Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Let's be frank:   If we really believe that Jesus Christ is truly and  substantially present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the tabernacles of our Churches, we would be there with Him. We would do everything in our power to spend some time with Him and to encourage others to do so as well.  But we don't really believe this essential Truth. We have abandoned our Loving Lord to his prison-tabernacle and locked the doors of His Churches so that even the few drawn to be with Him are unable to get in. Stop for a moment and ponder this shocking reality from our Lord's perspective. Is this anyway to treat the Son of God? Of course it isn't. Go visit and comfort our abandoned and forgotten Lord . Bring  a copy of   Stirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections  with you and let the wisdom it contains draw you into His loving embrace and Presence. Enlist in His army of Adorers. Let Him change you and the world! Here is a sample of what others have...

Let's be frank:   If we really believe that Jesus Christ is truly and  substantially present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the tabernacles of our Churches, we would be there with Him. We would do everything in our power to spend some time with Him and to encourage others to do so as well.  But we don't really believe this essential Truth. We have abandoned our Loving Lord to His prison-tabernacle and locked the doors of His Churches so that even the few drawn to be with Him are unable to get in. Stop for a moment and ponder this shocking reality from our Lord's perspective. Is this anyway to treat the Son of God? Of course it isn't! Go visit and comfort our abandoned and forgotten Lord . Bring  a copy of   Stirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections  with you and let the wisdom it contains draw you into His loving embrace and Presence. Enlist in His army of Adorers. Let Him change you and the world! Here is a sample of what others have...

" Why (as St. Peter Julian Eymard observed more than 100 years ago) do we have time for everything except for visits to our Lord and God, Who is waiting and longing for us in the Blessed Sacrament?" Why do so few visit You? Why are those who try to do so often locked out? Why are Your Church and its members so timid and so silent about this great mystery and gift? Why have we lost reverence for and belief in Your Real Presence? (Excerpt from  I Thirst For Your Love )

There are times when one must be blunt in the effort to stir slumbering souls. Today is one of those days. Seek a quiet place where you and God can chat, heart to heart. He has some questions for you. Ponder them. How will you respond to Him? (Photo©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with permission) What if, as Father Francis Hudson, S.C.J. once asked his parishioners,     God loved you, only as much as you loved Him? As you enter your parish Church, are you struck with a sense of the Sacred and a realization that you are standing on holy ground? If not, why not?   What does Jesus see and hear from behind the locked Tabernacle doors when He gazes at those present? Is He pleased by what He hears and sees? If not, why not?   How important is it for you to spend some time in quiet prayer and r eflection in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, before, during, after Mass and throughout the course of each week?   Of the 168 hours God g...

Stirring Slumbering Souls predated our Bishops' plea to rediscover belief in the Real Presence. This book received a Seal of Approval from the Catholic Writer's Guild. It provides fuel to set your heart ablaze and reignite your love for our ever-present Eucharistic Lord. Look at what others have had to say about this remarkable and timely book - Stirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections  This book accomplished what author Michael Seagriff hoped: that is to ignite my heart and stir my soul to love Jesus more and more. The words contained in this volume speak Truth and breathe Life and offer the reader a broad sampling of some of the finest thoughts and reflections on the Eucharist--our source and summit and surest Love. I can't wait to get to Adoration!...“Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful gem with me. I feel like every single Catholic should read it and have a copy and then share it with someone who isn’t and then we would be all set in...

  This book accomplished what author Michael Seagriff hoped: that is to ignite my heart and stir my soul to love Jesus more and more. The words contained in this volume speak Truth and breathe Life and offer the reader a broad sampling of some of the finest thoughts and reflections on the Eucharist--our source and summit and surest Love. I can't wait to get to Adoration!...“Thank you so much for sharing this beautiful gem with me. I feel like every single Catholic should read it and have a copy and then share it with someone who isn’t and then we would be all set in this world. Such richness here and it stirs up so much in the soul. Anne Costa   Stirring Slumbering Souls is an eloquent treasury of Eucharistic reflections which you will enjoy reading over and over again. I read the reflections during Eucharistic adoration and just before bedtime. They were comforting, peaceful, insightful, and gave me a new appreciation and love for the Eucharist. I high...

"What shall I answer if I have not responded to the love of Jesus – and not given Him the whole love of my heart – and not spent myself for Him Who loved me unto death, even unto the death of the Cross? What shall I answer when I find out that throughout my life, every hour of the day and night, Jesus was for me imprisoned in the tabernacle, pleading for me with the Father – wishing for me to visit Him, to unite Himself to me, and to be my faithful, my own God?" ( Meditation on the Passion - A Mistress of Novices of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Just one of the 250 soul-searching quotations you will find in Stirring Slumbering Souls

 (My humble contribution towards Eucharistic Revival: Stirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections )

(Image Source: Unsplash ) "The night before [Jesus] died, He said, ‘This is my body – This is my blood’. Every day that we live, we are to hold out on the paten of our hands, our hearts, and minds, and wills, our all, and say: ‘This is my body - this is my blood.’ Take them. And what You do with wheat and wine and these awe-filled words, do with me! Let the outward appearances remain; my face, figure, height, and breadth; but the inner substance, change! Change it so that it will no longer be mine, but Thine. Change it so that I will always be what transubstantiated Wheat and Wine ever remain – Thee."  ( God, A Woman and The Way - Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.) [This is just one of 250 powerful Eucharistic Reflections you will find in Stirring Slumbering Souls  - a must read during this time of Eucharistic Revival]

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 .   I would like to share the first part of a two part post: Let Us Love God As We Ought And As He Deserves - Part I (Originally posted February 17, 2020) [What follows is a slightly modified version of a presentation I made to the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapter of The Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic in Charlottesville, Virginia on  Saturday September 8, 2018]   (Photo©Michael Seagriff) God loves each and every one of us and is waiting for and thirsting for each of us to love Him in return. My comments today and the reason I wrote and edited Stirring Slumbering Souls – 250 Eucharistic Reflections and I Thirst for Your Love is to address what I believe are the two most pressing problems in our Church today – the loss of the sense of the sacred in our churc...