Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"The Passion of our Savior did not end on Golgotha, it is perpetuated on the altar and in souls. But in the same manner as the divine mercy has caused a source of redemption to pour forth from the wounds made at Calvary, so a fresh abundant source of grace will flow out anew from the wounds reopened by ungrateful humanity. Actually, Gethsemane and Calvary are renewed again on our altar! On Holy Thursday the dungeon was an hour of darkness. May it be here an hour radiant with light! That hour of Judas was an hour of hate, of crime. May it now be an hour of praise, love and reparation. Let us go forth to meet Jesus in His agony. Let us watch one hour with Him. Our companionship will repair the great and numerous sins which reopens His wounds. " (Rev. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC. from Twenty Holy Hours )  

"My dear children, contemplate My Heart weighed down with a mysterious sadness in this divine Host. Imagine you can hear It beating, steadily out of love. See the flames of love with which It is on fire. Here in the Host is My Heart, all on fire with love for you and you alone. Unable to hold back any longer the burning desires with which It is filled, I have willed that My Heart be delivered up even to those who have pierced It through and through with the cruel sword of ingratitude. Behold this Heart, beloved friends, I give It to you in exchange for your poor and ungrateful hearts! O, if you only knew the thirst for love which consumes Me in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist! Up until now I have too often been like a King in a vast desert, a Monarch too often forsaken and ignored. But now the hour marked by Providence for My victory has arrived. Now I come as a conqueror and in spite of Satan and his agents I will overcome the world by the omnipotence of My adorable Heart....

For some days now, I have been reading and pondering excerpts from an outstanding book written by Father Timothy Gallagher, O.M.V. entitled Overcoming Spiritual Discouragement - The Wisdom and Spiritual Power of Venerable Bruno Lanteri . This is a book I highly recommend. Given the chaos in our Church, country and world - all rooted in our having turned our hearts, minds and souls away from God and His eternal Truths and, for the most part, in our having individually and as a Church, remained silent in the presence of evil - the following words of Venerable Lanteri which I read this morning, seem most timely: "I do not live except for the glory of God; to this alone I must dedicate all my abilities of soul and body. And when it is necessary to think, speak and labor for God, to give my very life, let all be lost, let whatever will happen, happen: This I must do." These were not just abstract words of Venerable Bruno. A time came when the pope was held captive by Napoleon, and...

 

A happy and blessed New Year to all who visit here!   [I thought this post was worth sharing again.]   A Different Kind of New Year's Exercise  (Originally posted on January 1, 2018) Those who visit here, know how blessed I have been over the years to spend time in retreat at the Abbey at the Genesee in Piffard, New York. [If you missed those posts and wish to take a peek, you can find them  here , here ,  here  and here .] (Image Source: Abbey at the Genesee) This present post was prompted by an e-mail I received last week from the Abbey’s Retreat House manager, reminding me of what a perfect time of the year it is to visit this Trappist monastery. He enclosed this breathtakingly beautiful image of our Blessed Mother located near the entrance door to the Abbey. Since death can occur at any time and since we must always be prepared for it, the beginning of this new year seems an appropriate time for me to highlight some o...

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. Venerable Fulton J. Sheen “Notice, too, that at the crib, only two classes of people found their way to Christ when he came to this earth: the very simple, and the very learned - the shepherds who knew that they knew nothing, and the wise men who knew that they did not know everything; never the man who thought that he knew. (From The Life of Christ )   Catherine de Heuck Doherty, Servant of God “God the Father is angry at the rejection of the words of his Son, and only the prayers of the Mother of God and the intercession of Jesus Himself are holding back God’s arm from striking.”  (From Musings About COVID by Father David May)   C.S. Lewis “As you perhaps know, I haven’t always been a Christian. I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make ...

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons )   “See how proud men pass before My altar, seeking the esteem and applause of men. They pass by preferring a fleeting honor to My love. I am relegated to the shadows of My sanctuary from whence I utter these words: Learn of Me for I am humble and poor . Yes, poor because I have renounced the wealth of the world to open the treasures of the eternal paradise to you. I have become the poorest of the poor. Out of love I have become a Beggar. That is why I am despised by the world which makes a god of gold and money. To the world I am as a nobody, because I was born in a stable and lived in the obscurity of Nazareth; because I died in the destitution of Calvary; because I continue to relive these humiliations in the Eucharist. I am a rejected pauper and the miserable, perishable goods of this world are preferred to Me.” (From Twenty Holy Hours by Rev. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS.CC.)