Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I am excited to post my first podcast - one that I hope you will enjoy and which will lead to my posting others in the future. What do you tell a friend who has stopped attending Mass? Write him a letter. You can listen to it here.

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. Gregory the Great There are some who wish to be humble, but without being despised, who wish to be happy with their lot, but without being needy, who wish to be chaste without mortifying the body, to be patient without suffering. They want both to acquire virtues and to avoid the sacrifices those virtues involve; they are like soldiers who flee the battlefield an try to win the war from the comfort of the city.” (From Moralia ) St. Maria Faustina Kowalska “I will thank the Lord Jesus for every humiliation and will pray specially for the person who has given me the chance to be humiliated. I will immolate myself for the benefit of souls. I will not count the cost of any sacrifice, I will cast myself beneath the feet of the sisters, like a carpet on which they can not only tread, but also wipe their feet. My place is...

Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.   Go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey.     During the rest of each week visit Allison at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb . You will enjoy your time there. I offer the following post : This Is No Time to Water Down The Truths and Precepts of Jesus Christ (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I enjoy using In Conversations with God as a resource and tool to facilitate my understanding of, and reflection on, the daily Scriptures. Rarely is there a day that I do not gain something of value from this work. Today was no exception. In our current culture, we are urged to extraordinary (and often absurd) extremes not to offend anyone with our words - verbal or written. "Better not to offend someone's feelings," the monito...

"In order to be like You, who are always alone in the Blessed Sacrament, I shall love solitude and try to converse with You as much as possible. Grant that my mind may not seek to know anything but You, that my heart may have no longings or desires but to love You. When I am obliged to take some comfort, I shall take care to see that it be pleasing to Your Heart.  In my conversations, O divine Word, I shall consecrate all my words to You so that You will not permit me to pronounce a single one which is not for Your glory.... When I am thirsty, I shall endure it in honor of the thirst You endured for the salvation of souls.... If by chance, I commit some fault, I shall humble myself, and then take the opposite virtue from Your Heart, offering it to the eternal Father in expiation for my failure. All this I intend to do, O Eucharistic Jesus, to unite myself to You in every action of the day."  (St. Margaret Mary from Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament ) ...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) [Yesterday's Gospel (John 6:1-15) prompted me to re-read and re-post a brief reflection I had previously shared on a similar passage in Matthew (14:13-21)} The little that we have – be it in material goods, time  or talents – is sufficient for God’s work if, when He asks, we would just give whatever that is to Him. Take notice in today’s Gospel what He did with five loaves of bread and two fish! On the surface, it looked like Jesus was asking His Apostles to do the impossible – feed thousands of  people. He wasn’t. He was asking them to give Him what they had and He would make the impossible possible. God will never give us a task, no matter how daunting it may first appear, without giving us all that we need to complete it. The first step is our total surrender to, and trust in, His will for us. So let’s ask ourselves: Is there anything I am still holding on to and unwilling to give Him?