Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

  (Photo©Michael Seagriff)

  (Image Source: Hands At Mass ) “The Eucharist is the fundamental norm for our actions. Jesus’ Eucharistic sacrifice is our ideal, our guiding principle, our rule. A rule that is much more demanding than a monastery rule, since it does not leave anything in life unaffected. When we wonder how we shall act, the answer is: ‘Look at the Eucharist!’ There is the Christian life in its fullness. The Christian ethic is a Eucharistic ethic . Jesus has instituted the Eucharist so that we will have His sacrifice in our midst as a constant source of inspiration and a clear reference point. The Eucharist is the criterion when it is a question of judging our actions! Are they or are they not in accord with the Eucharist? Christians have always known that the Eucharist must bear fruit in daily life if one does not wish to be ‘a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal’ (1 Cor 13:1). But in the last decades, the Church has become evermore aware that the Eucharist is intended to penetrate everything ...

  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. Catherine of Siena “Do you know dearest daughter, how I raise the soul out of her imperfections? Sometimes I vex her with evil thoughts and a sterile mind. It will seem to her that I have left her completely, without any feeling whatever. She does not seem to be in the world, because she is in fact not there; nor does she seem to be in me because she has no feeling at all other than that her will does not want sin. I do not allow enemies to open the gate of the will that is free. I do let the devils and other enemies of humankind beat against other gates, but not against this, which is the main gate guarding the city of the soul. I do not will the soul’s death as long as she is not so stupid as to open the gate of her will. They cannot enter unless her own will chooses to let them in.” (From The Dialogue )   ...