Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 29, 2022

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.

 

 

 

Brother Finbar Kantor, O.P.

"Saint Barnabas urges us in the midst of ‘evil days’ to look first to that problem which is most intimate to us—the salvation of our eternal soul. Before worrying about political policy or ecclesial bickering, the state of our soul should be our first concern. What is my relationship like with God? With my family? With my neighbors? (Mt 22:37-40) These are the things that should really matter to us because they affect our salvation. If we get this hierarchy wrong and seek to gain the world rather than our salvation, we risk a terrible loss (Mt 8:36-38)."

(From Dominicana - The Things That Matter) 

 

Venerable Louis of Granada, O.P.

"When you feel the promptings of this shameful disorder [gluttony] subdue them by the following considerations: Call to mind  that it was a sin of gluttony which brought death into the world, and that it is the first and most important passion to be conquered, for upon the subjugation of this vice depends your victory over all others."

(From The Sinner's Guide)

 

St. John of the Cross

"Endeavor to be inclined always: not to the easiest, but to the most difficult; not to the most delightful, but to the most  distasteful; not to the most gratifying, but to the less pleasant; not to what means rest for you, but to hard work; not to consoling, but to the unconsoling; not to the most, but to the least; not to the highest and most precious, but to the lowest and most despised; not to wanting something, but to wanting nothing. Do not go about looking for the best of temporal things, but for the worst, and for Christ, desire to enter into complete nakedness, emptiness, and poverty in everything in the world." 

(From The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - June 23, 2022

 

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.

 

 

Antony The Great

“Antony said, ‘Just as fish die if they stay too long out of water, so the monks who loiter outside their prayer chambers or pass their time with men of the world lose the intensity of their inner peace. So, like a fish going toward the sea, we must hurry to reach our prayer chamber. If we delay outside, we will lose our interior watchfulness’.”

(From The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers)

 

Father Peter Hannah, O.P.

"[Pope Benedict XVI reminds us]: Truth should be spoken with charity; but charity demands that one is actually speaking truth. Charity, Benedict wrote,  ‘is of fundamental importance in human relations’, but ‘without truth, charity degenerates to sentimentality…more or less  interchangeable with a pool of good feelings, helpful for social cohesion but of little relevance’ (Caritas in Veritate, #3).

Benedict’s warning deserves attention. There can be a temptation, when desiring someone to come over to one’s own view - in this case, not one's own view only, but the Catholic faith - to forsake critical aspects of the faith so that they become more ‘amenable’ to the person receiving. But then one is actually not persuading the other of the truth but enervating and misrepresenting the truth in order to elicit acceptance and encourage ‘good relations.’ This was not the vision of John XXIII [when he convened Vatican II]; nor is it the way of Our Lord. In the Gospels we see Jesus ready to receive anyone who approaches Him with a genuine and open disposition. But He does not alter the message itself when His audience is confused or taken aback.

When Jesus speaks maybe the most important truth of all so far as the Church’s life goes - His own flesh as the life of the world - those around Him are immediately offended. ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ (John 6: 60). Our Lord's response is not to respond by feeding His followers half-truths that they can accept, ‘adjusting Himself’ to their sensibilities, and leaving the full truth out of it. He rather repeats it, fully aware of their difficulty in accepting: ‘Do you take offense at this?...no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father.’ Then, we are told, ‘many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him (John 6: 66). Jesus is ‘inclusive’ of all who are open to the truth; but also realizes not all will accept it and discover the life He brings."

(Excerpted from May-June 2022 edition of Light & Life – Voice of the Rosary Center & Confraternity)

 

Venerable Luis of Granada, O.P

"Certainly God, who is so merciful, takes no pleasure in our afflictions, but in His love He sends us these necessary remedies to cure our infirmities. Thus suffering purifies the stains of sinful pleasures, and the privation of innocent gratifications expiates unlawful indulgence. He punishes us in this world, that He may reward us in the next; He treats us with merciful rigor here to save us from His wrath in eternity. Hence Saint Jerome says that God's anger against sinners is never more terrible then when He seems to forget them during life. It was through fear of such a misfortune that Saint St Augustine prayed, ‘Here Oh Lord burn, here cut, that Thou mayst spare me in eternity.’

(From The Sinner’s Guide)