Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

Thank you Allison Gingras at  Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for  hosting Catholic bloggers at  Worth   Revisiting . It is a privilege for us to share our work with you and your readers .    Here is my contribution this week:   Monday Musings - Listen to Him! (Originally posted on August 21, 2018) "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) “We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and f...

In the first ages of the Church, as Justin, Tertullian and other spiritual writers relate, the faithful were permitted to take the Sacred Hosts with them to their homes, so that if captured for martyrdom, they might yet communicate. Even on their journeys these faithful Christians did not wish to be separated from their Lord, and for this reason they carried the Holy Eucharist with them, so that although far from a priest or church, they could still venerate the Blessed Sacrament. (Photo©Michael Seagriff) Interesting anecdotes could be mentioned of the hermits who took the Holy Eucharist with them into the desert. And nowadays, alas, so many Christians who live near the church do not find a moment's time to pay a visit to their Lord! But they have plenty of leisure for worldly visits, for useless conversations or harmful reading. To them apply the words which St. John Chrysostom addressed to his people. 'What excuse shall we have, or how shall we obtain pardo...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "The first thing required for a worthy Communion is that one recognize, with great humility, that no human efforts will suffice to make this preparation if God does not assist him. As no one can dispose himself for an increase of grace without grace, so no one can prepare for the reception of God but God. Therefore, one should beg Him with humble and burning desires to cleanse and purify the house where He is going to dwell. To do this as we ought, the first thing required is freedom from mortal sin. The Apostle strongly said that whoever eats the bread or drinks the chalice of the Lord unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. In other words, those who approach Communion in the state of mortal sin commits a sin comparable to the sin of those who crucified Christ, because both are sins  against the body and blood of Jesus, although in different ways. Moreover, what can follow from the union of two different things such ...

[Oh, how so many of us take our Lord for granted by ignoring His Presence here among us. In doing so we offend Him Who is the Source of Love and, at the same time, deprive ourselves needlessly of His love, grace and support.  May the following quotation from S tirring Slumbering Souls - 250 Eucharistic Reflections open our eyes, minds and souls to our neglect]:   "I recall the strange and touching story of Saint Alexis. When he was young he left home and then, because God inspired him to do so, came back to the house of his parents in Rome dressed up like a poor and unknown beggar. There he lived in some miserable old corner of the house for seventeen years; and his parents never knew that it was he. But when he died they found out. It seems he left a note or something telling them what he had done in penance for his sins, because God wanted him to. How that mother wept when she found out that the beggar was her son. She had missed him so much and had...

  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. John Vianney   "Are you there [at Mass] with the same dispositions as Our Lady on Calvary, realizing that you are in the presence of God Himself and are present at the enactment of that very same sacrifice?”  St. Catherine of Siena    "It is not enough for eternal life to sweep the house clean of deadly sin. One must fill it with virtue that is grounded in love, and not merely in fear.” (From The Dialogue )  St. Vincent de Paul   “When once we have placed ourselves totally in the hands of God, we have no cause to fear misfortune; for if any should come to us, He will know how to make it turn to our good by ways which we do not know now, but which, one day, we shall know.”  (From A Year With the Saints - A Virtue For every Day of the Year ) ...