Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

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...

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 .     Without Reverent Silence, Nothing Else We Do Will Be of Any Value (Originally posted posted on November 11, 2019) A Forgotten Truth :  "The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy." - St. John Henry Cardinal Newman: A Catholic Church must be unlike any other building in the world because God resides there. A Catholic Church is holy ground. All who enter must conduct themselves in  a manner consistent with being in the Presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must enter, remain and exit it in reverent and total silence. God deserves nothing less. In far too many of our Catholic parishes we have lost the sense of the sacred and an app...

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 .  Remembering Our Lady of Guadalupe (Originally posted on December 12, 2014) Last year on the Memorial of our Lady of Guadalupe, I wrote of the blessed visit my daughter and I had made to the site of this great Marian apparition so many years earlier. You can read that post here. Today I want to share a brief message she delivered to St. Juan Diego - a message meant for our ears as well: "I, who am your Mother, stand before you. You remain always under the shelter of my protection. Be aware of how fortunate you are to have access to my motherly care at all times." Our Lady of Guadalupe, ever at our side,  pray for us!

T hank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 .     Flock to Him  (Originally posted on January 22, 2018) Scripture reports many instances where people flocked to Jesus like metal to a magnet. One example is set forth in the Gospel of Luke (6:12-19).  Everyone in the crowd,” the evangelist tells us, “sought to touch Jesus because power came forth from Him and healed them all.” (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Oftentimes, we muse what it might have been like if we could have been there in the crowd reaching out to touch Jesus. We ignore the fact that He is still here among us, locked as a prisoner in the tabernacles of His Churches.  Oh, that we would flock to Him there where He awaits our visits and remains just as willing to heal us. What ingratitude ...

T hank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 .  We Are Own Worse Enemies (Originally published on November 25, 2013)   (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Far too many Catholics are not well-formed in the teachings of Christ's Church. Given this tragic reality, one would expect Catholic media to only publish the work of individuals and columnists who accurately set forth the tenets of the Catholic Church.  Over the years, too many publications claiming to be "Catholic" have consistently demonstrated a preference for doing just the opposite. A most recent example of this proclivity is a column that a local Diocesean newspaper published wherein its author wrote the following: “Putting an end to the killing of unborn babies is a priority for me, and it is a priority fo...

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 .    A Great Day To Give Thanks To Our Ever-Present Lord and St. Albert the Great!  (Originally posted November 15, 2015) (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) November 15 is the feast day of St. Albert the Great (1206-1280). Who was this noted Dominican friar?    The following brief summary from the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic ( St. Joseph ’s Province) highlights some of his accomplishments: “German Bishop, theologian of renown, philosopher, scientist, diplomat, inventor, teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas…crisscrossed his diocese on foot and so nicknamed “Doctor Boots by his contemporaries. “Universal Doctor’ of the Church…”     He was also the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas! Today also marks the beginning of the nineteenth year of Perpetual Euch...

T hank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . Eucharistic Reflection - His Goal Is My Heart (Originally posted on July 28, 2012) (St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, NYC) “When Jesus remains in the quiet of the altar, in the tabernacle’s shadow, people in their blind carelessness let Him alone, they forget all about Him. And when He exposes Himself upon the altar, he is hurt to the Heart by the irreverence of so many who either have no faith at all or a faith that is very weak. When He goes through the streets in order to bring unspeakable blessings to His beloved children, He hears curses and blasphemies that make out of His errand of mercy another way of the cross. But in the midst of all these bitternesses one hope sustains Him – the hope of a place of refuge that will offer the love and peace He ...

Thank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . My contribution this week as we near the end of the Month of the Rosary: Recite The Rosary Like A Child    (Originally posted on October 15, 2018)   "The rosary is not a tedious prayer just because the person is always repeating the Hail Mary. Each Hail Mary recited, with the contemplation of the mysteries, is always said with a different feeling and the intensity of the prayer is not monotonous. It is an intensity of love.  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Does not a child call his mother all the time? His cry: "Mom!" is different according to the need that inspires and animates it. Therefore, recite the rosary like a child, invoking our Heavenly Mother and imploring her help."   (Servant of God, Dol...

Thank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . Here is my contribution:  Eucharistic Reflection - Communion of Reparation  (Originally posted on July 21, 2015)  (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “When Christ manifested Himself to Margaret Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries were done to Him by ungrateful men — and we would that these words in which He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were never blotted out by oblivion: ‘Behold this Heart’ — He said — ‘which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a...

Thank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . Here is my contribution:  Rosary Reflection - No Longer Relevant or Needed in Our Time? (Originally posted on October 10, 2015) There is confusion among some Catholics these days – no doubt planted by the Evil One, who fears the Blessed Mother and the power of her Rosary. Some would have us believe that recitation of the Rosary is an antiquated devotion no longer relevant or needed in current times. Nothing could be further from the truth as can be seen by the Blessed Mother’s promise to St. Dominic and Blessed Alan de Roche and as she herself re-emphasized to the children at Fatima: - Whoever shall faithfully serve me  by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive powerful graces.  - I ...

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . The late Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. is a treasure you must discover: Jesus The Beggar (Originally posted November 4, 2012) “Jesus loves poverty with a very special love – so much so, indeed, that, because He could not find it in heaven, He came down and sought it here on earth. He took nothing along with Him from heaven. The tiny bit of glory that He gets on earth is the free gift of the few generous hearts that are trying to show how much they love Him. He is at His lovers’ mercy! Were merely a little wafer of bread denied Him, He could not remain in our midst on earth – He, the Lord of the Universe!... Jesus begs. I wonder for what?   He [Jesus] begs for one little word of kindly considerate greeting when I pass...

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . More from In Sinu Jesu : Put God First - Love and Console Our Lord! (Originally published June 7, 2012) The Eucharist must be the source and center of our lives. If we and our priests prefer Him over all others and all things, He will transform us and our world - one heart at a time. We can never share this Truth enough! Please spend time mining this spiritual treasure from  Father Mark at Vultus Christi  and then share it with all whom you love, especially your priests! Put Nothing Before My Love for You You have only to prefer My company to every other companionship, the love of My Heart to the love of every other heart, and the sound of My voice in the silence of your soul to every other voice. I have calle...

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . The Presence of God (Originally posted on October 28, 2012) "It cannot be over stressed that the presence of God in the soul by grace is a real and substantial presence. God is present in the tabernacle of the heart as really and truly and substantially as He is present in the tabernacle of the altar, although in a different manner. Christ's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament is a priceless gift, a pledge and prelude of that glorious presence of the Incarnate Word which will be ours eternally in Heaven. But the external pres­ence is meant to lead us to and be fused with the presence of the Word of God within our souls. So it will be in Heaven. The Son of God will be present outside us in the reality of the human nature He has assumed,...

Thank you once again, Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You  and 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 . Here is another post from 2011:   I Know This Is Late, But... (Originally posted August 8, 2011) We hit the trifecta of Eucharistic saints last week: St. Alphonus Liguori, St. Peter Eymard, and St. John Marie Vianney, the model for all priests. I wrote about the first two Saints, but my computer got zapped at the Catholic Writers' Guild Conference. My son-in-law just removed the bugs. What follows is what I had intended to share last week. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Like Saints Alphonsus and Peter, St. John Vianney gets to the heart of what it should mean to be a Catholic. Here is a sample of his wisdom on the Eucharist. "There is nothing, so great as the Eucharist. If God had something more precious, He ...