Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Prayer As Love

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - March 10, 2016

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.

Father Georges Chevrot

"You are often mistaken when you say, 'I brought my children up wrongly', or ' I did not know how to do good to those around me.' What happens is that you have not achieved the result you were hoping for, that you do not yet see the fruit you would have wished for, because the harvest is not yet ripe. What does matter is that you have sown the seed, that you have given God to souls. When God wants, those souls will return to him. You may not be there to see it, but there will be others who will gather in what have sown."

(From The Well of Life)

"Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - One Man's Example

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on "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.

Be sure to visit Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of the week. You will find much spiritual nourishment and encouragement there.

This is my contribution:

One Man's Example

(Originally posted on May 4, 2012)

From the inception of the Adoration Chapel in our parish and without interruption for nearly five years until a few days before his death, this gentleman came every Saturday morning. Initially, he came for two hours each week – from 3 A.M. to 5 A.M. Eventually, another person lent a helping hand by coming in a half-hour early each Saturday morning. That hour and a half was not enough for Mike – he added another hour each week when he joined his wife in the Chapel each Monday evening.

He learned to pray the Rosary there. Oh, how he enjoyed praying the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament!

Nothing kept him away – not snow, not ice, not radiation treatment, not chemotherapy, not even a terminal illness. Just weeks before his death, he came in at 3 AM in obvious discomfort. He was coughing and had some difficulty breathing. But how devoutly he tried to genuflect and bow his head before his beloved Lord. After awhile, he settled in his chair, pulled out his favorite little meditation booklet and began to pray the Rosary.

"...There is a very real sense in which the prayer of adoration is a loss of one’s life. It is a kind of falling into the ground to die. Remember this when you come to adore Me.

Look at the Sacred Host and see Me who am the grain of wheat fallen into the ground and risen to life, and become the food of a vast multitude of souls, and this until the end of time. The grain of wheat that I was has become the Host that I am.

When you adore Me, forgetting yourself and forsaking all things for Me, you imitate Me, for adoration is a kind of death. It is a passing out of everything that solicits the senses and a cleaving to Me alone in the bright darkness of faith. So it will be in the hour of your death.

The more deeply you sink into adoration, the more deeply are you planted in the earth, there to die, and there to sprout, and finally to bring forth much fruit.

Sink into the ground of adoration. Consent to disappear, to forsake appearances, and to die. Enter into the silence of the Host. Become by grace what you contemplate in faith: Here I am hidden, silent, and forsaken by all save a very few whom I have chosen to enter into my hiddenness, my silence, and my solitude.

If you would serve Me, follow me into my Eucharistic state. Lose all that the world counts as something and become with Me something that the world counts as nothing."

(From Vultus Christi - In Senu Jesu, The Journal of a Priest

Monday Musings - The Power of a Few Words and a Simple Image

The Truth of the simple words and image stitched onto this tapestry, that hangs on the wall in the reception area of a Crisis Pregnancy Center located immediately adjacent to a Planned Parenthood abortuary, has the power to open blind eyes and soften the hardest of hearts.

Hey Central New Yorkers! - Join the Lay Dominicans In Our Day of Reflection - "Swimming in the Sea of Divine Mercy"

Please Join us and help spread the word!

DAY OF REFLECTION

"SWIMMING IN THE SEA OF DIVINE MERCY"

PRESENTED BY: FATHER DONALD H. KARLEN

[RETIRED PRIEST OF DIOCESE OF SYRACUSE AND ASSOCIATE PRIEST OF THE MADONNA HOUSE APOSTOLATE]

HOSTED BY: ST. AGATHA’S PARISH, CANASTOTA, NY

COME AND EXPLORE THE DEPTH AND BREADTH OF GOD’S MERCY THROUGH THE SPIRITUALITY OF CATHERINE de HUECK DOHERTY – FOUNDRESS OF THE MADONNA HOUSE APOSTOLATE - AS A PRELUDE TO DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY AND AS PART OF THE JUBILEE YEAR OF MERCY

WHEN: SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2016

WHERE: ST. AGATHA’S PARISH CENTER, WILSON AVE., CANASTOTA, NY

TIME: 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

COST: $15 PER PERSON includes coffee, fruit and pastry breakfast. BRING YOUR OWN BROWN BAG LUNCH

Day will consist of Morning Prayer, Morning and Afternoon Presentations by Father Karlen, Mass, Confession, Exposition of Blessed Sacrament with Dominican Rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet

Be an ambassador for your merciful Lord. Invite a family member or friend to join you!

ADVANCED REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT REQUIRED.

TO REGISTER AND/OR TO OBTAIN FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT MIKE SEAGRIFF AT (315) 510-6787 OR AT mseagrif@gmail.com

Podcast - I Am Confused. How About You?

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

There is confusion in the Church, no doubt, but is it due to the Church's "obstinate insistence" on preaching demanding moral principles?

Listen to find out what I think.

After you have done so, click this link, read Monsignor Pope's article, and then ponder this one question: Are Monsignor Pope and I wrong?.