Monday Musings - It's All Gift!

You created us Lord in your image, to know love and serve You on this earth and to be with You eternally. You remain here with us in the Consecrated and Sacred Hosts hidden behind locked tabernacle doors. This is all gift! None of us deserve this Divine generosity.

You desire that each of us become more like You - to always be Christ-like. My response over my lifetime, Lord You know, has been inconsistent, and at times, pathetic and traitorous!

You want me “to disappear so that You may appear in me.” “I must vacate my territory,” You tell me, “ so that You may fully occupy it.” But this can only happen by Your grace and by my being obedient to Your every command and prompting.

On the few occasions when I have obeyed Your promptings Lord, I received a glimpse of what You were calling me to be. Oh, how glorious Lord were the times I obeyed: returning to Your Church; participating in RENEW, Cursillo, Prison Ministry, Lay Dominicans, Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration, and praying for the salvation of souls.

I did not always keep my eyes focused on Yours nor did I entirely surrender my will to Yours. Far too often Lord, I did not obey You. Yet when I look back on the times of my deepest anguish, I see now that You sent me Your light and Your angels - a lifeline - to pull me out of the pit of despair and back into Your loving arms. You allowed me to succeed because I placed my trust in You. I admitted my sinfulness and inability to go on any further unless You picked me up and carried me.

Let me never forget that You promised those who obey You, that their trials and tribulations would pass and that there was no reason to be afraid. You have always had my back. I was the one who has failed to consistently say ‘Yes,’ Fiat,’ Your will be done’.

Jesus I frequently pray that “I Trust in You.” Please breath life into those words so that I will have the courage and wisdom to obey You at all times and under in all circumstances, not just when it appears comfortable for me to do so.

 

Holding On To Anything?

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

 The little that we have – be it in material goods, time  or talents – is sufficient for God’s work if, when He asks, we would just give whatever that is to Him. Take notice in today’s Gospel what He did with five loaves of bread and two fish! On the surface, it looked like Jesus was asking His Apostles to do the impossible – feed thousands of  people. He wasn’t. He was asking them to give Him what they had and He would make the impossible possible. God will never give us a task, no matter how daunting it may first appear, without giving us all that we need to complete it.

The first step is our total surrender to, and trust in, His will for us.

So let’s ask ourselves: Is there anything I am still holding on to and unwilling to give Him?

Monday Musings – I Have Some Questions Lord

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

So what is the next step, Lord?

What do I do? Where do I go? How do I love You and others as I ought? What must I sever myself and my time from?

How Lord do I bridge the great gap that exists between what I profess to believe and how I actually live my life? 

Please reveal to me, dear Lord, what I have been unable or unwilling to see. 

When Lord will my heart and will be one with Yours – where every second of my life honors and glorifies You?

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - January 16, 2024

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 John Catoir  "The more you trust God, the happier you will be...The great spiritual masters tell us that the path to both happiness and holiness is found in fidelity to the duty of the present moment. If you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves. Be faithful to the duty of the present moment. Do it for the Lord, and be at peace."  (An excerpt from Uplifting Thoughts for Every Day)

St. Peter Julian Eymard  “What displeases God most on earth and in us is sin. You must give this truth your attentive consideration. The just and the saints themselves are not exempt from sin. And we, have we not at least venial sins on our conscience? The just and the saints themselves are not exempt from sin. Have we never had to weep for mortal sins? There is only one evil on earth, only one thing which should fill us with dread: sin. All created things please God, even those which seem obnoxious to us; neither the earthworm nor mud are offensive in the sight of God. Those things are in their natural state. Sin, on the contrary, is a perversion of the divine will, a degradation of God's work, a contradiction to his nature and to his divine being. Sin is an offense and an insult to God's sovereign authority, to his majesty, and to his empire; it is an insult of the creature to its Creator."  (An excerpt from 30 Day Eucharistic Revival)    Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.  "The soul that does not attach itself solely to the will of God will find neither satisfaction nor sanctification in any other means however excellent by which it may attempt to gain them. If that which God Himself chooses for you does not content you, from whom do you expect to obtain what you desire? . . . No soul can be really nourished, fortified, purified, enriched, and sanctified except in fulfilling the duties of the present moment."  (An excerpt from Abandonment to Divine Providence)

 

 

 

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - December 16, 2021

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.

 

 

Catherine Doherty, Servant of God

“I had worked with Catherine for many years in our gift shop and handicraft department. One day, Catherine stopped to dictate an article for our paper Restoration, probably concerning our needs for craft materials and gift shop items. It was a fairly extensive article, but she dictated it aloud, without pausing.

I was somewhat astonished that she could do this and I asked, “B, how can you create that way? Don’t you have to be in the mood to write? Don’t you need time to think about what you want to say and just how to say it?

Catherine looked at me, as she often did, with a look that betrayed a combination of disappointment and despair in her spirit. 'Sweetheart, don’t you understand? This is God’s work. I simply say a prayer to do it well. I know He will give me the grace to do so, so I proceed in peace. I just do it. I suggest you learn to do the same.'

(Susanne Stubbs, member of Madonna House, from Was Catherine a Mystic?)

 

Johann Tauler, O.P.

“Children, if you want to grow in holiness and become saints, remember these two little points. First, that you keep your heart free from all created things, even from yourself, and observe due order in all things, in thought and in deed, so that there may be nothing to hinder the work of the Holy Ghost in you. The other is that you take good care to receive whatever may befall you, inwardly or outwardly, as coming direct from God and no one else. Take everything as sent by Him to prepare you for His gifts, which are supernatural and wonderful and to which you could never come except by suffering and assaults from the devil and from churlish people.”

(From Spiritual Conferences)

 

St. Peter Julian Eymard

“We sometimes hear people say: ‘What harm, after all, can sin do to God? It does not destroy nor actually touch the essence of God; it takes away nothing from His happiness. What can pygmies accomplish against a giant?’

That is the reasoning of the world. It also exists, more or less, among religious, as an excuse for their sins.

Here is the answer: in order for God to show exactly what sin meant to Him, He gave His own Son to pay exactly its debt and to expiate it in a manner equal to the offense. Sin called for all that Jesus had to suffer: God did not do anything but satisfy the exigencies of His justice in condemning Him to that terrible Passion and to that death on Calvary.

Jesus came and, having taken upon Himself our sins, making Himself our respondent, He submitted to all that we would have had to suffer. If then you wish to understand the enormity of the evil, you have only to study the enormity of the atonement: sin means Jesus Christ crucified.”

(From The Eucharist and Christian Perfection II)

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 2, 2021

 

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.

 

 

Venerable Bruno Lanteri

"Do you find yourself turning inward, preoccupied by your anxieties and burdened by your failings? 'Instead of turning in on yourself, lift your gaze often with peace and love to God.' Often. With peace. With love. The less you focus on your failures and the more you gaze on the Lord with peace and love, the more your heart will lift, the stronger you will become, the more joy you will find. Tell Him that 'you want to be totally His' and, with boldness, tell Him that 'it is His to make you become better'!"

(From Overcoming Spiritual Discouragement - The Wisdom and Spiritual Power of Venerable Bruno Lanteri)

 

Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament

"Would to God that you could fathom the extreme and terrible evil that it is to sin. Oh! Sin, sin what harm you have done to us! Alas! Who will be able to repair your ruins? Jesus Christ alone has the power, the will, and the capacity for this, and He did it in a perfect manner through His blood and through His death. It is Jesus Christ who ransomed me and gave me back the possession of my rights. He redeems every moment of my life, because after committing one [mortal] sin, we deserve not only spiritual death, but bodily death too. And if God executed justice it would destroy us irretrievably.

Therefore, I owe Jesus Christ every moment of my life, all the operations of my soul's powers, all my time, all my work, all my ability, all my thoughts, in a word, the use of my senses and all my faculties. And as many acts are for myself or for creatures, these are so many thefts I perpetrate against the blood of God's Son. All is His, we are purchased at that inestimable price, and we have no right to use or spend our life’s moments except for His love and glory. Otherwise, we make a dreadful profanation of this precious blood and render ourselves guilty of it…

If a soul understood the evil and abomination of one sin, she would have such a horror of it, that however wicked she might be, she could not bring herself to commit it. You must confess that our blindness is great and worthy of compassion."

(From The Breviary of Fire - Letters by Mother Mectilde of the Blessed Sacrament)

 

Lisa Brenninkmeyer  “The Lord is inviting you to come and gaze into His eyes of mercy. He's offering you hope for a fresh start. Oh, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, and that the darkness of shame would be chased away. Shame keeps your eyes cast down. But God is cupping your face in His hands and calling you to look up.”  (From Be Still: A Daily Devotional)