Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation

"Jesus could have limited His Presence only to the celebration of the Mass, but no! He wanted to make a permanent dwelling among us. Night and day He awaits us and offers Himself to us at all times. Like a tender mother, He opens His arms to us. He is there generously to give us His gifts. He is there to draw us to Him and lead us to paradise with Him. Oh! Let Us Go visit Him often." (St. John Bosco from 15 Days of Prayer With Don Bosco )

Am I understanding this correctly? Catholics have been poorly catechized for more than five decades. They do not know their Faith and very few  practice it. Their spiritual shepherds (for the most part) have not taught them the Faith.  Polls indicate that the majority of those claiming to be "Catholic" actually reject many of the Church’s teachings on such fundamental issues as the Real Presence of our Lord in the Sacred Eucharist, attendance at Sunday Mass, abortion, artificial insemination, contraception, euthanasia, the family, active homosexual lifestyle, same sex marriage and transgenderism. Yet these same shepherds who have failed to teach, fraternally correct or defend the fundamental Truths of our Catholic Faith are now going to listen to, and to seek the opinion of, “Catholics” who don’t know their faith, don’t live or practice their Faith, and even publicly oppose the teachings of the Catholic Church. They will also "listen" to the viewpoints of non-Ca...

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) "For 'My flesh is truly food and My Blood is truly drink.' People who only consider the Blessed Sacrament externally, with their senses, looking on it merely as food and drink, bread and wine, taste and know nothing of the precious fruits and unutterable sweetness hidden with it. All the other food we eat is a base and lifeless thing, deriving its worth only from the dignity of human life which it supports. But this noble food is living itself, and is the life of men. All those who are refreshed and nourished by it live eternally, as our Lord Himself says: 'Who eats My flesh and drinks My blood shall live forever.' When He said this, many of His friends left Him, because they did not understand what He said. 'Who can accept these words?' they asked. They tried to understand it with their intellects and so they left Him. This gift far transcends all natural understanding; when this food is eaten, the eater becomes one with what h...

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.         Pope Pius XI “…if Christ is to reign as King of nations, he must first reign totally as King of individuals…” Christ must reign in our minds - which must assent firmly and submissively to all revealed truth and to all Christ's teachings. He must reign in our wills - which should bow in obedience to God's law and precepts. He must reign in our hearts which turning aside from all natural desires should love God above all things and cling to Him alone. He must reign i n our bodies and our members which should serve as instruments of our souls sanctification.” (From Encyclical - Quas Primas)   Johann Tauler, O.P. “Dear children, to receive the Sacrament worthily is the best and finest thing that we can do, but to come to it unworthily and unprepared is the most terrible and sorrowful of all things.” ...

  ( Photo by Jacob Bentzinger on Unsplash ) "Holy Communion. How good is the Good God! He can take the place of everybody; He outlives any amount of ingratitude; He remains always the kind Father. Give yourself to Him with a holy abandonment which makes of your soul the blind child of God. His poor and happy beggar. If we knew our Lord better, how strong and full of life we should be! Cast yourself often at His feet, and, still oftener, into the divine fire of His Eucharist, and He will take care of you." (From A Eucharistic Handbook by Saint Peter Julian Eymard)  

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 .  Here is my contribution.   Eucharistic Reflection - Have You Been To This Place?   (Originally posted on August 11, 2020)   "When the soul has given itself up to God, He makes it suffer, and will make it suffer constantly. This will be hard! In order to take complete possession of the soul, God annihilates it, as it were, and takes its place. And as it is continually assailed by the temptation to find itself again, God gives combat, makes it suffer; He effaces the spirit, stifles the heart. Photo by Joshua Eckstein on Unsplash When the spirit will not surrender unconditionally, God plunges it into darkness, into temptations against faith, and hope and confidence. All peace is lost until the mind surrenders and totally renounces its own lights. Against such a state, the director can do nothing.   ...

We humans have suffered from selective deafness  from the moment God created us. Over the centuries, He has sent countless prophets to guide us, but we have ignored them. He sent His only Son and our ancestors killed Him. We continue to torment Him  with our sins and ingratitude. Few books that I have read have had more of an impact on me than God, A Woman and The Way , written in 1954 by Trappist, Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. Unfortunately, getting copies of this superlative book now is a challenge. Today, we are quick to blame our bishops and priests for the sorry condition of our world and God's Church. It is true that far too many of them can be justly criticized for not teaching and defending the Truth, for creating ambiguity in the Church's teaching where none existed, and for living lives inconsistent with their call to be alter Christus . But their failures, however, do not excuse our own. We lay folk far outnumber our ordained and flawed shepherds. As Father Raymond po...