***Great Feeling and Remedy*****

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, people brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe. 
        The Lord God is absolutely awesome. Let him completely overwhelm you and you'll feel great and never be the same proud person again.

**Serving the Lord*

        We being human who serve the Lord often like to measure our success by looking to see if anything has happened due to our effort. But let's remember that the Lord changes the hearts and these changes may not be visible to us. The best way to serve God is to serve him single-heartedly and not think about anything else, trusting that he will always work for you, whether letting you see the fruit of your labor or not. 

**Something to Smile About*

        Our days on earth are numbered. We become more aware of it as we age and our health starts to deteriorate. Then I thought of heaven. Once you get there, you can forget about time altogether, for you are going to be with your heavenly Father forever. How so nice! This should put a big smile on all of you who know that you are heaven bound.  

**Smart Thinking and Move

        God is infinite, while we are finite. God knows everything, while we know practically nothing. It goes without saying that if we go against God, we'll invariably lose in the end. To be smart, always go along with the Lord. I might as well go all out and submit myself completely to him to make things work out as smoothly as possible.

***Receiving Truths from God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." When God reveals some knowledge to you, you just know that it's true. To learn all the truths you need to know from the Lord, just reveal all of yourself to him first.

**Peace of Trust in God

        Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. In the first reading from Acts 12, we hear how Herod imprisoned Peter and intended to bring him to trial before the Jews so as to please them. But the Lord sent an angel to Peter to set him free. In the second reading from 2 Timothy 4, Paul writes, "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day . . ." Paul shows his complete trust in the Lord. When we abandon ourselves in God, we experience a special peace. You just know that you are totally in God's hands and that everything will end beautifully.

**Sign of Readiness

        If you are truly ready to return to the Lord at any time, you are ready for anything in this life.  

**Finding True Happiness

        We all know that we are going to die, yet so many of us live as if we are not ever going to die? We know that we can never find true happiness on earth, yet so many of us still try so hard to find it? Even if I can live forever in this world, I won't be satisfied. Now that I know I am merely passing through, all the more I want to seek permanent peace and happiness in God, who alone can set us free. St. Augustine is absolutely right, stating in his Confessions "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." I can personally testify to that.

***Unique Faith Most Precious***

        To have faith in something is to believe in that something, and you can have myriad different faiths. But there is only one faith that stands above all other faiths—that's faith in the Lord and God of Christ. This is the only faith that can set you completely free from sin, our life's greatest burden. When sin can no longer enslave you, you are free indeed!

***Our Whole Life Must Be . . .

to prepare to meet our God.

***What Prayer Is*****

        Just saying or reciting some prayer perfunctorily is not prayer at all. Prayer must originate from the heart; so true prayer is revealing what's in your heart to God.
        Here is the well-known Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." If you feel compelled to pray this, or simply "Christ, have mercy on me" spontaneously, it is proof that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

****Our Greatest Tragedy

        We are all sinners. Living in this secular world with so many temptations, it is easy to serve mammon and live for ourselves with no awareness of God's love for us and his ongoing war with Satan fighting for our salvation. The dulling of our conscience is our greatest tragedy today. 

****Our Greatest Celebration

        We celebrate many things such as recovery from an illness, success of a business venture, graduation of our children from schools, or any unexpected event that makes us happy. This is all normal and good. But realize that whatever we celebrate in this life is always something that passes. As Christians, we have something we can truly celebrate—it is that God loves us to death and we are destined for eternal life in heaven! This happiness or joy surpasses any other we can possibly experience in this life and is something we can celebrate secretly in our hearts at all times. Besides, this joy of yours is being celebrated in heaven too.

****Clear Vision of Consequences

        This is almost common sense. If I stick with God, follow and obey him, then I, my soul, is completely safeguarded by him. I'll be heading straight for heaven. But if I don't believe in God, I would be on my own and become a prime unprotected target of the Devil. I'll be piling sin upon sin and if I am not careful enough, chances are I would end up in hell. All this is so clear and logical to me and I hope that everyone will see it too.

***Beautiful Christian Journey

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 9, Jesus gave this message to anyone who wishes to follow him: "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." What a beautiful inspiring saying! A Christian never looks back. His eyes are always on Christ, the brightest light and hope, as he marches toward the kingdom of God.

*****Bypassing Struggling on Your Own

         I still remember my early days as a Christian, I had doubts about God's existence since I didn't feel it, about whether prayer really works, etc. And there was a considerable amount of struggling on my part to want to bolster my faith. Of course, I now know a lot better since I've learned the best strategy. The secret is to let God do the work for you. On your own and with good intentions, you can struggle all your life and not make much progress. Let God do it—which is exactly what he desires from you—and it's done effortlessly for you. Precisely, I am talking about seeking union with God. You simply surrender yourself entirely to God, and with the aid of the Holy Eucharist, you attain union. Now you know God most intimately. Amazingly, he becomes more real than anything else, yourself included, to you! Your faith is now rock solid, eliminating all doubts. Shall I say that you now soar with the Lord or that he carries you on his wings? When you let God take over, his power takes over. The happiest soul is one who abandons him- or herself totally in the Lord!

***Essential Desire to Change Ourselves

         I realize that I am far from being perfect. There are many (involuntary) things about myself I don't like (this is not saying that I don't like myself whom God loves). So I want to change myself to become more pleasing to both myself and God. This desire to change is essential for spiritual growth. And transform us God certainly can. The fundamental change to become absolutely perfect I believe will happen only after we get to heaven. While on earth, we can let the Lord perfect us as much as possible. All changes begin with a desire!

***Joy of Salvation***

        When we realize that we are sinners and have offended God, we feel sorry and repent our sins to God and ask him to forgive us, and he forgives us and we feel instantly relief and great joy, knowing that we have reconciled ourselves to God and saved from death—this is the joy of salvation! Every bona fide Christian should have experienced that.
         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 25, Jesus addressed this parable to the Pharisees and scribes: "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance." First, we are like that, showing that we were made in the image of God. Secondly, when we realize that we can give God such great joy of our salvation, we should feel that joy too.

****What To Be Aware of Foremost

        Friday today I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. What Christ had gone thru for us has to be the most horrendous suffering one can ever endure. And we must always remember that. But one thing we must even be more aware of is that the Lord did all that out of love for us! This is the central foremost awareness we must have. Everything he does is for this love! This alone should be able to transform our lives and spirits if we have a heart. Love your Lord and you become free and set for eternity! By loving God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I am made anew and belong to the Lord forever!

*****Monumental Day!!!!!

        Today is the Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is not a coincidence that on this day the U.S.Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade to outlaw abortion. It's been almost 48 years since abortion was legalized and way over 60 million unborn children have been murdered since. The Lord finally answers our prayers at a time that the world is more godless than ever. Hallelujah! But there is still work to be done to convert the pro-abortionists. The spiritual battle continues, but we now know that the Lord can wipe out any evil when the time is right. Here is more about this monumental court decision.

****We Are Wonderfully Made!

        Today is the the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Psalm 139 of David is today's responsorial psalm. The response  is "I praise you, for I am wonderfully made." David also wrote: "Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works." We should also realize how wonderfully the Lord has made each of us. We must highly appreciate his work and thank him by submitting ourselves to him so that we may enjoy eternal happiness with him, which is his most ardent wish for us.

***How to Find Happiness

        People are trying to move from one state to another within the country and citizens of other countries are seeking to flee from one country to another. Is there an ideal country or place you can move to on this planet? The answer is clearly none. Some countries may be richer and/or freer than others, but all countries worship materialism and are corrupt to various degrees. The ideal country would be one that follows God and cares for all its people, loving them as Christ loves us. And there is not a single country like that. Thus the world remains godless and in chaos. So what can we do? We can convert ourselves to be liberated from the world. Believe and follow Christ and we'll have eternal life. Earth is not our home; we'll be through it in no time. Live for the real future. This is not an escape; it's in fact making the only wise, farsighted, and realistic move. Don't ever think that you can find happiness on a sinful earth!

****Christ Is Relevant

         If Jesus is someone who is completely irrelevant to you, then you should be able to look into or ignore him freely and not be affected either way the slightest. The fact that you feel uneasy about looking into him is already an indication that he is relevant. Not willing to look into him is not willing to look into yourself. Somehow, you sense that looking into Christ will expose all those parts of you which you wish to hide from him. 

***Letting God be our Lord

        In todays's Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus said to his disciples: "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you." It's so clear here. Don't judge others so that you don't play God. Let the Lord alone be our judge. That should make our life a lot easier. How stupid it'd be to go against God and make our life hard!

****Our Most Important Realization****

        I have gotten over my COVID, but still have a lingering cough and a CT scan to go through. As I was resting in the family room this morning, I saw the photos of my grandkids on the shelves, my own photos hanging on the walls, and many other things that meant something to me. And there are lots of other things around the house that have been useful or enjoyable to me. I also realized that if I leave the world, I'd leave every single thing and person I knew behind—it's goodby forever. The only person I am going to face and answer to would be Christ the Lord. And we must be ready for that one moment. This has to be the most important realization for all of us. 

*****Only Division That Matters******

         In Luke 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Now, we are all individuals with likes and dislikes and hold individual opinions and views, so we may agree or more often disagree about many things. But if we all love the Lord, all these differences can be overcome, for his love is so great that it can make you love even your enemies. But if we don't all believe or love the Lord, then our differences will result in division as great as that between heaven and hell! This is the only division that matters to us. It's because Christ is the Lord and God! Think about it. I am making the reality totally clear to all.

***Truly Loving God

        You know that God loves you. If you love God, do you also know that he knows that you love him? knowing this assures that you you truly love God.

***Avoid Living in Delusion

         In today's Gospel from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.... Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." What I want to focus upon is that last sentence: "Sufficient for a day is its own evil." We need to be aware that we live in a sinful world and face evil everyday. The spiritual warfare fighting for our souls is raging on nonstop. Every moment, it's either you are with God or you are not. Our solution is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and not worry about anything else. To think that everything will be hunky-dory if you just mind my own business is to live in delusion.

***Living in Christ's Light

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be." All I know is that when I see Christ as my Lord and Savior and follow him, I am completely filled with his light, making me see the whole truth and enjoying my spiritual freedom.

****Critically Important Message

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not Forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." You probably are familiar with these sayings, but do you take them seriously? Here the Lord is telling us how we can have him forgive our trespasses! It's really telling us how much we need to love so that we can get to heaven! So the message is absolutely important and critical for me to heed. 

****Only One in Our Way

        From today's Psalm 51, we have the response "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned" and the verses ". . . my sin is before me always: 'Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.'" So God alone is in our way, for we sin against the Lord only! This is a basic important fact to realize. The only way for God to be for us is we stop offending him. Another important truth we must reckon with. There is not another way. So be smart, obey the Lord and make all your problems with sin evaporate.

***Letting the Best Happen to You***

        If you truly trust in Christ, you know that you are in his hands and you don't need to worry about anything. This way you give the Lord complete freedom to do what he wishes with you, and, of course, he always wants to give you what's best for you. On the other hand, if you worry and project what might happen to you, then the Lord is not free to carry out his will, for he'll have to override yours first. In any case, our lack of trust won't help things a bit. To trust in God is to obey him!  

****What to and Not to Learn

         There is so much to learn, living in this world. What we need to learn most is the truth of Christ. Once you know it, your are ready to secure your eternity. All other things we learn are of secondary importance. We need to learn how to make a living for sure, but there are so many others things we shouldn't even touch, for they are evil and will enslave you and destroy you soul in the end. Stay away from them. Yes, this secular world is a dangerous place to live in. Securing our soul has to be our No. 1 priority.

*****God Most Real

        Allow me to use just common sense and simple reasoning to show you the conclusion I've arrived at. God is the creator of all things and life. If there were no God, there would absolutely be nothing in existence, no you nor me. So God is the most real being there is, in fact, the first and original reality. To acknowledge this fact is to live in reality. Otherwise, you live in falsity, remaining lost.

*****The Christian Joy

         The joy of being a Christian is substantial, making life absolutely worth living. I'll just mention the basic freedom, peace, and joy you experience from knowing Christ. Even suffering for his sake becomes a joy. When you attain union with God, that joy reaches a maximum. But wait, the present joy is nothing compared to the joy we'll experience in heaven! Up there, we become totally freely from sin, the worse cause of unhappiness here on earth. Without our present physical body, we'll be free from all physical burdens and able to soar in total freedom. Most of all, we'll be enjoying fully the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and communion with all the saints. We'll be more alive than ever, fully aware of the joy impossible for us to comprehend on earth. I for one certainly wouldn't want to miss all that.

*****Truths About God's Love

        (1) God's love is pure and unconditional. He continues to love us, even if we don't love him back. On the other hand, we easily love those who are nice to us, but wish to have nothing to do with those who turn us off. By God's standard, we really don't have any love there. Know that Christ wants us to love even our enemies. (2) To truly love someone, you must be concerned about that person's soul. To use one example, we have parents today who have no faith in God but claim to love their children. They spoil them by giving them all kinds of material goods to keep them happy and comfortable, while not teaching them any truths. These children will grow up to be another generation of lost souls. With zero concern for the souls of their children, these parents have no true love for their children.  

*The Position We're In*****

        There are many things Jesus said that we mush pay attention to, for if we wait until we die to find out, it'll be too late. Some of these things are the following: Heaven and hell are real and our soul will enter one of the two after we die. He will be our final judge, and no one can go to the Father except through him. These are just a few of the things he has revealed to us. He never grabbed us and forced us to believe in him. He simply informed us and let us exercise our free will to make the choice. If you can prove that Christ is all false and wrong, then you are perfectly free to dismiss him. If not, then you cannot afford to ignore him. This is the position the Lord has put us in. To me he is the true God and our only hope. Do the right thing and we'll be most blessed.

*****There Is Nothing More

        This time I came to Southern California with my own agenda, then the Lord stepped in, gave me COVID, and completely thwarted my plan. The lesson is clear here. Let me start from the beginning.

          God loved us so much that he came down from heaven to die in our place so that we may live in heaven forever. We must recognize this and make going to heaven our No. 1 priority. It's not just to benefit ourselves; more importantly. it's to comply with God's wish! To accomplish this goal, we only need to obey the Lord completely.  If we go about doing whatever we want to do, we force the Lord to correct our course of action from time to time, and we would have wasted much of our valuable time. If we live to serve the Lord alone and not go off on our own, then our eternal happiness is assured. Otherwise, we're still gamboling with our eternal future. Living a more disciplined brief life now so that we are sure to enjoy heaven forever is no doubt worth following.

***Any Time Is End Time!

        Many of us sense that we are in end times. I am not talking about the the end of the world; I am talking about that we are at a time people have turned away from God so much that in order to save us from destroying ourselves, the Lord is going to shake us up with something big. This may well be one of his last acts of mercy. Anyway, my thoughts are that we should always see ourselves in end times, for the moment we die, we reach our end. Whether it's end times for mankind or not, it's meeting our own end that matters the most to us.

***Lord, Have Mercy!***

         God bless you, Fr. Altman.

****Our Unique Calling

        While still in isolation, trying to beat this COVID, I have more time to reflect inwardly. I see every one of us as a unique creature made in God's own image. Billions of us in existence are different from each other, yet all molded in the same way. We are truly special! The Lord wants us to appreciate the way he has made us. If we are not happy with ourselves and wish that we were someone else, that can only come from the evil one. Our God has made me fully capable of becoming like him, holy and full of love, so that we may enjoy eternal bliss when we return to him! Got it?

*****Critically Important Reminder*****

        Jesus has come and died for our sins, revealing God's pure love for us. God our Father has completely paved the way for us to get to heaven. He's been patiently waiting for us to turn and submit ourselves to him every single moment. There is nothing more he can do if we choose to ignore or reject him. Then we'll be judged when we face him next. **This will absolutely be the cutoff point for us, for beyond it what happens to us will remain fixed for all eternity! Therefore, we only have now before judgment time to shape our eternal future! It is critically important for us to be aware of this! Essentially, we are becoming lost forever or on our way to paradise, depending upon how we respond to our most loving Father.

***Evil Times Are Here

**A Lesson Learned

         When you are ill and not feeling well, you can be in the most beautiful place in the world and it's not going to make you feel any better. Imagine how happy you can be in heaven when you don't ever get sick again. Although I tested COVID-19 positive myself, such self-tests are not always reliable. So I had myself tested again at a hospital this morning and should hear the result tomorrow. So far I have a bad cough preventing me from falling asleep. I called out to the Lord to have pity on me, but the cough did not abate. Last night, I decided to abandon myself totally to Christ and not think about anything else. Surprisingly, the cough left me in peace and I was able to fall asleep. I think there is a lesson here. That is, it is better to trust in God fully than to ask for this or that, for he knows what's best for us. Becoming anxious only shows our lack of trust in him and is thus counterproductive.  

**Extraordinary Developments!

***How to Have Everything***

        If you capture the Lord, everything he has will be yours and you'll have everything. Without him, you can try to capture everything you want on your own, and you will lose all you have captured when you perish. The choice is clear. To capture the Lord is effortless—all you need to do is let him capture you and it's done. It's so simple and clear.

****Make Our Existence Meaningful

         As I quarantine myself in one room of this house which sits at a relatively high point, I look out the window and see the distant hills, some other houses far away, and many trees spread over the vast expanse of dry fields—this is the world I live in. I realize that I can think, reason, understand good and evil, and conceive God. So if there is no God nor afterlife, then my brief existence here becomes absolutely meaningless, senseless! As I believe in Christ, life becomes completely meaningful and makes perfect sense. Think about it and I believe that you'll see it my way too. 

****Wise Advice

        I am now in Southern California, away from home, and find myself with COVID-19. So I am isolating myself in someone's house. It makes me realize how fragile life can be. Dying is saying goodbye to this world forever. So it would be wise for all of us, no matter what age, to be prepared for meeting the Lord and let everything else go. In evil times like ours, it's more urgent than ever to choose Christ right now before it's too late. Think of eternity, beyond this fleeting, insecure life! 

***Cause of Disorder

        God has everything. He only lacks our obedience. We have nothing to offer him except our obedience. Therefore, obey God and we'll have perfect order in the universe.