**Following Christ Better Aim

         Trying to be a good Christian is fine, but to be more precise and effective, follow his will at all times. 

**Eternal Gratitude**

         Communion time thought: Who am I that the Lord should favor so much as to die in my place to save me from eternal death? 

**Most Beautiful Gratifying Emotion:

love and yearning for the LORD.

***Compelling Reason We Need Christ**

            He can perfect us and grant us eternal life.

**The Ball Is in Our Court**

        Jesus is fully ready to save us. The key question for us: Are we ready to let him do that? 

**To Be Dumb by Choice*

        The Lord God wishes that we surrender ourselves to him so that we may have life eternal, but our prideful nature comes up with all kinds of reasons to say no to that. How dumb can you get?

***Only Move You Need to Make**

        If you love God, you only need to be open and totally receptive to him. This puts you in a most humble state and the Lord will come to you and reveal himself to you, leading you to trust and obey him fully.

***Just Believing in God Good Enouigh?

        If you do believe in the Lord, do you actually feel that you need him for all things at all times? This is important, for you can believe in him and still do all things without consulting him. Of course, if you are already in union with him, you'd be aware of his holy presence within you constantly. 

**Blunt Truth**

        Anytime we lose peace, we have strayed away from the Lord. This is how he has made us so that we may seek to return to him. 

***Christ (Truth) Makes All the Difference**

        When you have Christ, he guides and guards you every step of the way, leading you to eternal life in heaven for sure. When you don't have him, you try your best to find happiness on earth in vain, not knowing what awaits you after death. The difference can't be any greater!

**Pity the Evildoers*

         When you do evil, not only you don't experience a single moment of peace in this life, but you also suffer eternal punishment in the next. Evildoers are the dumbest of all fools!

***Letting Joy Spearhead Our Way*

        Joy in the cure for all our past pains and sufferings. In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus uses the example of a woman in labor to inform his disciples that they would grieve, but their grief would become joy. He said to them, "When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world." Now we all know once we have entered heaven, all past painful memories will be forgotten, for nothing can possibly diminish the joy of eternal life! So let us start rejoicing in the Lord always to become invulnerable to whatever pains and hardships we experience, allowing the joy of the Lord to spearhead the rest of our way to heaven.

***Goal of All Christians*

        Only the God of Christ can make us holy and perfect and see things as he sees them. As long as we all have not yet yielded ourselves totally to the Lord, we still see things our way. The result is that we still hold onto our own pride to various degrees. One time I counseled someone, citing a saying by Jesus, and was accused of judging by that person. The goal for all Christians remains letting the Lord perfect us.

**Common Sense Talk

         Follow Christ and you'll have eternal life. Reject him and you'll be lost forever. If you don't believe that God exists, then you just don't know the truth, remaining ignorant. There are people who believe that there is a God, but have no idea what that God is like, they are being ignorant as well. How's your common sense? Are you wise or foolish?  

***Reminding All Christians***

         We have a Lord who loves us to death and with whom nothing is impossible! So live to show that you believe in this truth!

**God's Assurances**

        In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "You will grieve, but your grief will become joy." We know that eternal joy awaits all of us who follow Jesus faithfully. Today's Communion antiphon, Matthew 28:20—Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, alleluia. So Jesus is always with us! Knowing these two truths is enough to make us feel carefree our whole life!

**Unending Joy**

        The Lord God being infinite, the beauty of Christ knows no bounds. Thus we get to enjoy the Lord increasingly—this in itself is a great joy!

***Beautiful True Paradoxes*

        (1) The more we surrender ourselves to God, the more freedom we experience. (2) When we humble ourselves, we get exalted by God. (3) When we admit that we are weak before God, we become strong in him. (4) The richer we become with material things now, the poorer we'll be later on. (5) When we suffer for the Lord willingly, we are consoled by him.