​(If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic Monday Musings generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.)

The "New Evangelization" Must Begin With Us and In Our Homes

This letter might be a good place for the conversation to begin or to start anew:

For far too much time now, God has put it in my heart that I should write this letter.  I kept putting it off - that has become my specialty. Not a good thing to do.
  
Fortunately, our God is patient and persistent.  Even I can eventually catch on and do what He asks!  There is much that I have to share, but today I will be brief (maybe not quite as you would like) and to the point.
 
Ready?  I love you! I hope this is not startling news to any of you.  But I may never have clearly told you why.  It is simple - because God loved you enough to create you in His image and then to give each of you to me to love, cherish, teach and return to Him.  Just as we can reject Him, each of you could have easily rejected me.  But none of you did.  Each of you has chosen to love me – warts and all, good and bad – even at times when you may have had legitimate questions as to why you should.  No words can ever adequately express the enormity of what the gift of your love means to me. You see - each of you have loved me in the very same way that God loves you. 

Life here on this earth is but a temporary journey during which we have many questions.  The trials and struggles of our daily existence can sometimes weigh us down so heavily that we become despondent and wonder why our heavenly Father allows us to struggle so or permits such evil in this world.  Just as you have on occasion not understood what or why I may have asked you to do or not do something, it is okay to have the same feeling about God.   

Talk to Him!  Ask Him for answers to the questions and concerns you find most troubling and upsetting. There are answers He will give you if you will humble yourself to ask them and if you are willing to put aside your opinion until after you have read authentic explanations of what He actually teaches and why, not what others mistakenly say He taught.   

I certainly do not know everything (despite persistent vicious rumors to the contrary). No one does.  I believe God has allowed me to stay here among you so that I might finish the job He gave me and either accurately answer your questions on His behalf or refer you directly to someone or some resource that will honestly and reliably do so.
  
There is no other human being on earth that loves you more than I. At times I will disappoint you, but I will never ever mislead you about what God expects of us. I am not asking you to blindly accept everything that I tell you.  But I pray that your love for me will cause you to give thoughtful consideration to, and not lightly dismiss, what advice I may be moved to share with you from time to time. Too many times, I have been afraid and cowardly to do so.  Such fear and cowardice is offensive to God and deprives you of what an earthly husband and father must provide to those he loves.  If I am to be at spiritual peace here and with Him at the end of this life, I must cast aside that fear. 
 
Please never become upset with me when I share with you what is in my heart.  I have no choice.  God requires me to do so, even though there will be times when what I have to say may initially make you feel uncomfortable.  I am not judging you. I am simply loving you by obeying Him and sharing His Truth. Ultimately, you remain free to accept or reject that advice, just as you are free to respond or reject the graces that God offers you each day.  I will never love you any less than I do now.  With God’s grace I will love you more and more each day.  But you honor Him and me when you love us enough to thoughtfully think about what we share – since all that you and I do or fail to do here on this earth has eternal consequences. 
On the same token, you must continue to persistently (but lovingly) point out the many times that my actions are inconsistent with what I profess to believe or what I have tried to pass on to you as the Truth.  Since Blessed John Paul II felt it necessary to go to confession every day, I suspect that you will have many, many opportunities to help me out in that regard. If we love each other in this way, God will lead each of us to Him, we will find satisfaction in our earthly lives, and we will be together eternally - and isn’t that what this life is really all about? 
More than four years ago in a time of crisis and uncertainty,
you let me know how much you loved me.  

Your words profoundly touched my heart then and continue to remind me today how immensely God has blessed me. Let me love you as I ought and for however long I will be here with you. But keep me and all whom you love honest. Please do me and yourselves another favor.  Every now and then, reflect on the following Truths:
  
“God made you.” 
“He loves you.” 
“God wishes to spend eternity with you.” 
 
"You accept or reject Him and this great undeserved gift by the manner in which you exercise the free will He has given you. The choice as to where you spend your eternal life rests with you."
 
"Until then, He desires to physically unite Himself with you now, every time you receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in Holy Communion."
 
“You must live your life for Him.” 

“You can not do anything of eternal value by yourself!  You need Him and His graces.” 

One more thing - Would you begin each day with at least this little prayer:  

“Lord, help me to live and love like You.” 

Offered with all the love an imperfect man can muster.

https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2012/10/monday-musings-new-evangelization-must.html

I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

We appreciate the ongoing efforts of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to foster greater awe, amazement and belief in our Lord’s Real and Substantial Presence here among us in the Eucharist. 

The number of Eucharistic processions that have taken place throughout this nation have been heartening. The excellent homilies, posts, videos and testimonies of priests, religious and lay Catholics that our bishops have shared on social media have also been inspiring - no doubt countless souls have been touched.

We pray that the Church’s current efforts are reaching not just the choir but the millions of non-believing Catholics and former Catholics who inhabit this great nation.

How are we going to assess the success of these efforts?

Simple: If those professing to be Catholic believe that God is really, truly and substantially present in the consecrated hosts in our tabernacles, they will flock to be with Him – He who loves them and awaits their visit. They would never miss Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.

The reverent silence in our Churches evidencing such belief would be apparent and deafening. Parishes would increase the opportunities for hungry souls to make Holy Hours and adore their Lord. True believers would never leave Him abandoned and alone. Our Churches would never be empty! Someone would always be with our Lord, every hour of every day. 

Every parish in the world would have chapels of Perpetual  Eucharistic Adoration - the dream and request of our late and beloved St. John Paul II. 

​Does this describe the Eucharistic Revival which you are experiencing in your parish? If not, there are more souls to reach - more work to be done.

https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2024/12/monday-musings-do-you-really-believe.html

​I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

Yesterday was abortion day at our local Planned Parenthood center. Three of us were outside praying for the staff, the parents and the unsuspecting children encased in their mothers’ wombs.
​
It was bitterly cold. In fact, this is the first time over the past four years when I ever felt cold enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt and gloves. But it was not just the physical cold and wind that was bothersome. It was the pervasive coldness emanating from this place of death on this particular day. If you ever reverently touched the hand of a loved one or friend while praying farewell at their casket, you know the type of cold I am trying to describe.
​
It seemed more women than normal were entering this evil place and fewer were willing to interact with the sidewalk counselor this day. The honking horn and raised middle finger were auditory and visible evidence of the pleasure the evil one takes in using his minions to belittle and demean the handful who engage in this spiritual warfare.

Despair would be such an easy response to this on-going slaughter!

“What good are you fools doing?” one could imagine Satan whispering in our ears. “Look around! Count the number of woman who flock here! Where are your fellow parishioners? Oh, how happy I am when your pastors do not let you post flyers or notices in your Churches about your prayerful vigils. Where are your bishops and priests? How ecstatic I am when no prayer warriors show up!”

“I particularly relish your sense of helplessness and shame,” he might sneer, “when you approach those entering this evil place and they stop, look you right in the eye, and say 'Unless you are able to take care of me and this baby, get our of my way'.”

We have so few resources to offer these women. Why? Aside from the salvation of souls, is there any greater priority our Church should have than the protection of human life?

This is no time to despair or end our efforts to protect the dignity of all human life. We know that God in His perfect timing will end this slaughter of human life. Over the years we know, our prayerful presence has made a difference, not only in those women who have changed their minds and not followed through with a scheduled abortion, not only by the fact that a number of these death camps have closed forever, but also by the affirming words of support shared by other women who stop and let us know that we should never cease our prayerful witness in front of this place of death and deception, tearfully telling us that had we been there several years ago, they would never had aborted their child!

How have we as Catholics and as a society come to so devalue the gift of life? There are many reasons one might offer. But in my mind, the primary one is the same one that is at the source of the crisis in our Church – the lack of belief in the living Author of life, physically present with us until the end of time - His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity hidden behind the Sacred Host.

If we valued His Presence here among us, if we spent time before Him in the Blessed Sacrament, if we allowed Him to nourish and penetrate our souls, we could never be absent from the fight for life.

https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2017/09/worth-revisiting-cold-as-death.html#more

​I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

"… I will treasure more than anything else the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is often said that it is the Mass that matters. This means that Mass is the most important thing in the world. It is very true. But I really think that sanctifying grace matters most of all. Still, where do I get that from if not through the Sacrifice of the Cross which is continued in the Sacrifice of the Mass. I am afraid.  I do not think as highly of Holy Mass as I should. And this reminds me of a story I have often read about the Sacred linen in Greenland. It was in the sixteenth century. There had been a religious persecution in the island and all priests had been killed or driven out, so that for fifty years there was no Mass at all in Greenland.
​
After fifty years, there were still some scattered Catholics left. They used to meet every year for a Christmas celebration in a lonely house almost covered by snow. On one such night they all gathered together in the house. First, they said some prayers. Then an old man arose, went to a bureau, and took from it what used to be a white cloth, like a big, square napkin. Now it was yellow with age and tattered. It was a corporal, that linen cloth on which, during Holy Mass, rest the Body and Blood of Christ. The old man said: ‘Brethren, fifty years ago Mass was last said in this country. I served that last Mass. Let us kneel down and thank God for this precious relic, on which rested the Body and Blood of Jesus. And let us pray that God may send us priests to offer the Holy Sacrifice in our midst again.’

Tears streamed from all eyes as they knelt to pray. And all around me there are now so many churches and so many Masses are being offered. I do not think I value enough the chances that I have to assist at Holy Mass. Where there is a persecution and hearing Mass is forbidden under pain of torture or death, good Catholics nevertheless go to Mass, even if it is in caves under the ground.

Those good people in Greenland knelt down and thanked God for that precious Sacred linen. How happy and how devout they would have been if they could have bowed down before Jesus Himself in the Blessed Sacrament! And I am often so careless and thoughtless in my genuflections and in my way of kneeling or sitting or standing in the presence of my Eucharistic Savior. And it seems that the more I have to do around the Blessed Sacrament, the more like a pagan I become."
 
(The Way to God - Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.)

PRAYER TO BE PRESERVED FROM SUDDEN DEATH
MOST AMIABLE JESUS "I humbly implore Thee by Thy ignominious Scourging, The Crowning with Thorns, Thy Holy Cross, and by all Thy Goodness, not to permit me to pass out of this world without having received Thy most holy Sacraments." -Prayer of St. Vincent Ferrer

PRAYER OF ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA​
"Eternal Father, all things are possible for You. Although You created us without our assistance, You will not save us unless we help. Therefore, I pray You re-create their wills so that they wish for what they do not wish for: I ask this of Your infinite mercy. You have created us out of nothing. Now that we exist have mercy on us. Re-make the vessel which You created in Your own image and likeness. Bring them back to Your grace through the grace and blood of You Son, the beloved Jesus Christ."

​https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/2024/11/eucharistic-reflection-treasure-holy.html

I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

​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.

Alice Von Hildebrand
“The saint is precisely he who lives in constant and intimate communion with God, he who does not allow anything or anyone to separate him from God, he who victoriously links to God everything happening to him, sickness or health, poverty or wealth, infamy or fame from Solitude and Communion.
 (From Solitude and Communion)
 
 Ven. Fulton J. Sheen
“The forgiveness of sin is a greater manifestation of the power of God than the creation of the world. Creation makes something out of nothing. Forgiveness puts something into nothing. But the forgiveness that opens paradise is obtained as the thief obtained his, namely by asking for it. 
(From Lord Teach Us to Pray: A Fulton Sheen Anthology)

 Christine Watkins
 “Our Lady never shouldered any undertaking or spoke serious words without first aligning herself in prayer with the Lord’s will. As you go through your day, remind yourself to consult God before you speak or act, asking Him what He would have you do or say. “
(From Mary’s Mantle)

https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/​

I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.

“From My tabernacles abandoned by my children, I see so many of them passing by My churches everyday. They don't look at Me but I look at them. I follow them with My gaze everywhere just in case, by chance, they will turn to look at Me, encountering My gaze. Poor children! I see in their faces the weariness of carrying the heavy crosses. Even in the faces of those who pass by smiling, I can see the same weariness. The cross is very heavy! The incurable illnesses, lack of economic resources, the burden of debts, the suffering of family members, the torture of slander and false accusations, the passions, the remorse for their sins, and the thousands of difficulties of human life place much weight on such weak shoulders! Poor children! And when I see them pass by so overwhelmed, I say to Myself, ‘If they would see Me! If they could just see Me! How well we would understand each other.’

I would pick up the anxiety of their looks as a prayer, and I would take it to the celestial Father, who always says 'Yes' to Me. Then, how well paid they would be by the look I would give them.
But be careful! I will not always take away the cross that they carry. Their sinful flesh and arrogant spirit need the cross in order to gain My kingdom, which is the kingdom of the humble and purified. But without taking the cross away from them, how I would make it lighter, happier, fruitful and sanctifying. If my weary and overwhelmed children would decide to turn their eyes towards my Tabernacle every morning as they take up again their daily cross, they would receive great encouragement. They would hear, without sounds of words, but with an emphasis that would pierce their souls, My question to them from the Gospel: ‘Are you able…?’ And they would have the strength to reply. ‘We are’ (Mt 20:22).

Adorers, please have compassion toward them and toward Me and bring the afflicted to the Tabernacle.

(From the Bishop of the Abandoned Tabernacle- St. Manuel Gonzalez Garcia)

https://harvestingthefruitsofcontemplation.blogspot.com/

​I am blessed to be a Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole. I am neither responsible for, nor endorse content (e.g. banner ads, pop-up ads, etc.) that may be linked to this blog.