Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

This is a great time to visit This, That and the Other Thing where RAnn invites Catholic bloggers to share their blogposts from the previous week. I have no doubt you will read something there that God wishes you to see. Here are my Holy Week offerings: Eucharistic Reflection - March 26, 2013 Pondering Tidbits of Truth - March 27, 2013 Of Priests, the Eucharist, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass Good Friday Reflection How Great It is To See You. Please Come Back! He Is Risen! He's Alive!

       

Easter and Christmas are the two times during the course of the year when many Catholics come to Mass who do not regularly do so. As Christ's representatives on earth, we need to welcome every one who enters His Church. But if we really love our absent brothers and sisters and care about the salvation of their souls neither we nor our priests would allow them to leave without lovingly challenging them. What follows is an older post with a new name and introductory sentence that attempts to do just that. Imagine entering Church, sitting down in a pew and in your heart, hearing Jesus say:   "I am always here – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year - waiting for you. But generally I am alone, abandoned and ignored.   So when I looked out from behind the closed doors this morning, I was overjoyed to see you ! While there were many familiar faces among those filling the pews, there were a good number whom I have not seen in some time. I...

When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being? Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature.   Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command? His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord , to whom shall we go ? You have the words of eternal life . ” So they stepped ou...

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. Since this is Holy Week, I am posting this a day earlier than I normally would. Let’s ponder some of the things that Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen, had to say about Suffering, the Eucharist and Priests:   Suffering   “All men are born to live; He (Jesus) was born to do the Father’s business which was to die and thereby save.”   “God could never let you suffer a pain or a reversal or experience sadness if it could not in some way minister to your perfection. If he did not spare his own Son on the Cross for the redemption of the world, then you may be sure that he will sometimes not spare your wants that you might be all you need to be: happy and perfect children of a loving Father. He may even permit us to wage wars as a result of our selfishness that we may learn there is no peace except in Goodness and Truth.” ...

First just with words: "My people! What have I done, in what way have I offended you? Answer me. I gave you the water of salvation which flowed from My sorrow to drink and you gave Me honey and vinegar. My people what have I done to you?"   (From Good Friday Liturgy)       Then with an image and words:            

“Contemplate Me in the prison where I spent the greater part of the night. The soldiers came and, adding words to injuries,   insulted Me, mocked Me, outraged Me, and gave Me blows on My face and on My whole body.   Tired of their sport, at length they left Me bound and alone in the dark and noisome place, where, seated on a stone, My aching body was cramped with cold. Compare the prison with the Tabernacle, and especially with the hearts that receive Me. "In the prison I spent only part of the night…but in the Tabernacle, how many days and nights? In the prison I was insulted and ill-treated by soldiers who were my enemies. In the Tabernacle most often it is they who call Me their Father who treat Me thus, but how unlike that of children is the treatment!   In the prison I endured cold, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, solitude, and desertion. And there passed before My mind’s eye all the tabernacles where in the course of ages I should lack the shelter...