Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) 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. St. Theophilus of Antioch "God gives sight to those who are capable of seeing Him. This is because the eyes of their mind are open to Him. Everyone has eyes, but some people keep them screened from the light of the sun. They cannot see the sun at all. But even though the blind cannot see the sun, it continues to shine. So the people who can't see ought to blame their inability to see on their own defective vision."

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for another opportunity to re-publish our favorite posts on Worth Revisiting . Go there now (and every Wednesday) and be nourished spiritually. V isit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of each week.   You will enjoy your visit. I decided to share the following: Remembering Our Lady of Guadalupe  (Originally posted on December 12, 2014) While my wife and I were cleaning out our attic and basement a few weeks ago, we discovered a long lost treasure - photographs from a trip that my eldest daughter and I had taken to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City more than twenty-five years ago. At the time of that visit, the original Church built at the request of the Blessed Mother, was deemed unsafe to enter. A new modern structure – much larger had been erected nearby. I remember pausing in awe and ...

“If only we could comprehend the nearness of God, the incomparable grace of having Jesus for our companion in exile. He is so near that when He blesses us, the shadow of His Divine hand hovers over us. What does He seek? A relief from His sorrows and for that He begs the love of our hearts. Let Him rest then, let Him pour the sorrows of His soul into ours, we who want Him with a burning love of reparation . From the depths of the tabernacle, His lips still wet with the gall of our ingratitude, He calls by name those who have come during this Holy Hour to weep over all the people who disregard His mercies. How great is the sorrow that torments Him! But greater still, infinitely stronger, is the love which tortures Him…. Jesus : For a long time I have waited for you well beloved soul, to tell you of the love that consumes Me. I bless you because you have at last taken pity on your God in His loneliness. Tell me that My Heart has conquered yours. Assure Me th...

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for another opportunity to re-publish our favorite posts on Worth Revisiting . Go there now (and every Wednesday) and be nourished spiritually. V isit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of each week.   You will enjoy your visit. I share the following post: Who Will Step Up This Christmas and Speak the Truth in Love?  (Originally posted 12/9/14) [This is one of the two times each year when, I believe,  our Lord most dreads the silence that will envelop far too many of our parishes. Someone needs to give voice to His yearnings. Where is the zeal for the salvation of souls?  What follows is similar to some of my previous posts on this subject.] Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) Let us welcome with open arms the thousands who will flock to our Churches this Christmas – most especially those who rarely come to ...

O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, You are concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and You beat for us still... I worship You with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will. O my God, when You condescend to suffer me to receive You, to eat and drink You, and You for a while take up Your abode within me, 0 make my heart beat with Your Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness. So fill it with You, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Your love and Your fear it may have peace. Amen. (From The Sacred Heart -Meditations and Devotions ,   Part III [XVI} para. 3 by John Henry Newman)

[We MUST listen to Blessed John Henry Newman.  We MUST conduct ourselves with the utmost reverence every time we enter a Catholic Church since our loving Lord is really and substantially present there. It is His House!   We MUST understand why we come to, who is really present at, and what is actually happening during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Our continued failure to address these issues  jeopardizes the salvation of lost and confused souls.]   (Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) “…all we do in Church is done on a principle of reverence; it is done with the thought that we are in God's presence. But irreverent persons, not understanding this, when they come into Church, and find nothing there of a striking kind, when they find everything is read from a book, and in a calm, quiet way, and still more, when they come a second and a third time, and find everything just the same, over and over again, they are offended and tired. "Ther...

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for another opportunity to re-publish our favorite posts on Worth Revisiting . Go there now (and every Wednesday) and be nourished spiritually. V isit Allison at   Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb during the rest of each week.   You will enjoy your visit. Ponder this reflection: Eucharistic Reflection – He Is Whispering to Us (Originally posted on  January 15, 2014) (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "…to the humble man the rose is redder than to the ordinary man. I say with all humility, but with complete confidence, that to the devout believer in the Real Presence, the rose is redder than to other men, the sky is of a deeper blue, the meaning of life is more profound, the light on the path more intense, and the joy which is in the heart of things more easily apprehended. For God is not only in His heaven, not only present everywhere in the inscrutable immensi...