you missed any of the previous posts in this series, you can find them here , here . and here .                   John is crying in the wilderness for four reasons:           A cry introduces a manifestation, and therefore, to show that Christ        speaks publicly through John and in him.           A cry is sounded to those who are distant.   But the Jews were far away           from God and hence it was necessary that John should cry.       ...

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. Thomas Aquinas, O.P. "As mariners are guided into port by the shining of a star, so Christians are guided to heaven by Mary."  (From Mary: Mother of God by Chukwueloka Okolo) St. Rose of Lima " If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions.  All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience.  No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that might happen to him if he...

We thank Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with them and their followers .                  Want a simple but fruitful exercise this Lent? How about chewing on one of these short but powerfully packed kernels of wisdom from St. Thomas Aquinas each day during Lent?  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)     Our body must be subject to the soul.   Death, sickness and all defects of the body are due to lack of the body’s subjection to the soul. Fasting is mandatory and essential to spiritual growth.   Fasting is useful for removal and prevention of sin, and for raising the mind to spiritual things. Go to the foot of the cross.   Contemplate Him who suffered so much for me and Him Whom I should love. Christ i...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) 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. Thomas Aquinas "To say that someone is full of mercy is like saying his heart is full of woe. He experiences the miseries of another with the same force and sadness as if they were His own. He makes His best effort to remedy the problem because it has become His problem. This is the effect of mercy. Of course, God does not become saddened by thus making His own the miseries of His creatures. Yet He does work to remedy those problems, those defects, because to act in this way does correspond to His Divine nature." (From Summa Theologiae, 1, q. 21, a.3)

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 There is no sin or crime committed by another which I myself am not capable of committing through my weakness; and if I have not committed it, it is because God, in his mercy, has not allowed me to and has preserved me in the good. (From Confessions )

(St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, NYC) That the real Body and Blood of Christ is present in the Sacrament is something that cannot be perceived either with the senses or with the intellect, but only with faith, which is supported by the authority of God. Because of this, when commenting on the passage in Luke 22:19: "This is my body which is given up for you," St. Cyril says: "Do not cast doubt on the truth of this, but rather accept with faith the words of the Savior: because He, being the Truth, does not lie." St. Thomas Aquinas, S. Th ., III, q. 75, a.1