Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

“A student of mine once asked, ‘If it is true that the host at Mass is not just a symbol of Christ, but really Christ himself, how can we just walk up there and receive him? I mean, we aren’t good enough for that.’ There are so many things that could be said in answer to that wonderfully humble and thoughtful question, but the first and most obvious answer is, ‘You are right!’ (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Apropos is the saying attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: Man should tremble, the world should quake, all Heaven should be deeply moved when the Son of God appears on the altar in the hands of the priest. None of us is worthy to approach God, much less receive him. None would dare to even think of it, were it not for the decree of our Lord himself: ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (Jn 6:53). And so, at each Mass, when we hear repeated the words...

It is a shame that some Catholics have succumbed to the falsehood that any spiritual book written prior to Vatican II is antiquated and of no value for the souls of contemporary Catholics hungering for spiritual nourishment and guidance.   Nothing could be further from the truth. Have you ever heard of The Little Book of Eternal Wisdom written by Blessed Henry Suso, O.P., a fourteenth century Dominican priest and mystic? I just discovered this gem and will be spending a great deal of time mining the wisdom contained in this forgotten book. While its language needs some updating (which I have attempted to do in the following excerpts), its insights are eternal. It’s a little lengthy but worth the read. The book sets forth an on-going dialogue between God (Eternal Wisdom) and a man (the Servant) who is searching for Wisdom and Truth. In Chapter XXIII (How We Ought Lovingly To Receive God) the Servant comes to a life-changing realization of how he has taken the Eucharist ...