Pondering Tidbits of Truth - March 14, 2019

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. Francis de Sales

"If the grace of God had caused me to perform any work of righteousness, or had wrought any good by my means, when the secrets of the hearts are manifested, God alone should know of my righteousness; and my unrighteousness, on the contrary, should be seen by every creature."

(From Introduction to the Devout Life)

Eucharistic Reflection - Let Not The Fire Be Extinguished

"Regarding the Sacrament of the Eucharist, God the Father told Catherine of Siena:

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You personally participate in this light, that is, in the grace which you receive in this Sacrament, according to the holy desire with which you dispose yourselves to receive it. He who should go to this sweet Sacrament in the guilt of mortal sin will receive no grace, though he actually receives the whole of God and the whole of Man. Do you know the condition of the soul who receives unworthily? She is like a candle on which water has fallen which can do nothing but crackle when brought near the flame, for no sooner has the fire touched it than it is extinguished, and nothing remains but smoke."

(From  Words of Faith, edited by Craig Turner)

Eucharistic Reflection - A Worthy Communion

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"The first thing required for a worthy Communion is that one recognize, with great humility, that no human efforts will suffice to make this preparation if God does not assist him. As no one can dispose himself for an increase of grace without grace, so no one can prepare for the reception of God but God. Therefore, one should beg Him with humble and burning desires to cleanse and purify the house where He is going to dwell.

To do this as we ought, the first thing required is freedom from mortal sin. The Apostle strongly said that whoever eats the bread or drinks the chalice of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. In other words, those who approach Communion in the state of mortal sin commits a sin comparable to the sin of those who crucified Christ, because both are sins  against the body and blood of Jesus, although in different ways.

Moreover, what can follow from the union of two different things such as Christ and a sinner, but the corruption of the sinner? Things that are alike are easily joined together, such as water and wine; but things that are contrary, such as fire and water, can never be mixed without the destruction of one. How can the good be mixed with the bad, the humble with the proud, the pure with the unclean? Hence, there must be some kind of likeness effected between Christ and the Christian if the latter is to be united worthily with Him."

(Ven. Louis of Granada, O.P. from Summa of the Christian Life)