*Good Knowing Where We Are

        In today's first reading from 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, "For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him." Amen. It's good to be reminded that we are in the light, wide awake, know what's going on and what's to come, and are not destined for God's wrath. Most of all, that Christ is with us! 

***Amidst Your Most Beloved***

        Jesus is the Most Beloved Son of the Father. When the Father loved us so much that he gave his Most Beloved Son so that we who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life, we are most beloved by the Father too. This love of the Father that can save us surely can transform us. It is this love we want to be immersed in forever. With your most beloved all around you, there's nothing more you can ask for.

***Letting God Alone Be Judge***

        At Fatima, the Holy Mother gave us this prayer to add to the Rosary: O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the the fires of hell; lead all soul to heaven, especially those who are in most need of your mercy. Note that God wants us to pray for the worst evildoers. Christ came to us precisely to save those who needed his mercy. So what we are asked to pray is completely in line with his teaching: "Do not judge," "Forgive others," "Love your enemies." Any of us who wish that all evildoers go to hell, instead of praying for their salvation, forgets that God's mercy is for all. Therefore, repent to let God alone be our judge.

***Most Beautiful Bonding***

        People say that a good marriage happens between two people who are different from each other, but can complement each other. This doesn't sound quite right to me. Then you hear said that a happy marriage happens when the couple share the same interest in many things. There's more truth in that. Let me say that the best and most beautiful bonding between any two people, in marriage of not, whether they are different or share the same interests, takes place when both of them surrender themselves to God. When you become one with the Lord, you truly become one with each other. Thru God, all barriers are overcome. Any bond God has created, no one will be able to break. 

**What Matters and What Doesn't*

        Suppose you know that you'll be entering heaven tomorrow, I am sure you would feel so happy and forget all the troubles you have now on earth. On the other hand, suppose you know that the world will end tomorrow, depending upon the state of your soul, you'd either welcome or be terrified of that, but all the troubles you have now would likewise be forgotten. Both our death and the end of the world will happen. Looking at them in advance can help us see what truly matters and what doesn't.

*Two Modes of Living

        For those who live for themselves, they work hard to achieve their goals, doing what they want to do. Of course, they'll have setbacks and get frustrated. This is not exactly happy living. In the end, they'll find no treasure stored up in heaven. It's is a life laboring for nothing. On the other hand, we have those who live for the heavenly Father alone, following only his will. Whatever happens to them in this life they know will be taken care of by him. They simply delight in trusting in him. And it's just a matter of time that they'll soon be with all the treasures they have stored up in heaven.

**Continuing Spiritual Warfare

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." All were amazed at his words. They also asked, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" Then he told them that no prophet was accepted in his own native place. When they heard it, they all got furious, rose up and drove him out of the town. Fast forward to the present and we see that people are trying to keep Jesus out of their lives, despite the fact that he has come and given us the best possible news. It shows that people haven't "improved" after two thousand years. The spiritual warfare rages on and it'll have to come to a resolution. I believe that we are entering that final phase now.

***Jesus Will Always Be Around

        I like good music and the works of the greatest composers are still being listened to today after a couple of centuries or so. Of course, the works of the lesser ones are heard less often. And there are so many other composers completely forgotten. Now, Jesus will always be remembered, for he has always existed and cannot go away. Without him, nothing would have come into being. Dismissing him is impossible and will make you look like that you are the one who should be dismissed.

**What's Moments Away from You?

        Fr. Goring said one thing in his video Eternity Is Moments Away today that was poignant to me. He said "heaven is just moments away." It's true and if this makes you happy, you are on the right track. Happy is the one who dies and sees heaven right there. Of course, hell can be moments away too. Make absolutely sure that your are only moments away from heaven!

*Happy with My God

        Today's Communion experience. When I saw that the bread was consecrated to become the body of the Lord, I knew that this transformation could transform me into a new creature in him. I was totally happy with my God. 

***God Has Made Us Worthy!

        During the liturgy of the Eucharist, when the wine was being transformed into the blood of our Lord, I realized that I had been redeemed with His Most Precious Blood! So I am loved and treasured by the Lord and I must love and treasure myself too. He's the One who deems that I am worthy to be saved! And he deems the same about everyone of you who read here. God bless you all most abundantly.

*Not Wanting to Sin at Any Time

        When I used to serve in the homebound ministry and carried the Holy Eucharist on me periodically to visit the homebound to give them Communion, the awesome feeling that the Lord was with me made me not want to sin. Today at Mass I realize that even though I no longer carry the Lord on me, he is ever present before me, actually dwelling within me, so I really should not want to sin at any time. Good thing is that the Lord has already taken away my tendency to sin; for that I am most grateful.  

*Our Perfect Response to God

        God is precise, never vague, for truth remains the same forever. He asks us to do what we should do; no more, no less. So we should be precise too and be perfectly obedient to him. By the way, this is how we gain inner peace.

**To be Ready and Perfect

        The Lord wants us to be ready when he comes. Today I see that to be ready is to be perfect. So he want us to be perfect when he shows up. Come to thing of it, he did ask his disciples to be perfect just as the heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

***Learning from the Lord a Joy!

      Learning truth from the Lord has always been refreshing and enlightening. Today I see that all this learning is God's way of making you perfect and there's still so much, much more we can learn! This is getting really exciting! What a privilege and a joy it is to let Almighty God mold and shape you to his heart's content!

***To Be Prepared or Not, Our Choice

        Jesus wants us to remain vigilant and be prepared, for at an hour we don't expect, he will come. This applies to all the current prophesied warnings too. Naturally, for those who are always ready, there'll be nothing to fear. But for those who do not heed his advice, whatever is to come will come at an hour they do not expect and it'll be too late from them. We've been thus warned since Christ came two thousand years ago. So if we get stricken unexpectedly, we truly asked for it.

***It Is Interesting that . . .

Satan is now fiercely attacking the Catholic Church and not any other religion. The reason should be obvious.         

*****IMPORTANT INFORMATION

        Jesus is the only one who can save us from damnation, and for that matter, make us perfect now and forever.

***How to Defeat Evil***

        These are evil times for sure. One indication is the number of phone calls I get at home obviously from scammers. Receiving at least half a dozen such calls a day is not uncommon. I believe that most people are aware of the prevalence of evil, but they talk or worry about it, wondering what they can do. I think this is the perfect time for us to wake up spiritually, realizing that only God can help us overcome evil. When Mary in the first video of my last post asks us to settle things as soon as possible, she doesn't mean settling earthly things. Instead she wants us to settle our relationship with God. This is most important. When evil is widespread, it's the perfect time to seek union with God to get our soul secured. When Satan cannot touch our soul, he's already beaten. So, seek refuge in the Lord right now.

***Solving Our Biggest Problem

        The biggest problem mankind must deal with is sin. Since we are all sinners and "love" to sin, this problem is impossible for us to solve on our own. We are always struggling with whether to sin or not to sin. Because of it, the world has become a chaotic, godless "sinhole" which can easily sink our souls. It's obvious that we cannot be truly happy here. The great news is that Christ can get us into heaven when we depart this life, for he created the earth and all of us and is the only one who can take away our sins. When we are freed from sin, we become free indeed.

***A Much Better Choice*

         People put off facing God and focus upon reaping rewards in this life. But it'd be infinitely better for them to get to know God now and be rewarded with eternal life later. 

***To Stand Before the Lord

          What Jesus said in today's Gospel acclamation, Like 21:36, is especially appropriate for us now: "Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent and to stand before the Son of Man." The tribulations are already here, but we'll still need to stand before Christ one day. And that won't be easy unless we are ready. Actually, the Lord is before us at all times; therefore, the smart move would be to get ready now so that we'll be ready anytime he calls us to stand before him.

***What God Needs from Us

        We hear a lot of horrible news daily. Look at the current Afghanistan situation. What can we ordinary citizens do about it. We can voice our opinions and protest, etc., but evil has infiltrated our government, our Church, and our societies. It all comes down to whether we obey God or not. So the best action we the faithful can take is still to pray extra hard and convert ourselves first, thus lending the Lord maximum support. The Lord needs our allegiance and obedience most of all. To surrender ourselves to him must be our first priority and this is the perfect time to do that when he needs us most. This way, the Lord can make things turn out best for him and all of us. Yes, our faith and trust are crucial to his and our success. 

**Interesting phenomenon

***Our Greatest Joy

         Looking back on my past, I recall the emergencies, unpleasant situations, stressful times, physical and mental sufferings, etc., which I had gone thru. But since I have finally found Christ to be my dear Lord and God, all those experiences no longer matter. In fact, I am thankful that it was thru them that I was lead to the truth. Once you have the truth, you are so happy that nothing else matters anymore. It's like once you get to heaven, your life on earth, no matter how miserable it might have been, is all forgotten. The eternal God is all we need to have, for he is our greatest joy!

**Inescapable from God

        It is an inescapable fact that we cannot avoid, hide from, or get away from God ever. His presence is more certain than our own existence, for he created the universe, us, and everything else. Therefore, to live as if God doesn't exist makes you the greatest fool in the whole universe, which is exactly what Satan wants.

***Our Last Times

         In another prophetic message, we are warned that these times thru which we are living will be our last on earth. This adds great urgency to our times now. The time to repent and convert is now, not later! I surely do not wish to be caught unprepared unexpectedly, for the consequences would be unimaginable. God has been so kind and patient. If we get shut out of his kingdom, we have only ourselves to blame.

**Doing It for God

         We do a lot of things to please ourselves, but things don't always turn out the way we'd expected. Then we become unhappy. It can be like that our whole life. Here's the superior way. I see myself as a servant of the Lord, so my duty is to serve him. Even if I must do something that's unpleasant but necessary, I see it as serving him and it becomes easy, and I even feel honored. This way, no matter how things turn out, I retain peace. Of course, the reward you'll receive in the end will literally be out of this world.

***No Longer Amazed by God

        I already know that God is so great, so loving, and that nothing is impossible for him. To me, it's obvious that no one, nothing, can possibly be more amazing than our God. Therefore, he no longer amazes me.

**How Much Do You Know the Lord?

        John 10:27, today's Gospel acclamation: My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me. Of course, following Jesus has to be following him willingly and gladly, not in any way forcing yourself to do it. If that's the case, then you and the Lord know each other well. Otherwise, you don't know him well enough yet. Life is all about how much we and the Lord know each other. Do you know that if you let him know all of you, he reveals all of himself to you too?

***Rejecting the Greatest Offer

        God has sent his only begotten Son to us to die for us so that we may have eternal life. This is a huge deal. So if we reject the Son, we reject God's love for us, and you can be sure that this would cause serious consequences.

*****The Transformation That Perfects Us

        I attended the 8 AM Mass. Fr. S gave a great uplifting homily. During the liturgy of the Eucharist, the bread and wine were transformed into the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. I saw that this was the transformation that could perfect our own transformation. Thank you and praise be to you, my Lord and God.

***No. 1 Prayer Request***

        With the world in disarray, the things we need to pray for seem to be endless. Then I heard the Lord asking us to pray for our own submission to him first. If we are still in rebellion and ask him to make the world peaceful for us, he'd be less inclined to take us seriously. But if we are in total union with him, he would fulfill all our desires without our asking. Once we all put our own house in order, there'd be nothing for us to be concerned about. 

***Massive Crime Against Humanity

        I have shown that in this country, since abortion was legalized in 1973, over 60 million babies had been aborted through 2017 (see my video). The US population of 2017 was around 325 million. If there had been no abortion, the population would have exceeded 385 million. Not counting the abortions that took place before legalization, we can say that in 2017 at least close to 16% of the US population never lived to see the daylight (60/385=15.84%). This has to be a massive crime committed against humanity and, of course, God.

**Way to Peace and Joy

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus said to the crowds and disciples, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." This great counsel not only shows the way to entering heaven, but also helps me in living my daily life. For example, right now I may get the chance to exhibit my photographs at a museum. (Someone proposed that for me.) That would be nice, giving others the pleasure of looking at some beautiful images. I should feel excited about that, right? Well, not really. If it interferes with my spiritual life and/or get me exalted, it wouldn't be good for me. So I remain calm about the the whole thing. If I don't get that chance, I wouldn't feel disappointed at all. It's in God alone that you find true peace and joy. 

***Rendering Satan Powerless*

        Do you know that you can totally control Satan? If you decide to fight any temptation head-on, believing that you are strong enough, you'll lose. The smart way to beat Satan is to seek refuge in the Lord and Satan won't be able to touch you. God may allow him to attack you to test you, but if you ignore him, you'll be completely safe. 

*****The Process of Spiritual Growth*****

        Many of us are sincerely trying to grow spiritually. Here is some good encouraging news. If you try on your own, you'll find making progress hard and slow. But if you surrender yourself to God first, the whole game changes because Almighty God is now involved. This change does not happen quickly, as surrendering to God is not normally our cup of tea. But you will definitely experience that the more you submit yourself to God, the easier it becomes to do his will. Amazed by your own progress, the surrendering process starts to accelerate and you start to fall in love with God. Eventually, you come to know and love the Lord so much that you abandon yourself completely to him. With the aid of the Holy Eucharist, union with God is attained. At this point, growing spiritually becomes effortless, since you are finally letting the Lord do all the work for you. What a joyful state!

*****Power of the Holy Spirit*****

        Today Fr. Goring talks about invoking the Holy Spirit in his video. In the last part beginning at 1:39, the message given by the Lord thru St. Maryam completely resonates with me; it is beautiful. We need to pray to the Holy Spirit daily asking him to renew us. Then miracle will happen! I can personally testify to that. (Note that it was by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, that Jesus was first conceived and later raised from the dead. Surely this same Spirit can transform us into holy saints.)

***God, the Source of Mercy*

         From God, his mercy pours out on all of us. Without his mercy, we are doomed. With his mercy, we are saved. His mercy is essential to our existence. Take advantage of it, for it's free and infinite, but you'll have to want it. Acknowledge that your survival is totally dependent upon his mercy. Pray "Lord, have mercy on us" unceasingly. When we appreciate God's mercy, we are saved! The evildoers are to be pitied for ignoring or rejecting this life-saving gift that comes from heaven. Pray the Divine Mercy chaplet. Read St. Faustina's Diary, a beautiful inspiring book. Love the Lord and rejoice in his great mercy!

**Learning How to Love from God*

        God is so loving that he wants us to love our enemies. He wants us to pray for the conversion of all evildoers, his enemy, and not wish them ill. This is something we followers need to learn from the Lord. To wish ill on anyone shows that we do not know how great God's love is yet. To learn from God is learn how he loves. God does not want us to condemn anyone. That's why he does not want us to judge anyone. If we hate anyone, we follow Satan, not the Lord.

*To Be Happy Now or Forever

        We all want to live happily in this life, but without God, it'd be impossible for us to succeed, I can tell you that. It is more important that you'll have a happy death and most importantly, a happy afterlife. With God, all three goals can be attained. In fact, a happy death and a happy afterlife are assured. To be happy in this life matters the least, for in the overall scheme of things, our life doesn't last much longer than the blink of an eye. 

***Simple and Reliable Guide for Us

        The world can perish, with all the things in it. Everything passes except the Lord God. If we hold onto him, we become everlasting like him! So let everything go and hold onto Christ our Lord and Savior. This is such a simple and reliable guide for us. He is the only shining beacon in this universe and beyond, for he is the Lord of all. Without him, we would have totally darkness. Wake up, while the light is still shining. Lose him and you live in darkness forever.

*****Falling in Love with God (Love)

        God is love. If you fall in love with God, you are in love with love and that love can completely transform you. Love is God's power that can vanquish all evil and transport us to paradise. Falling in love with love is the most exalted feeling you can ever have on earth. To experience that, all you need to do is be wide open to God to let him reveal himself to you fully, then you can't help but fall in love with him. Yes, he becomes your Lord and soulmate. The opposite to falling in love with God is unthinkable, for you could end up hating everyone and yourself for all eternity.

***When to Get Ready

        Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah centuries later. Today we are seeing many things happening that were prophesied two millenniums ago. At present we do sense the urgency of numerous warnings coming to us from heaven through many seers. The Lord himself had asked us to remain ready and alert always, for he'd be coming again. Whether prophecies will be fulfilled soon or later, our Lord has given us the best advice. More to the point, since we may die and face the Lord anytime, shouldn't we get ready right now? You can wait until that last moment, but that's taking an awfully big chance. Besides, the Lord can spot your insincerity instantly. Thinking that you can outsmart the Lord is surely not a smart move.

**God's Miracles

        It seems that all the other planets are all barren except our earth. I believe that God created the earth just right for us to live on. Today after visiting a friend, I saw on the way home the sun in the smoky sky. I could directly look at it, and it looked as big as the moon. I know it's so much bigger and farther away than the moon, yet God placed the moon at the right distance so that it blocks the sun perfectly during a total eclipse. This to me is also a great miracle of God.   

**Us Against Ourselves*

         This is not a new message. I am giving it a little differently because it is an important basic message. We can safely leave Satan out of the picture when we focus on the Lord God alone. Living is all about deciding whether to submit yourself to God or not. In most cases, we struggle with this question our whole life. Yet unknowingly, we know that we'll be facing the Lord alone one day. It won't be like facing a judge in a court on earth where you can hire lawyers to speak for you. We'll have to answer to the Lord for everything we've done ourselves. Anyway, know that the Lord loves you and is totally on your side, so give in to him. Stopping fighting yourself and submitting yourself to God go hand in hand—they are the two prongs of attack for restoring harmony with heaven and bringing peace to yourself on earth.

*****Most Glorious Miracle*****

        The last Luminous Mysteries of the Holy Rosary is The Institution of the Holy Eucharist. It is a miracle that the Lord changes bread and wine into his own flesh and blood. This is not one of those miracles you can see and would say wow after seeing it. To me, this is the most glorious of all miracles because it is most personal and humble. The Lord offering himself to us, again. It should absolutely humble us and make us praise and thank him forever! (To learn more about the Eucharist, search "Eucharist" or "Eucharistic miracle" on this blog.)

**Becoming Free of the Past

        Because wildfire smoke has polluted the air outdoors, I've been doing my daily walk inside the house. This morning I noticed the tiled floor I was walking on and recalled the unpleasant experience I had with the tile layer over a decade ago. He was a personable, cordial young man. Immediately after the job was done, I had to get him back to replace some cracked tiles. He showed up, no problem. I trusted in him and wasn't even around when he finished the repairs and left. After I got home, I noticed that the long extension ladder in my garage was gone. This ladder belonged to a handyman who was still doing work around the house. I was puzzled. Luckily, my son's camera at the gate had recorded all the people who entered and left our property that day. The recording showed that the ladder was on the truck of my tile guy on his way out. Of course, we confronted him and got the ladder back. I didn't press charges against him though. Incidents such as this one tend to stick in one's memory. Then I saw that I must let the Lord truly be my refuge. Then I would not look back on the past anymore—he must now occupy my mind my entire life. This is how we become free of the past.

**Not of Our Concern

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 20, we have the parable of the workers of the vineyard. In it, all workers hired at different times of the day got paid the same at the end of the day, and this made the ones hired first unhappy. Jesus concluded the parable by saying: "Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last." What I learned here was that the Lord wants us to serve him well and not be concerned about whether we get rewarded first or last, or the most or the least. Getting rewarded by him alone is good enough. Jealousy has no place when you work for the Lord. If you want to get to heaven ahead of all others who go there, you may not even make it.

**Power of God's Word

        Today's Gospel acclamation, Hebrew 4:12. "The word of God is living and effective, able to discern the reflections and thoughts of the heart." In Matthew 4, Jesus said to the tempter, quoting from Deuteronomy 8, "It is written: 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.'" John 14:23: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." May I add that being attentive to the word of God can totally transform us; we come to know the Lord and ourselves thoroughly. And it's by the word of God that we are drawn into union with the Word, our God.

*****Trust in God's Saving Power

         We are now anticipating the Illumination of Conscience to take place any day now. It should be obvious that God can make you see your own conscience clearly no matter what mental or physical condition you are in. I've heard about people who just before they died were given one more chance by God to see their sins and repent. The Lord really wants to save everyone. I've mentioned visiting someone recently in a coma and dying. When I prayed aloud, repenting our sins and asking the Lord to forgive us, and told him that we loved him . . . that person opened his eyes once and started moving his lips as if he's praying too. It's possible that he was receiving that last grace from the Lord. So my advice is never stop praying for anyone even if it seems that the person's mind is gone. The Lord God can always make that person see what he wishes him or her to see! Trust in God fully and leave the salvation to him. 

***Soul over All Else***

        As usual, wildfires have spread across the state due to extreme dry conditions. Residents of some neighboring counties have had to evacuate from their homes. One fire started just 30 miles away from here. Today the sun seen through the smoke and haze is all red again. If a fire threatens your home, you pretty much have to leave all material possessions behind and run. I'll probably grab my laptop first. Then, even if you are not threatened in any way like this in your lifetime, you still must leave everything behind when you die. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." Avoid wild fires if you can, but never ever fall into the fires of hell. Material things you can let go, but never your own soul because it's treasured by God!

***Crucifixion Not to Be Ignored***

        Jesus did die on the cross. Did he really die for our sins? If you are aware that you are a sinner, then you must look into this, for it could make your life meaningful for all eternity. There are already multitudes of us who can testify to you that Christ is the true God and are willing to even die for him, for his love is that great. As far as I know, he is the only person impossible to dismiss, for he created us and will judge us after we die. (If you are smart, you would become one with him now and banish all worries from now on. This may sound too good to be true, but truth sounds good because it is true.) 

***God's Amazing Mercy*

        Today Tuesday I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. The last decade was on the Crucifixion. Two criminals were crucified alongside of Jesus. One of them hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? We have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." The he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Here we see the amazing mercy of Jesus. This criminal reconciled himself to God was instantly saved. I believe that his suffering on the cross was his purgatory. That's why he was able to be in Paradise with the Lord on the same day. 

***How God Sees

        Jesus said, "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Here is an interpretation of that: The more we see ourselves as nothing but wretched sinners, the more he sees that he can transform us into great saints.

**Beyond Keeping the Commandments*

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 19, a young man asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus answered him, "If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "All of them I have observed. What do I still lack?"Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The young man heard the statement and went away sad, for he had many possessions. So, observing the commandments is a start; to be perfect, you must become detached from all material possessions—actually, from everything except the the Lord. We are not perfect until we become like the Lord. And we become like the Lord when we submit ourselves completely to him. 

**Secret of Making Peace

        "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." This is one of the Beatitudes given to us by Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Surely, making peace should include making peace with yourself. Actually, make peace with the Lord first and you'll have peace with everyone else, yourself included. 

***Adoration Flash Mob

         Very cool. This happened in Preston, UK. Some people chose to kneel, while others didn't. You'll see a separation at the Second Coming of Christ too. Except this time the Lord will do the choosing.

***God Needs Our Prayer

        Heaven has been urging us to pray, pray, and pray at times like these. And I think we should sacrifice to pray as much as possible. When we pray more, we might just be able to lessen the severity or eliminate some of the chastisements on God's calendar. Right now, the Lord needs us to pray for him. You mean God needs our help? Yes, because he's trying to save all of us who have turned away from him! How well we cooperate with him will determine how well he can save us. 

**Our First Order of Business

        Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Communion experience. I felt that God the Father absolutely treasured us, so we must take the utmost care of our souls. It should be our first order of business.

**Know Who Jesus Is

         It is extremely important to know who Jesus is. He is not only a good man and a great teacher, he is also God, our creator and our Savior. If you believe all this, then you should treat him exactly as such. And you'll be rewarded amply by him.

*Wickedness = Stupidity

        Evildoers blinded by wickedness no longer see the truth. Satan knows that he can never win against God, yet he desperately fights on. Conclusion: evildoers are basically dumb. So we needn't be afraid of them at all. Instead, we should pity and pray for their conversion.

**Burdens on Your Soul

        Back to the Basics. If you do not have inner peace, that's because you have not repented of your sins to God to have them removed yet. Sins are burdens on your soul and heart. One who has his sins all forgiven by God is a new creature, for his soul and heart are no longer burdened. Now he feels free and experiences peace.

**Our Need for Humility

        Jesus, God the Son, came to us on earth. He, being God, created us and knows everything about anything, the past, the present, and what's going to come. Compare to what he knows, we know absolutely nothing! Yet we often behave as if we know more than he. This is being absurd and out of order. But if we are humble enough to realize that we can only know what he allow us to know, that is, recognizing our place before him, then we are back in his favor. Humility is a powerful virtue. It restores our relationship with God, enabling us to get all the way into heaven. So vanquish your pride with humility.

****On Verge of Self-Destruction

        In these dark, evil days, one blessing I see is that we finally realize that the only necessary, sensible, and righteous choice for us to make is to surrender ourselves to God completely. There is not another way out of our predicament, quandary, or the mess we're in due to the lack of faith in God. We are on the precipice of self-destruction unless we turn to God and convert. If you see this, then you see hope. 

**Live in Christ, Not the Past

        Some people plan a lot for their posterity. They want to be sure their family or descendants and their possessions will be taken care of. Even though they seem to be planning ahead, from the point of view of a Christian who lives in the Lord, they still seem to dwell on the past, for what will be the past in the future is important to them. When we are with Christ, we become detached from the past and no longer look back.

*Two Nice Ways of Living

        There are those who have a dream project in mind and spend much of their lifetime to make it a reality. Such projects completed can be quite beautiful or even benefit a community. This is a nice way to live. But if this is all they wish to accomplish, I feel sorry for them. For essentially they are shortsighted and still self-centered. The other nice way of living is far superior on a high level. You set your sight beyond this life. You secure your eternity first and then do everything for God's sake on earth. As a result, you enjoy freedom, peace, and joy on earth. One looks ahead, while the other only wishes to be satisfied in this life..

***Realities to Wake Up To*****

        God's mercy is infinite, while his justice is absolute. To not get forgiven by him, you have to be absolutely dull-witted! When the Lord saves you, you are saved forever! When you get yourself condemned against his will, you are doomed forever. These are the realities you should know whether you believe or not now.  

***Salvation or Damnation***

         Here is what I have come to know and believe. To be saved, all we need to do is to believe that Christ is our Lord and Savior and then follow him. To be damned, we only need to reject him as God and Savior. The God of Christ is our pivot. The choice is ours to make. Whether you believe what I believe is your choice too. The wise move is to investigate all this with an open, objective heart to arrive at your own truthful conclusion (while there's still time).

**Evil Is Real

        Good advice from our good Mother. 

The Perfect Prayer Again

        I have posted about the Lord's Prayer as the most perfect prayer, for it defines our relationship with God and saying it with all your heart and soul can transform you into a saint! Listen to Fr. Goring's take on this prayer in today's video of his. 

***Most Unfairly Rejected One***

        God loves us to death and wants us to love him so that we may receive even more blessings from him. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Yet we find it hard to love him because to love him, we need to obey him. Setting pride aside, can you think of one good reason we should not obey him? God wants to embrace us only, so rejecting him can only come from us! I am speaking out for the One who is being most unfairly rejected by the most number of those who were supposed to have been created in his image.

***We Are Here for a Purpose

        With so many prophecies coming from heaven nowadays, warning us about what's going to come, it becomes increasingly clear that God cares about us and wants us to be ready for it. I definitely see the purpose why we are here. We can no longer say that we happen to be here and don't know what's going to become of us. Good and evil are engaged in a fearsome spiritual battle fighting for our souls, and we are to choose sides. The earth is our testing ground. Our final destination will depend upon what we do on earth, and all that will be revealed when we answer to God. Yes, our whole life is purposeful.

**Moving Toward God*

        To obey God.we must disobey ourselves. These two efforts are to be carried out at the same time, for we must give ourselves up to surrender ourselves to God. Depending upon how much humility you have, you can accomplish this instantly or not even your whole lifetime will be enough for you. You get to make your liberation instant, prolonged, or delayed for ever. This is the challenge. Imagine that heaven is right there before your eyes, would you still hesitate and not move toward God? The truth that heaven is there, except that you are not able to see it yet. People say seeing is believing. For those who have faith, believing is all they need and God lets them know that they got it right.

*****Reviewing Reality Once More

        All the posts I've done on this blog have been to glorify God, the God of Christ, by letting you know that he is the true God and how good he is! What we need to know is simple if we believe. There's good and there's evil. We all have a soul that lasts forever. But man has sinned from the beginning and needs salvation, and Christ has come and shown that we can have eternal life if we believe in him to have all our sins taken away by him. It turns out that we make things hard for the Lord and ourselves, for our pride stands in the way. Jesus has already told us that we need to be humble to be exalted. If we let him be our Lord, we become free. But we still prefer to be in charge of ourselves and the struggle against submission to God continues on. It's been like that generation after generation and will most likely continue on to the day of our final judgment. Man has fallen once and is falling again, forever this time, if it doesn't wise up. Again, for whose who believe, especially like a child, they already have their eternity taken care of and are just waiting for the finest day of their whole existence. The disparity between the believers and nonbelievers is as great as that between heaven and earth. I'd cast aside my pride and listen to God for both his and my own sake. The clocks keeps ticking, so we have little time to waste.

***Garabandal Prophecies

         Once more it's good to hear these messages. Of course, to believe or not is all up to you. To believe in Christ or not is up to you too. For me, since I already believe fully in Christ, I don't have a thing to worry about anymore. No matter what happens, my eternity is absolutely secure in him.

***Dying in Order to Live

        In today's Gospel reading from John 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." To be fruitful, we must die in Christ first. Otherwise, we remain our old selves, still disconnected from the Lord. To be truly born again, we need to believe in the Lord and die in him first. So die in Christ before we die and we'll have life abundantly.

***Doing All for God Only

        Today is Feast of St. Lawrence. In reading I from 2 Corinthians 9, Paul writes, "Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work." This is great encouragement for me, for the Lord at times seems to want me to do things going against my grain. But obey I must. To make it easy, I need to realize that I am to do whatever for the Lord and not for anyone else or myself. I am merely his instrument. He'll always be with me if I stay with him.

**Preparing for the Inevitable

         The Lord also made me see that I was on my way going to him and now was the time to prepare myself for the best possible meeting with him. All of us should be doing this on earth now. What's inevitable should always be of foremost importance to us.

*****Feeling Free with God

       It's 2:53 AM now. I feel the Lord is really drawing me close to him and I can't sleep. I know that he's right with me, feeling the intimacy only possible with God. There is absolutely no barrier between him and me. He made me see that when we feel absolutely free to know him, we are free. It's good to know.

**Urgent Call to Prayer

         This is calling those who are not strong in the Lord yet. Only submission and prayer to God can secure our eternal future. Otherwise, we may be easily deceived. The time to realize this is now, more urgent than ever.

y

***The Definitive Prayer

        Today as I was praying the Our Father, I saw that if you truly meant every line you said, you would be acknowledging your total dependence upon the Lord and abandoning yourself completely to him. This is as it should be, as we also leave judgment entirely to him. We submit ourselves to God the Father and answer to him alone. This is the prayer that defines our relationship to God. 

***Most Fulfilling Expeience

         Communion experience. The intimacy and union is so fulfilling that I was ready to rest in the Lord forever.

***The Bread of Life Truth

        In today's Gospel reading from John 6, Jesus proclaimed, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." In Jesus' days, he multiplied loaves of bread and fish to feed the multitudes. Today he has made this living bread available to all at Mass. I wish that Protestant will study John 6 head-on to see that Jesus really meant that to have eternal life, we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood. If Jesus had meant it symbolically, then receiving the Holy Eucharist would be no better than eating manna which fulfilled only physical hunger. (If you search this blog by typing in the word Eucharistic, you can pull up quite a number of posts on Eucharistic miracles.) 

***Avoid Becoming an Antichrist

       In today's reading II from Ephesians 4, Paul writes: "Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ." Of course, Christ had already taught us to pray "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Therefore, if we do not forgive others, we become antichrists. St. John in his first epistle writes: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar." Anyone who wishes someone to go to hell is therefore an antichrist. To love means you love everyone without exception. 

***Do It For Your Soul's Sake

        We all have a soul. We can take care of our own souls, but can only help others to take care of theirs. Taking care of your own soul is all God asks of us, for if we all do that, there'll be heaven on earth. Of course, to get the best care for your soul, you would put your soul under God's care. So for the sake your soul, abandon yourself to God totally. 

*****Source of All Beauty

        Here's the Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos playing a Rachmaninoff song. He is a master at making the melody sound achingly beautiful. Anytime I see or hear something beautiful, I think of the source of all beauty, our Lord, who holiness is the most beautiful of all beauties.

**Hoping to Become Perfect

        God can transform us into a new creature when we are on earth. What I look forward to is that once we are in heaven, God will completely renew us, wiping out even all our inappropriate involuntary reactions that have been ingrained in our nature while we're on earth so that we'll become perfect like the Lord.

**Preparing for Meeting God

        Think of it, we are always in our last days on earth. So what should we do with the time we still have on earth? Do we want to show up before the Lord God empty-handed? I think not. This is what we want to hear him say when we see him: Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy (Matthew 25:21). If you long to see the Lord, you are probably ready. 

**To Be Free of Nonessentials

       This early morning I dreamed that I walk by a room in a large building, entered it and found a box on a bookshelf that contained something I knew would be useful to me. I learned that the room would be emptied and everything in it discarded. Since I had to do something, I thought I would come back a little later to get that box. When I returned, that box was not there anymore, and I felt distressed. Then I realized that all along I never had that box and I got along fine. I saw that we all accumulated things that may be useful, but not essential. So we needed to learn to detach ourselves from all nonessentials. That was the lesson I learned. It comes down to that only God is essential, the only one to whom we need to attach ourselves.

***How to Love God More

         If you love the Lord, do you best to glorify him, and still feel that you fall short, your can always surrender yourself to him more perfectly to strengthen your union with him. That would be most pleasing to him and beneficial to you too.

***Saddest Day of Our Existence

        When we no longer hope in God, that would be the saddest day of our existence! 

**Loss of Respect for Life

         Today's biggest crimes committed against humanity are abortion, human trafficking, and suicide. The sanctity of life is no longer upheld by many. Human life is most precious to God our creator. Only by believing in God and knowing his love for us can we hope to treasure life. Those who know Christ the Lord are never lonely and rejoice about their existence always.

**Prayer Intentions

        We pray to show that we not only trust in God, but also are obedient to him. 

***Most Soul-Shaking Events***

        There have been many earthing-shaking events happening throughout history, most of which are pretty horrible. But there are two events that are most relevant and critically important to the whole human race we may not realize, but ought to. They are (1) the coming of Jesus into our world to save us from sin and (2) his Cruxifixction on the cross to complete the work for our salvation. This makes all the difference to us. Because of it, our eternal life is now assured. 

***We Can Be Talented and Amazing!

         As you know, I have an interest in piano music, although much less now than before. Currently, two talented pianists are most amazing. It's as if the piano was invented just for them. One is Japan's Hayato Sumino. He plays the piano as naturally as a duck swims on water. The other is Russia's Zlata Chochieva. Playing the difficult Chopin and Rachmaninoff etudes looks like child's play for her. So what are my thoughts? Well, we can be equally talented and amazing in living for Christ. Even better, we don't ever need to practice hard on any instrument—we simply remain in the Lord and let him make things happen! When you have Christ, you get the best of everything! 

***We'll Never Die!

        Looking out of my bedroom window, I can see the wild buckeye tree behind the huge boulder. Not receiving any irrigation, all its leaves turn brown every year about this time in the summer, then it comes back in the spring with even more fresh growth. So it's half of the year alive and half of the year looking dead—pretty amazing. My thoughts are that when we live in Christ, we can die on earth, but we'll never really die and will live forever with him in heaven. God takes care of the trees; so much more will he take care of us!

**Food for Thought*

        To know God is to know yourself.

***To Think As God Thinks

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly, and be killed and on the third be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." To think as God does, we must know God first and learn from him. This is where seeking union with God can precisely help. Surrender to him to become one with the him first. Then you'll know how he thinks and understand everything he says to you! Now you are completely in tune with the Lord. What a great joy!

**Christ in Our Insane World

       Fo those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin living our heavenly joy right now on earth, for our journey to paradise has begun and the best is yet to come. In this insane world on earth, Christ is the only one who can keep us sane and safe from all evil. You can't be sane if you believe that you can find happiness in this sinful world without him. If you are lost, you need to find him and he'll save you forever. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), our only bright hope in this insane world. 

*Happy and Grateful

        Today I am so happy and grateful that I have Christ to lead me. By following him, I know I'll do everything right, and get to heaven. You can never trust anyone with a big ego, but Jesus you can totally trust because he is forever meek and humble despite being Almighty God.

***The Lord Doing What We Wish!

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus to beg him to heal her daughter tormented by a demon. Jesus tested her first, but she persisted. Jesus then said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Her daughter was healed from that hour. It just shows that if we have faith and persist, the Lord hears us. "Let it be done for you as you wish" has to be one of most comforting sayings filled with love you can hear coming from the Lord.

***How to Follow Christ*****

        To follow Christ, you are given so many rules. I wouldn't be surprised if you can come up with a list showing hundreds of these rules. Anyway, it'd be impossible to remember and practice them all. So how do we get around this? My answer: ignore all of them an go straight to the Lord himself to learn from him. Once you attain union with him, he'll shows you what to do and what not to do at any time, without a single rule to memorize. The Lord always makes things easy for us to understand when we go to him with an open empty heart and and open empty mind, ready to absorb whatever he wishes to reveals to us.

**Pray for Spiritual Awakening

        Spiritual awakening do not happen easily in this day and age, for the material world has attracted and snared so many souls. Evil forces operate efficiently under present circumstances. We can only turn to God to awaken those who are spiritually dead. So be alive and awake yourself first and pray hard for the world, including all the countries, our Church, our government, out families, and our own selves. (I recently read that Thailand has an extremely high suicide rate among its people, so pray for that country.)

*****Discover Your Unique Gem*****

        We have only limited time on earth and a lot of us keep busy by doing all kinds of things. May I ask what you are trying to accomplish? If you just want to live a comfortable life on earth, then, well, to be blunt about it, you are wasting your whole lifetime. Our life time is so short that compared to our life eternal after death, it's not even a drop in the ocean! So be smart and look beyond this life. Maybe you are not sure that there is life after death, then you should at least look into it, for you have nothing to lose. Not to think about it is being plain dumb (just stating the fact, not meaning to insult anyone, for once I was dumb myself). If I am somewhat credible to you, then follow my advice and look seriously into Christ. (For a start, you can watch the move The Case for Christ.) Everything I say on this blog is based upon genuine personal experience. Christ is our treasure so perfect and beautiful that once you find him, you'll want to keep him all to yourself.  Yet at the same time you want everyone else to enjoy him too. It just shows how the love of the Lord can truly liberate us from being selfish, and perfect us. The Lord is absolutely a unique gem! 

***Minding God's Business OK

        We are always told to mind our own business, but we must always mind God's business, for he's the one we need to follow and know what he wills us to do every moment in our life. God would welcome that we attend to his business, for only in sharing everything between him and us can we attain union with him.

*What's Not a Bona Fide Catholic

        We can believe in God, attend Mass regularly, and be as nice as we can to everyone, but still not follow the teachings of the Church thoroughly or be aware of the urgency of following the Lord during these dark times. A casual Catholic is not a bona fide Catholic. Go all out for the Lord to receive fully what he has in store for us. 

***Aiming for Heaven Only

        We want to aim as high as possible, for God deserves our highest esteem and love. Some people are resigned to going through purgatory first, but I say we aim for going to heaven directly, bypassing purgatory altogether. We want to honor and please the Lord as much as we can by being as holy as we can. That's going all out for him as he had for us when he died on the cross for our sins!  

**Precarious Situation We Are In

        We naturally like to do what we want to do without anyone telling us what we should do. In other words, we tend to be self-centered, despite having a conscience. It's always easy to follow the easy way, and Satan knows and takes advantage of that. To capture you, he makes you believe that you are on the right path and he's with you. Of course, once he has influenced you, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to think of God. This is exactly the situation we're in. The illumination of conscience warning will be a drastic measure taken by the merciful Lord to steer us back to him. What we should do is to wake up and turn to him now rather than risk reaching the point of no return before that warning comes.

**Decluttering the Mind for Peace

       People in general are interested in what's going on around them. When they meet each other, they talk about what's happening with their family or someone else's. They talk about current events and share their views. Sometimes we just like to talk, even about trivial stuff. One reason I have peace is because I don't waste any time thinking about things that would draw me away from God or won't do me any good. Even if I hear something that needs help, if it's a situation that I cannot directly help except through prayer, I just pray and not let it weigh me down in any way. Although this can give the impression that I am not a very sociable or caring person, to preserve my peace in the Lord is the best part for me and I must not lose it. Actually, I don't have to try hard at all, for I automatically know what to pay attention to and what to tune out. We should always do our best in what we should and can do, but not waste any time thinking about things extraneous to our spiritual life.

*****God's Foremost Desire Is . . .

to save us from our sins so that we can go to heaven. I hope you realize and believe in it.

***Riddle of Life

         It's all about us and God. We have strayed away from God and he wants us to return to him. The way has been all paved, but we resist going back. We think we can be free on our own, not realizing that freedom is born the moment we let the Lord fully "capture" us. Those who see this truth are few. The war is really between us and God. Once we surrender and reconcile ourselves to him, order is restored and we are set free forever. Life is no longer a riddle.  

**Duped and Becoming Heartless

       Psalm 51 is today's responsorial psalm. From verse 5 and 6, we have "For I acknowledge my offense; and my sin is before me always. Against you only have I sinned; and done what is evil in your sight." We need to be aware of the fact that every time we sin, we hurt the Lord, and ourselves: we cause him great sorrow and stray further away from him ourselves. He has made us in his image so that we can become like him, but we just go the opposite way. We've been duped by the world and become heartless. 

**Force That Makes Us Grow

        I look out the window and see the dragon fruit cactus my wife has recently transplanted into a large pot. Its growth is quite amazing, for it's noticeable daily. Two small segments that sprouted just a few weeks ago are now over a foot long. There is a force behind it which is of course the Lord. Then I see that we have a powerful force behind us too—it's God the Holy Spirit who can help us grow amazingly spiritually, if we, like that dragon fruit, do not resist the Lord.

*Decision You Must Not Delay

        Turning to God to convert yourself is a decision you must not delay making. Putting it off is like not getting ready for evacuation when you know that a fire is approaching and could make you lose everything, including your own life. Even after our conversion the Lord wants us to remain awake, vigilant and alert for his next coming. So burying your head in the sand is never the smart thing to do. 

**Who Can Save Us?

        If you don't think you need to be saved, you don't need to read on. I know that I am a sinner and can't get into heaven without having my sins removed. Who can save us? Buddha can't. Neither Muhammad nor any self-proclaimed prophet can. For they are all human beings created by God. Only God himself can forgive our sins and save us. That leaves Christ alone as our Savior. His Resurrection is solid proof that he is the creator of all life. It is he or no one.

***My Warning to the World!

         I really feel bad about how we have caused God our Father so much sorrow, placing him in a most difficult situation. This is how I see it. Our Father loves us and wants to save us, yet so many of us reject him and continue offending him. All his calls for us to pray, repent, and convert pretty much get ignored. We have reached the point of deserving punishment, yet the Father continues to hold off, for that would cause him immense pain. So he still waits in agony. I believe that if things continue to get worse, he will warn us with the illumination of conscience which is like a mini-judgment. That would be a special act of mercy on his part. Hopefully most of us will then turn to God and change their sinful ways. Of course, if we all do that now, we can change our whole destiny now. If not, we'll be pushing the Father closer the point of no return. If that point is reached, we'd have the saddest day in our whole existence. This is my big warning to the world now.

***Top Priority in Fighting Evil

         It just seems that the evildoers are more united in attacking the righteous ones, who appear more divided in defending themselves. I think you can see all evildoers to be in darkness, and the righteous ones in various degrees of light and shade. To become united and strong in fighting evil, every righteous one needs to be in full light. This means that they become holy and be fully united with the Lord. Thus, seeking to attain union with God becomes the top priority. The best way to overcome evil is to be holy.

**Prerequisite for Receiving Favors from God

        To receive whatever we need to become holy or obedient to the Lord, we must become empty first. If we are not completely open to him, then we are not quite empty yet. Once we are empty, we can ask for whatever we need, or better yet, whatever he wishes to grant us.

***How Jesus Satisfies Us

       In today's Gospel reading from John 6, Jesus declared to the crowd, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst." Based upon my own personal experience, I can say that after knowing Jesus, I no longer desire anything else anymore, for he alone has fulfilled all my desires and filled the emptiness of my life with meaning, hope, and joy. Basically, he's all we need.

**In God's Good Hands

         If we strike out on our own without the Lord, we'll most likely end up lost forever. For we came from the Lord God, our creator, who knows all about us, loves us, and want's what's best for us. Once you realize this and know that you are in his good hands, you can start putting your relationship with him in order and living happily for all eternity. This has to be the smartest move you can possibly make in this life. Think about it.