Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Lord, no matter how hard I try, I will never be able, on this earth, to fully understand Who You are and how undeserving I am to have been created in Your image.  Why You would humble Yourself to take on human flesh and to die for a sinner such as myself? - Because You love me and  offer me an opportunity for eternal life.  ( Image Source )   There is much that has happened in my life that I still do not understand. Though at times I have become so despondent (over what I now realize were mere trifles, toothpicks) that I begged You to end my life, I "know": that everything that has happened in my life was a part of Your great plan. Every second of despair was designed to bring me closer to You. Every scream of pain and hopelessness was a step toward being transformed into You. Everything I have experienced or will experience in this life is intended to assure I can spend eternity in Your Presence. I marvel at the depth of Your love for me - Your infinite Patience...

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 Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. "We need God. Without Him we can do nothing. But God also needs us. He needs us to bear witness to the fact that He exists; that God became man; that God died; that God rose again; that men can become like God. God needs us to be animated Gospels and give the world the almost unbelievable ‘Good News’ that God is our Father and we are heirs to all that almighty God possesses." (From God, A Woman and the Way ) Father J. Urteaga Loidi "If you give yourself to God give yourself the way the saints did. Let no one and nothing occupy your attention and slow you down: you belong to God. If you give yourself, give yourself for eternity. Let neither the roaring waves nor the treacherous undercurrent shake the concrete solidity of your foundations. God depends on you: He leans on you....

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) On the first night of a recent pilgrimage to several Canadian Marian Shrines, the homilist at the evening Mass recommended to all those who desired to become holy and to spend eternity in God’s Presence to begin each day as follows: Begin each day as if, upon awakening, God told you this would be your last day on earth and that He would come to get you at midnight.  Welcome that news. Then live your life that day as if was in fact the last day of your earthly life – forgive, love and repent. Do this exercise every day for at least two weeks, Father suggested, and you will become holier and closer to God. Willing to give it a shot?