Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

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. Alphonus Liguori “Good friends find pleasure in one another's company. Let us know pleasure in the company of our best Friend, a Friend who can do everything for us, a friend who loves us beyond measure. Here in the Blessed Sacrament we can talk to Him straight from the heart.”  (From Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary ) St. Josemaria Escriva "For every soul is a wonderful treasure; every man is unique and irreplaceable. Every single person is worth all the blood of Christ." (From Christ Is Passing By ) St. Gertrude "They ought not to call my sweetest Jesus my only Son, but rather my first-born Son. I conceived Him first in my womb, but after Him, or rather, through Him, I conceived every one of you to be His brothers and to be my children, adoptin...

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 .  Stop by for a visit now .  God Is Always With Us, Isn't He? (Originally published August 20, 2013) ((St. Agatha's, Canastota, NY) (Photography©Michael Seagriff) We believe that God is always with us, don’t we? Isn’t He? Or do we believe that, only when things are going well? How often do we thank God for His blessings when our lives seem to be on the right track and our burdens light? Do we take Him for granted during those satisfying times?    What happens when we feel abandoned by God? How do we react when times are hard and challenging, when our daily crosses seem too heavy to bear? Do we accept them and thank God for sending them? Or like Gideon ( Judges 6:13 ) do we dou...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) "It is there in His Eucharist that He says to me: 'I thirst, thirst for your love, your sacrifices, your sufferings. I thirst for your happiness, for it was to save you that I came into the world, that I suffered and died on the Cross, and in order to console and strengthen you I left you the Eucharist. So you have there all My life, all My tenderness'." (Mother Mary of Jesus, Foundress of the Sisters of Marie Reparatrice)

[The end of the Church's liturgical year seems like a good time to revisit an earlier post which also is a chapter in my book, Fleeting Glimpses of the Silly, Sentimental and Sublime .] Let me repeat some obvious truths. God is more powerful than any of us. He draws each of us to Himself. He wants to excite our hearts. He longs to fill our minds and souls with the Truth. He desires that we yield ourselves totally to His will. We are often reluctant to do so because we know we may be mocked, laughed at and persecuted.  In truth, our fidelity to God and His Word may bring us pain and suffering. It is so difficult to follow Him. At times we don’t want to do as He asks. What He wants from us sometimes seems too painful, too difficult, and too burdensome. We want to flee and hide from Him.   But we can’t. He is everywhere. He has given us Himself.   Our salvation and that of others hinges on our sharing and living this Truth. So we must go on - imperfectly and inconstan...

Not A Mere Remembrance On October 13, 1917, more than seventy thousand individuals watched (many in absolute terror) as the sun danced in the sky before plummeting towards frightened onlookers. Many expected to die. Just as suddenly, the sun stopped its deathly spiral and returned to its normal perch, sitting passively in the sky – just a portion of the miracle Our Lady of Fatima had promised her three young seers, Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco. Although we recently marked the 100 th anniversary of this supernatural event, relatively few people in the world even knew it had occurred and of those who did, not nearly enough of them have heeded our Blessed Mother’s call to prayer, repentance and penance. Tragically, our heavenly Mother’s appearances and pleas have been, for the most part, forgotten or ignored. But not by Jean M. Heimann. This well-respected author wanted to not only memorialize this great miracle but to do something about the world’s amnesia, moral decay and...

(Image source: Father Lawrence Lew, O.P .)

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 .  Stop by for a visit now .  My contribution this week: Eucharistic Reflection - Dominus Vobiscum (Originally published June 14, 2016) Here is what the poet P. Claudel read into the priest’s imploring look as he turned to the people and recited the words Dominus vobiscum (The Lord be with you): (Image source: Wikimedia Commons) The Lord is with you, my brothers! My brothers, did you hear me? My little flock, it is not only the paten, it is not only the chalice with the wine, it is you—the whole of you—that I would like to hold and raise in my hands... See, the collection plate is coming round. Have you nothing else to give, e...