Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

T hank you  Elizabeth Riordan at  Theology Is A Verb   for hosting Worth Revisiting each week. It is a privilege to share our work with you and your followers .    A Great Day To Give Thanks To Our Ever-Present Lord and St. Albert the Great!  (Originally posted November 15, 2015) (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) November 15 is the feast day of St. Albert the Great (1206-1280). Who was this noted Dominican friar?    The following brief summary from the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic ( St. Joseph ’s Province) highlights some of his accomplishments: “German Bishop, theologian of renown, philosopher, scientist, diplomat, inventor, teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas…crisscrossed his diocese on foot and so nicknamed “Doctor Boots by his contemporaries. “Universal Doctor’ of the Church…”     He was also the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas! Today also marks the beginning of the nineteenth year of Perpetual Euch...

What shall we say about the Eucharistic meekness of Jesus? How to express in words His kindness in receiving everybody; His affability in stooping to the level of everybody, the poor and the ignorant; His patience in listening to what everybody has to say and lending ear to the tale of all our troubles; His kindness in Communion in which He gives Himself according to the disposition of each one, and comes to all with joy, provided He finds  in them the life of grace and some little feeling of devotion, or a few good desires, and at least a minimum of respect! How express His generosity in giving every communicant the amount of grace he can carry and in paying for the soul's hospitality with His peace and love. And what patient and merciful meekness towards those who forget Him! He waits for them. He prays for those who spurn and offend Him; but He does not complain, nor does He threaten them. He does not punish at once those who outrage Him sacrilegiously, but tries to w...

A Forgotten Truth :  "The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy." - St. John Henry Cardinal Newman: A Catholic Church must be unlike any other building in the world because God resides there. A Catholic Church is holy ground. All who enter must conduct themselves in  a manner consistent with being in the Presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must enter, remain and exit it in reverent and total silence. God deserves nothing less. In far too many of our Catholic parishes we have lost the sense of the sacred and an appreciation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that are both essential for fostering and maintaining a belief in the Real Presence. We have forgotten how to pray.   We have forgotten how to act while we are in Church and no one teaches or corrects us. Many ignore He Who is Love to engage in inane chatter on to...

  “We all have in him [St. Joseph] a model and a protector. As adorers of the Sacramental Jesus, we continue near the Blessed Sacrament his service, his adoration and his love. He will watch over us and give us his spirit and virtues. Leading us to Jesus, he will say to Him: ‘I cannot be on earth any longer to watch over You and serve You, but bless these adorers who are replacing me; give them the graces You gave me, so that their service may recall and replace mine.’ How happy St. Joseph is to see us crowding about Jesus in His Sacrament, feeble, abandoned, persecuted, more in need of defenders and servants than in His Infancy…” (St. Peter Julian Eymard)

Let us have an adult conversation: Our God does not need any of us, not even for a millisecond. Yet, as Jesus hung from the cross more than 2000 years ago, He let us know He was thirsty – not a physical thirst - but an unquenchable spiritual thirst as our Lord, Savior and Redeemer to be loved by those He created and for whose eternal benefit He died.  In the ensuing centuries, not enough of us have made sufficient effort to quench His thirst. For the most part, many of us ignore His plea to love Him as He loves us. He still thirsts for our love. He is still waiting for us to love Him! Has He not waited long enough? Why have so many of us been unwilling to quench His thirst? There is only one credible and honest answer to that question - one that should make each of us uncomfortable but spur us to action: If we really believed Jesus Christ was truly here with us, we would go visit Him. Nothing would prevent us from doing so. We would not permit a...