Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

One way of letting all prayer warriors know what happened at Star of the Sea Church in San Francisco last Saturday (see my earlier post ) is to share some of the photographs taken by Darwin Sayo , who has graciously consented to our using them: Oh, the power of prayer! One of the event's promoters filed this report:

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb , an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on the site they host: “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey. Since this is the feast day of the great Dominican Saint, Lay Dominican, Doctor of the Catholic Church, and mystic, St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), I thought I would share something I had originally posted on April 19, 2013: Jesus Speaks Not Only To St. Catherine of Siena But to Us Jesus to St. Catherine: “What I ask of you is nothing other than love and affection for Me and for your neighbor. This can be done at any time, any place, and in any state of life.” “In the way of God, he who makes no progress loses ground.” “...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) It [Eucharistic Adoration] is a time of encounter between the depths of our misery and the depths of God's love. It is there that I can know that I am loved by Christ who delivered himself for me. Everything is from him. He knows how to untie the knots that keep me in their grip. There, I to be silent in the deepest part of myself in order to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, real problems resolving themselves at the foot of the tabernacle. Jesus said to Angela of Foligno: "Concern yourself with me, and I will concern myself with you." Adoration nourishes faith, trains it to avoid lapsing into unbelief or superstition. It is essential among this people that believes that it is being injured. Adoration is not a pharmacy but the gratuitousness of God's gift. (Archbishop Kébreau of Cap-HaItien quoted in Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour? by Father Florian Racine)

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Many professing to be Catholic - even among those who attend Sunday Mass regularly - have lost the sense of the Sacred and their belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. The many reasons for this are beyond the scope of this brief reflection. Let me mention just two   (1) the misuse of Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist whose assistance at Mass should be restricted to those very rare occasions “whenever the number of faithful wishing to receive Communion is so great that the celebration of Mass would be unduly long (emphasis added); and (2) the failure of so many of us to spend sufficient time in thanksgiving and conversation with the Lord whose Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity we consume. Since reception under both species is neither required nor recommended for frequent use, can anyone truthfully say that their Sunday Mass would be unduly prolonged if there were no Extraordinary Ministers of the...

May the wisdom of this great saint stir our souls to a greater appreciation for the magnificence and value of each Mass offered daily throughout the world.

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.  Gaudium et Spes “The Christian who neglects his temporal duties, neglects his duties toward his neighbor and even God, and jeopardizes his eternal salvation." ( Gaudium et Spes , the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 43)

(Image Source: Star of the Sea Church ) Help me understand this! For far too many years now, there have been Bishops, priests, religious and laity (including prominent politicians claiming to be Catholic), who have engaged in public dissent from the Church’s teachings with little or no public correction from the Shepherds charged with the salvation of their souls.   Such public dissent – so destructive to the spiritual well-being of other Catholics - is more often than not met with public silence. Yet two simple priests (Fathers Joseph Illo and Patrick Driscoll), who are trying to establish an Oratory of St. Philip Neri in a San Francisco parish in hopes of   reigniting the flames of knowledge, love and fidelity for the Catholic Faith, are met with public ridicule and criticism, some of which come from their brother priests. At the same time, a public effort is made to have the Holy Father remove Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, their Archbishop, simply be...