*****Choose Life, Not Death*****

        March is marching to its end. Soon a quarter of 2023 will have passed. Every one of us is fast approaching his judgment day. Because of the car accident, I've been resting a lot at home. I know I'll be OK soon, but I do miss attending daily Mass. Nevertheless, it feels good to know that Christ is with me. The best thing that has ever happened to me is finding out that he is real, he loves me, and he gives all of himself to me so that I might have eternal life. But much of the world has turned against God and gone bonkers. Rejecting the One who created you, loves you the most and even died for you has to be the greatest injustice. Return to God the Father and you shall inherit everything of his. Reject him and you risk remaining lost forever. I can only pray and weep for you. All you need to do is repent and ask the Father to forgive you, and you are welcomed back to his home. Read the parable of the lost son in Luke 15. 

***No Christ, No Freedom***

        In today's Gospel reading from John 8, Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. If the Son frees you, then you will truly be free." We think we are free when we have the freedom of speech, when we are not ruled by another country, or even when we can freely abort the unborn (God forbid)—yet the true, fundamental, most critical freedom we need is freedom from sin! When you don't have that, all the other freedoms don't matter much anymore. This is really saying that if you don't have eternal life, gaining everything else would be pointless. Hence, we need Christ, first and foremost.

**Pain and Sorrow in Next Life

         In this life, we dwell in a physical body. In our next life, we'll be spirits without a physical body. Not only any joy or suffering we experience will be so much greater, we will also feel them more acutely without the "distraction" of our body.

***Satisfying Prayer***

        As a result of the recent auto accident I blogged about, I still experience a soreness in my right shoulder and the back area below my neck. In the dark and quiet of the night, becoming acutely aware of it has made falling asleep more difficult. Getting up to do something to get my mind off it has helped. But if I was still sleepy, I just turned to the Lord to pray for his mercy on me and the world from my very heart until I fell asleep. It was surprisingly spontaneous and easy, and I felt most intimately connected to the Lord. It shows that how you pray and the surrounding circumstances all can make a difference. A good prayer experience is most satisfying. Again, a case of quality over quantity. 

***Powerful Sayings*

       In today's Gospel reading from John 8, we hear about the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and the Pharisees brought her to Jesus. To test him so that they could have some charge to bring against him, they ask him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." The Lord surely knows how to penetrate our hearts with words. Anyone who still have a heard should feel the impact upon hearing such a commanding statement.
        They went away one by one, leaving the woman alone before Jesus. Then he asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more." This last saying is another commanding one, but this time it consoles and guides the spirit. 
         Listen to the Lord and let his words change you forever. 

**Be like the Lord

        Today's verse before the Gospel, Ezekiel 33:11, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live. We would like to see the wicked man die, but that's not the Lord's way. So let's be like the Lord and work on converting the wicked. The Lord only knows how to love. If we love him, we must obey and do likewise. And our salvation will be assured.

**Opposite Ways of Living

         If you remain aware of God's holy presence, you realize that he is always calling or wishing to teach you something in everything that happens to you, and you respond to or learn from him each time. This is the very opposite of living the life of a lost soul.

**Fear of Death or Lack Thereof**

        Most people fear death. The worst fear might be experienced when you know you are dying and not knowing what you'll encounter after death. It's the fear of the unknown. Not so with the Christian who has already encountered the Lord in this life. Dying is leaving this tedious world and going home to the Father to experience his love to the fullest extent for all eternity! It's something the Christian anticipates with the greatest joy!

**Lesson in Humility

         The Lord has made me see that if I've been doing something always in a certain way and someone comes along and suggests that I should do it differently, and I feel that I don't need to be told that at all, such stubbornness shows that I still lack humility. A truly humble person would let nothing others say about him, good or bad, bother him. Another lesson learned. I think it'd be a good idea to always ask what Jesus would do if he were in my situation.

***Obedience and Love***

         If you love the Lord, you will obey him. If you obey him, you will love him. So loving God and obeying God though different, are one. Now you know how to be one with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is our giant ascent. 

**Illumination Preparation*

         The Illumination of Conscience has been prophesied to be imminent. Harriet Hammons, a Catholic author who underwent the "Warning" in March, 1998, relates: "After having prayed for months to see myself as God The Father sees me, Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, revealed to me the areas that needed healing and forgiveness. This is not to conclude I will be exempt from the worldwide Warning when it occurs. This was in answer to prayer for this grace to be given me at this time, so I could be more thoroughly prepared spiritually to help others when this time comes." Catholics are not obligated to believe in any private revelation, but I do find Hammons' message to be quite compelling and helpful. If you have 27 minutes to spare, the video is worth watching. (Just a side note: As the name Harriet Hammons is not unique, I found that the picture of her you see at the beginning of the video showed the wrong Harriet Hammons.)

****The LORD Listens to US!****

        In today's first readings from Exodus 32, we see that Moses reasoned with the LORD, aired his views, even reminding him of his past kindness and promises and imploring him to withhold his wrath and not to punish his own stiff-necked people who had begun to worship a golden calf. The LORD listened to Moses and relented in inflicting punishment on his people. Now, the LORD is the personal Father to every one of us. As long as we are genuine and speak from our hearts, we are free to question him, influence him, persuading him to our way of thinking—for he loves us and welcomes any trust and intimacy we show him. We are truly dearest to him. I can go so far as to say that as long as we do not intend to sin against him, we can do no wrong to this most merciful Father of ours in heaven.

**The Christian Outlook*

        "Bad" things happen to all of us. I just blogged about my unexpected accident the day before yesterday. Right now, I am praying for a friend who has cancer on the tongue and may have to have part of it removed. Another friend is getting ready to rush his father to a hospital right now. Worse things can happen to all of us anytime in this life. But knowing that better times are ahead can make a big difference to our outlook. True disciples of Christ know that they'll enjoy eternal bliss with their Lord in heaven one day. This alone makes all sufferings in this life tolerable or even a joy if you know you're enduring them for his sake. True Christians like their Lord fight evil and never complain about anything, for they know best days are awaiting them.

**What Really Matters

        We all sin, what matters is if our sins get forgiven by God or not before we die. Bad thing happen to all of us, what matters is if we let then overcome us or not. We all want to go to heaven, what matters if we are willing to die to get there. We all want God to reward us, what matters is if you want to be rewarded in this life or the next. We perform good deeds, what matter is if we do them for ourselves or for God. Whatever we do, it's our motivation that counts. We get tired of living and wish to go to God right now, what matters is if you are sure that you are heaven bound. I can continue on ad inf. But one thing truly matters, that is whether you believe in and know Christ or not. If you do, all the above-mentioned concerns will be taken care of; you now only need to love and follow him alone.      

**Dealing with Accidents*

        I am blogging late because an accident occurred to my wife and me this morning unexpectedly, ruining both of our cars. My wife was OK, but the impact did make me feel woozy for a moment. To be sure, I went to emergency to get checked out. Three hours later, I finally learned that I was all right too. My upper back and both shoulder feel a little sore, but they should recover in a few days. I am not sure that I'll make Mass the rest of this week, so I'll probably have less to blog. Anyway, accidents do happen to all of us; they have nothing to do with the kind of person we are. How you react to the accident matters more. If you get upset and start cussing, that would be the wrong attitude. If you thank God for however things turn out, knowing that there's a reason for it and try to learn a lesson from it, you have the right attitude.

***Prayer and Holiness

        One big benefit we receive, often overlooked, is that when we pray much from the heart for others, we actually become holier ourselves. A great prayer life is not just a sign of holiness, it actually is a causes of your holiness.

**Christian Love

        To love must not be laborious. It must come spontaneously from the heart of anyone who loves the Lord. Love thus unceasingly and you'll enjoy peace.. 

***Supreme Joy of the Lord God

        On the way driving home after Mass, I turned on the radio to hear what's playing on the only local classical music station. I haven't done this for years. What I heard was George Enescu's popular Rumanian Rhapsody No. 1. The music was tuneful, although not as inspiring or uplifting as the music written by such great composers as Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert. Then I realized that the best classical compositions that used to move me almost to tears at times no longer have the same grip on me. You see, music is external and the sound enters you through your senses to create joy. By contrast, once you know the Lord God, having him dwelling within you, his joy simply bursts forth from your very heart. This is a joy that not only transforms your heart, but also heals your soul; whereas the joy of music can only stimulate you from without. Next to the joy of the Lord God, all other joys simply pale.

***Ultimate Fulfillment

        Communion experience. Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph, spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Receiving the Lord is receiving the Lord God of the Most Holy Trinity.  It's one's ultimate fulfillment! 

**Purifying Our Thoughts*

        It's so easy to think and say whatever comes to our mind. To be perfect, we need the Lord (the Holy Spirit) to form all our thoughts and opinions. This necessitates that we seek to attain union with the Lord first, and it's made entirely possible with the aid of the Holy Eucharist.

***Tragic Extreme Foolishness

        We all need God to deliver us from evil and grant us mercy, for we all are subject to temptation and fall short of being sinless. Tragically, many today choose to remain in evil and reject God's mercy. This is being foolish to the extreme, truly not knowing what they do.

***Fighting Evil Today**

        With evil looming over us everywhere, what can we do? The best way to fight evil is to surrender even more to God and pray even more fervently. If the burden on your heart is great, offer it up to God so that he may console you. Always do what the Devil doesn't want you to do. That the Lord will triumph is a foregone conclusion.

**God's Peace and Joy

        A latest video from Medjugorje. See the joy in people's faces which I also experienced when I was there. Watch to the end to see the white doves showing up in the sky.

****How Much Time for God?

        As Christians, it's good to ask ourselves how much time we spend being aware of God's presence or doing things for God's sake. If the answer is less than 50% of the time, I don't think you can consider yourself to be passing. In theory, if God is the most important person to you, you should devote 100% of your time to him. This is entirely possible if you seek to attain union with him through the Holy Eucharist. Here's reiterating the three prominent union benefits. (1) You gain awareness of God's holy presence at all times. (2) You lose your inclination to sin. (3) You also lose the fear of death. Let God amaze you!

*****Act Most Pleasing to God*****

         For us Christians, complete surrender to God so that we may become most obedient to him is the hardest act for us to perform. Thereby, it pleases him more than any other act we make. He has given all of himself to us. If we give all of ourselves to him, we truly become like him. 

***Secret to Inner Peace*

        I feel peace in my heart because I no longer fight myself! When you submit yourself totally to God's will, the "civil war" within you ceases altogether, leading to inner peace.

**Most Appropriate Petition*

        Asking for God's Mercy on us.         

***Realization Leading to Happiness*

        Once we realize that we have a perfect God, we begin trusting in him totally and can finally become truly happy.       

****Beautiful Perfection

        Communion time thoughts. There is something "perfect" here that's beautiful. We have the Lord God, our most loving Father, who has sacrificed his only begotten Son to save us from sin, and we realize this and submit ourselves to the him and receive the body and blood of his Son in the Holy Eucharist to attain union with him now and enjoy eternal life later with him in heaven forever. This is just perfect for both the Lord and us!

***The LORD with Me***

        People often don't understand me and that's understandable. But the Lord understands me before I understand myself! This is great, knowing that he is always ahead watching over, guarding, and guiding me! It is so good to have him be with me! 

**Proud and Humbled*

        Communion experience today. I receive the Lord and he is all mine. I feel proud and happy, yet at the same time most humbled that the Lord would stoop this low to enter a lowly sinner like me.  

**Right Thing to Do

        I don't mind I don't know a lot of things. It's good enough to know that going deeper into the Lord is always the right thing to do.

***New Freedom

        When I realize that everything of mine belongs to my God and he will always provide me with what I need, I experience a new freedom. Worry and Anxiety the Lord does not teaches.

**Source of Eternal Life

        During morning Mass, I had a moment suddenly seeing clearly that Christ is the one who grants eternal life to us!

***Love over Sacrifice

        Mark 12:33, today's Communion antiphon: To love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself is worth more than any sacrifice. To those who find it hard to fast and make sacrifices during the Lent, you can make it up by increasing your love for God and others. In fact, as your love grows, making sacrifices becomes natural and easy. Let love be your main objective to motivate all your other actions.

**The Demon in Us**

        As long as we still tend to sin, you could say that we have a little demon in us. For an external demon, a good exorcist can cast it out. But for this native "demon," we need to surrendered ourselves to the Lord to get it "exorcised." There is not another way, for only our creator has the power to deliver us from all evil! 

**Truth Imparted

         I am reposting this post of 8/16/2019 because as I prayed the Apostle's Creed this morning, again I felt that I was revealed the whole truth and experienced great fulfillment and peace in my heart. 

**A Principle at Work

        A cause always produces its effect. It is as certain as Newton's law of action and reaction and in line with the saying "we reap what we sow." So we know that whatever we do in this life directly shapes our next life.

*****Secret to Knowing God Revealed*****

        People find it so hard to submit to Christ in today's secular world with so many attractions and distractions. If you are one of them, let me tell you not to get discouraged and how you can break through the barrier. Anything is hard when you don't get help from God. You close yourself to Christ and you get nowhere. So you must open up, even just a tiny crack to get going. This is the crucial first step you must make. Then the more you open up and get out of the Lord's way, the more he can make the going easy for you. Remember that nothing is impossible for God. Say you now want to become a saint, your progress will become amazingly speedy, for you are letting God run the whole show. Now that you are set totally free, you wonder how you could be so thick-headed once.

****Racing Against Time

        What do you want to be known as to the Lord when you meet him? This is a serious question, for we will appear before him to be judged by him. An engineer, a postal worker, a big CEO, a lowly beggar? What would he look at foremost? I think you all know the answer. So try living up to that model when you still have time on earth. We cannot stop the clocking from ticking. Any time lost is time lost forever. Let's beat the clock.

***Uplifting Your Prayers

       Sometimes we say our familiar prayers routinely and it can become a little boing. Well, when that happens, try slowing down and meaning every single word you utter—this can revitalize all your prayers and uplift your spirit. The Lord will surely take notice, appreciate your ferventness, and render your prayers more efficacious.

Communion Experience

        The Lord lifted all my sorrows and burdens. 

**All God Asks of us

         That we allow him to be our God and Lord.

**Perfect Reconciliation*

         This is what God the Father has offered us. We believe and trust in his Son Jesus, then our sins are taken away and we become his bona fide sons and daughters, made ready to enjoy eternal life with him afterwards.  

**Discerning Your Thoughts

        Both God and Satan can influence our thoughts. When you get thoughts, discernment is needed. Know that God is always gentle and wants to give you peace, while the Devil is and wants the very opposite. Thoughts that tend to weaken your faith in God can come only from the Evil One. If you live totally in the Lord, then you may ignore the Devil totally. 

***A Serious Reminder

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 11, Jesus drove out a demon that was mute. Some in the crowds said that it's by the power of the prince of demons that he drove out demons. Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will this kingdom stand?" We all know that the old phrase "Divided we fall" speaks the truth. May I remind all that if we remain divided from God our Savior, we can suffer the greatest possible fall.

***Are We Still OK?

        In today's first reading from Jeremiah 7, the LORD wanted the people to know that they did not obey him nor pay heed, and with hardened evil hearts they turned their backs, not their faces, to him. Also, they did not listen to all the servants and prophets he had sent them untiringly since their fathers left Egypt. Faithfulness had disappeared! It sounds like the LORD was describing our generation. Throughout the ages, God has been calling us, urging us, and warning us for our own good, but we fall from him even further away. What has become of us? I feel called to ask ourselves some basic questions like this one. Who are we to blame? Is there still hope for us? Time to examine ourselves to the core. 

****Our Only Link to God*

        We need to pray to God unceasingly, for it's through prayer that we connect ourselves to God—there's not another way! Of course, praying unceasingly doesn't mean that we talk to God at all times. Basically, it's being aware of God's holy presence so that we do everything for his sake or glory. Again, this becomes easy once we attain union with the Lord through the Holy Eucharist.

***Great Consolation!

        Communion experience. Jesus is the door to heaven and I've already been granted free admission to enter it at any time. 

**The Wise Trust in God*

        Some of the banks have just gone bankrupt and their depositors lost all their money. This started happening in China and some other countries around the world, now it's happening here. Once people start to panic, we'll have chaos. It shows that we cannot depend on money alone. We need to rely upon God all the more. This country is already over 30 trillion dollars in debt, yet it continues to spend money recklessly. Instead of giving away billions to Ukraine to help killing more and more people, why can't we initiate a peace deal? I feel particularly sorry for those tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who were deceived or forced into fighting the war and have died. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers." It follows that I can say "Cursed are those who make war." Our current government keeps spending as if there'll be no dire consequences. This is like those who do whatever they wish as if they are never going to die and face God. Fools will pay for their mistakes for sure.

***God's Greatest Glory***

         Heaven and earth are filled with God's glory. One of the greatest glories to us, often overlooked, is his unconditional pure love for us. It's awe-inspiring, magnanimous, and soul-healing. Let it touch us and our lives change forever! This is the glory that can make us become like God. Glory be to this glory!

***What I Owe God***

        In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the servant owed his master a huge debt. I started asking if I owe my God anything. Realizing how much he loves and has blessed me, I feel that I really owe him deep gratitude and total obedience.

***Be like God

        Today's Gospel reading from Matthew 18 tells the parable of the unforgiving servant. It should be clear that God is our supreme example and we are to imitate him. We must treat others the way he treats us. We must accept his ways and not ours if different from his. This is what obedience is all about.

***A Promise Only You Can Break

        If you ask God sincerely for eternal life, he'll always give that to you. Maybe you knew and just forgot or were uncertain about it. The fact that he even let his only begotten Son die in our place so that we might live forever shows clearly that we can trust in this promise of his. The Father, being the Truth, always speaks the truth and thereby is to be trusted.

**Yearning for God

        We who love the Lord yearn for him. Of course, we want to see him, but that will have to wait. So what I yearn for is hearing him speak to my heart. That mean a lot to me, for hearing his sweet, holy voice means that he is with me and really cares about me. Yes, yearning for God is most proper, most edifying, and most rewarding. 

***Need to Be In God's Hands

         I've had many accidents that could have killed me. I am still here, so I guess my time is not here yet. In any case, we are totally in God's hands. When I was around seven or eight, I accidentally fell into a large not-too-clean pond on a private property. I didn't know how to swim and still remember swallowing a lot of the water. Luckily, someone who saw what happened to me stepped into the water and was in time to pull me in by my toes. Later, while attending the University of Michigan, a friend and I took a break fishing from a rowboat on a lake, and a sudden storm came up and made the boat spin madly. We had no choice but to row with the wind toward the unseen opposite side of the lake. Eventually, we arrived, but it had been a terrifying experience. Another time I lost my foldboat, a foldable canoe, in white water. It seemed that water just didn't like me. I was hiking with a group of friends at Yosemite National Park late in the day. Somehow I walked right off a big rock, fell about six feet, and hit the ground in the dark. My head missed a rock by just a few inches. As I got older, I did less adventurous things, but accidents still happened. In pruning a tree, my ladder fell sideways and I just held onto a branch. Then my hands slipped out of the protective gloves and my butt landed on the ground ten feet below, crushing two of my vertebrae. I did more or less recover, but was never the same person again. Walking one day at a construction site, a worker holding a long 2x4 vertically carelessly let it go and it fell right on my head. He was scared; I was shocked and OK. One big problem old folks face is falling. Sometimes a fall can end your life. I've had my share of bad falls, but have always gotten well in time. The most worrisome fall happened to me on Wall Street in New York. It was evening and I missed seeing the curb in front me and fell forward. The concussion made me not knowing where I was. Again, by the grace of God, there was no internal bleeding and I recovered fully. Oh, I also remember that in my teens, I also had my head hit really hard. I was riding my bike past a tall apartment building. A strong gust of wind bounced off the building and hit me so hard that I and the bike just fell sideways with my skull banging the asphalt. I think because I was young, I didn't suffer any injury. So accidents do happens, no matter how careful you are. All the more we need to put ourselves in God's hands.

***Living Bread That Satisfies

        Communion experience. Today's Gospel from John 4 tells the encounter of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at Jacob's well in Sychar. Jesus told her that whoever drinks the living water he gives would never be thirsty again. The Lord has given me even his own body and blood, so I'll never feel thirst or hunger again. There's absolutely nothing beyond the Lord himself I would need.  

**God's Mercy Extolled*

        We must never ignore our Lord God; most specifically, his infinite mercy. It is by this mercy that we sinners are still living, that there's always hope provided us in this life, and that we can be saved from death forever. If is what we critically need and dependent upon. We must be aware of and thankful for, rejoice in, and embrace it. 

**When to Leave this World*

        Once in while, when something interesting happens in this world, be it spiritual or secular, I think of some loved one who has already passed away and kinda wish that the person were here to see it. Does that really matter? I know that after I am gone, there'll be many perhaps truly wonderful things happening. But for anyone who is ready to meet the Lord himself, the world is no longer interesting. In heaven, you would know what's happening on earth anyway. Knowing the Lord and starting to see things as he sees them, you lose all your attachments to the world and realize how foolish and juvenile it is to be solely interested in living in and for the world. So after you know the Lord and start living for him alone, anytime would be a good time to leave this earth.

***Father Most Forgiving***

         Today we heard the parable of the lost (prodigal) son from Luke 15 at Mass. This is very likely the best known and most moving parable of all the parables Jesus had told. The story reveals how much our heavenly Father loves us. You really have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by it. The Father is so forgiving that as long as we realize that we need to return to him, we can do no wrong. His mercy is great indeed. You really have to be the greatest idiot not to be forgiven by him. 

**Infinite God Our Perfect Fit*

        The Lord God is infinite and has inexhaustible riches to offer us. They are ours for the asking. How can we finite creatures not be happy with such a God who loves us so much and can satisfy our deepest desires? He is a Father who can give us good things way beyond our expectations. Personally, I am wide open and eager to receive whatever he wishes to bestow upon me in abundance. 

**My Greatest Act*

        Communion experience. I have found my eternal rest in Christ. Peace now reigns. I accomplished the greatest act of my life by reconciling and submitting myself to the Lord. 

***Two Breakthrough Moves.

     1. We realize we are sinners and need Christ to save us from sin. We then believe in him and accept him as our Lord and Savior.
        2. We fall in love with Christ and wish to attain union with him, so we surrender to him completely every time we receive him in the Holy Eucharist.

***How to Stop Sinning***

         Open up to Christ to experience his tremendous love for you, then you can't help but fall in love with him. Now you stop sinning because you don't ever wish to hurt your most beloved.

**Saints vs. Evildoers (Going Separate Ways)**

         The only difference between the two is the awareness that God exists and he loves us and can save us from sin. The saints have it while the evildoers don't. They now all live on the same planet, but soon they'll go their separate ways. There'll be rejoicing and lamenting. It is difficult to even think about this. The Lord is always right, yet there are those who do not believe in him. I can only pray, pray, and pray, wishing that many will wake up in their last moments before death. That's why we ask Holy Mother Mary to pray for us now and the hour of our death. I believe that this is a grace God can and does grant.

**Be like a Student

        Obeying God is most meritorious while offending him earns you demerits. The Lord does keep account of what we do. Consider yourself a student going to school now. You want to be sure that you'll earn enough good grades to graduate. Be obedient to God now to receive top honors from him later.

**Balance Between Trust and Fear

        We need to keep a balance between trust in God and fear of him. By fear of God, I mean the fear of offending him. Psalms 130.3: If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand? Offending the Lord can be horrible. While trusting in God draws us toward him, offending him repels us from him. This balance can change though. The more you trust in the God, the less you need to be concerned about offending him. Once you attain union with God, you automatically don't wish to sin anymore.

***Our Perfect Prayer***

        It is the Our Father Jesus has taught us. If we pray it truly from the heart, meaning every word we say, we become completely reconciled to God and feel his peace. The process of perfecting ourselves now begins. 

***For the Rich to Enter Heaven

        In Matthew 19, Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." According to one tradition, the "eye of a needle" referred to a narrow gateway into Jerusalem. A camel heavily loaded would not be able to pass through it unless it gets unloaded first. In any case, it will be harder for a rich person to enter heaven. In today's Gospel reading from Luke 16, we heard the parable of the rich man and the poor Lazarus. After they both died, Lazarus was comforted and the rich man in agony. It seems that for a rich person to be able to enter heaven easily, he needs to detach himself from all his possessions, to unload them, so to speak. Next, choosing to be rewarded in your next life rather than in this life can help. Last, in Luke 12 Jesus told Peter, "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much." So the richer we get, the more generous we should become to the poor. Now, love the Lord with all your heart and you should get into heaven easy.

***Christ Is True God

        The more you believe in Christ, the more you know that he is the truth. To the unbeliever, this may sound dubiously logical, but to me who experience the Lord, I know it is true only because he is true. For if you believe in something that is not true, you won't ever feel this way and at the same time experience freedom, peace, and joy. When you believe in the true God, he actually responds, revealing himself to you in the most intimate, loving way, eradicating all doubts. 

**Ultimate Rest

        Communion experience. I know I've found my ultimate rest. 

***Most Selfless Sayings***

        Again at Mass during the consecration of the bread and wine, Fr. Stephen used the words of Jesus said at the Last Supper: 

          Take this, all of you, and eat of it: For this is my body which will be given up for you.,

          Take this, all of you, and drink from it: For this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.  

           These have to be Jesus' most selfless sayings!

**Escaping Evil*

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 20, Jesus predicted for the third time his own Passion. The chief priests and the scribes had already started plotting to kill him. If you study the history of the Church, you'll found out that she'd undergone so many horrible persecutions. Today, evil forces are so obviously trying to destroy the Church, our society, and everything else that's good. Is evil now worse than ever? That's hard to say. What we can say is that evil has always been around, battling God. And we in the midst of this must see things clearly and choose to side with God. In Matthew 12:30, Jesus said, "Whoever is not with me is against me." Not taking a stand, you fall right into your own trap and doom. 

**Another Wake-up Reminder

        In Matthew 19, Jesus said to his disciples, "Everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life." Is there anything better to inherit than eternal life? I don't think so. If that's absolutely the most desirable and best for us, then of course we should be willing to leave all and follow Christ the Lord!

**All Prayers for God Alone

        We pray for our own sake, but we also pray for God's sake too. If the Lord wants us to pray much, we should just do it for obedience to him. If he recommends that we say certain prayers, we should just do it without question. Come to think of it, prayer should always be for God. Praying to perfect ourselves is for God too, as our ultimate wish is to glorify God. I got it! 

***Cause of My Joy

        Christ is the one in whom we can rejoice forever. He is the cause of my joy. Today I feel extra joyful because I realize that my rejoicing in Christ is causing the whole heaven to be extra joyful.

**Ultimate Quest

        Communion experience. I have received the Lord. He is my ultimate quest and there is nothing besides him that's worth knowing.

***Our Only Teacher, Father, and Master*

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, "As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.' You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers. Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven. Do not be called 'Master'; you have but one master, the Christ." If we have to choose just one being to be our teacher, father, and master, it has to be the Lord God, the God of Christ. He is the one for us to learn from, listen to, and follow. This should be obvious and I am bring it up for all to realize once more. 

**Turning the Tables*

        Today's first reading comes from Isaiah 1. In verses 16-17, the prophet gives the word of the LORD: "Wash yourselves clean! Put away your misdeeds from before my eyes; cease doing evil; learn to do good." To do evil is easy, while to do good we need to learn. But once we attain union with the LORD, the tables are turned. Now evil becomes extremely repugnant to us, while doing good becomes natural under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

**Most Special Moment

        Communion experience. After I received the Lord, for a moment I became only aware of his existence as if everything else had vanished. 

**Key to Doing God's Will*

        It is important to realize that we are not only sinners, but on our own we are weaklings, not capable of accomplishing anything of true merit. By acknowledging that we can do nothing without Christ (John 15:5), we open the door to receiving power from the Lord. To be weak in God is a must for accomplishing his will. 

**Intimate Communion Experience

        Today's Gospel reading from Matthew 17 was on the glorious Transfiguration of Jesus. After receiving the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I felt as if my soul had been transported to heaven. A dry run of what's going to take place later?

***Greatest Division or Union*

         In Luke 12:51, Jesus said, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." What the Lord meant was that over him, we would be divided. To this day, we witness the division between those who accept him and those who reject him. This division is so great that you end up either in heaven or in hell! Yet the Lord can also bring about the greatest possible union among us. We achieve that when we all attain union with him through the Holy Eucharist. I think we've all heard the motto "United we stand, divided we fall." Just know that if we are divided over Jesus, our Lord and Savior, we risk suffering the greatest possible fall. 

**How to Rest Our Mind

        We do physical work and get tired. We rest and we're OK again.  If we use our mind too much, we can get tired mentally too. This is the perfect time to abandon ourselves to the Lord to find rest in him. 

*****Letting God Impress Us*****

        Communion time feeling. I was impressed by the fact I had become inseparable from Christ who is my creator, Savior, constant companion, and a whole lot more. Consider that my good fortune, but it's more than that. It's realizing that God truly loved us and died for us to save us. This is what makes our bonding, union with him, so powerful and strong! The Lord is most impressive—let him impress you for your good and for his glory.

**Erasing Our Bad Name

        Personally, I believe that in our universe, we are the only creatures with souls, rebelling against God. That makes us look pretty bad because we mess up God's order. Satan is one big bad apple, but he'll be locked up at the end forever. Praise God that he has given us the free will so that we can choose to be good too. So leave Satan alone and obey Christ single-mindedly instead to become heaven bound. Then we'll have erased our bad name and be happy forever.

*****Be Hot for God***

        In good or bad times, we Christians cannot remain complacent. Drifting along in life, believing that God will take care of everything, is just not good enough. To follow Christ every step of the way, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to set our hearts on fire so that we may cry out, begging for the Lord's mercy on all the souls in the world. We are warriors fighting a spiritual battle, although our weapons are not conventional ones. We are not just fighting for our own salvation, we are first and foremost fighting for the glory of God! In Revelation 3, the Lord says, "I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth." So, let's be hot for God! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

***We Have Our Hope!***

        Sadly, many people have lost the will to live. Common causes are depression, loneliness, illness, drug addiction, financial struggle, etc. In other words, they have lost hope. How I wish that they'd know Christ, who is our hope, our only real hope in fact, and the hope meant just for us. He is Lord the Savior, our creator, the one who loves us the most and can transform us to make us anew. We do not see nor hear him physically, but faith is all you need to know and commune with him. He is everlasting, more real than anyone you actually see. How do I know? I know because he has revealed himself to me. This is my best and only answer I can give you, for it stems from my own honest personal experience. Without Christ, you are justified to feel hopeless. But since he is alive and never dies, to lose hope has to be the worst mistake of your whole existence! Start talking to the Lord and learn about him in the Gospels is a good start. Then ask him to reveal himself to you so that you may be set free and filled with hope!

**God Is Clear, But . . .

         From today's first reading from Ezekiel 18, we learn that if the wicked man turns away from all his sins and become virtuous, the Lord GOD shall not remember his crimes and he shall live. And if a virtuous man turns away from virtue to do evil, the LORD shall not remember all his virtuous deeds and he shall die. So we get to choose becoming either virtuous or evil. God always makes things clear to us, but more often than not, we just our drag our feet. 

**Inching Closer to God

        Communion time thoughts. Being human, we may be willing to yield to God, but we always fall short. All the more we need to strengthen our spirit by yielding ourselves more to the Lord. A lifetime joyful process.

***Making Heaven Rejoice

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus said to his disciples: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." God is completely open to us. If we can be completely open to him also, there'll be great rejoicing in heaven.

***Critically Important Realization

        Today's first reading comes from Esther C:12. It contains the verse "I have no protector other than you, Lord." Do we feel this way? Do we realize that our God, the one we now know to be the God of Christ, is the only one who can protect our soul from being lost forever? A most critically important realization indeed!

***Call to Holiness

        Bad news always seems to grab headlines and get better coverage than good news. Bad happenings shock people, while good ones just make you say okay. Evil attracts people easily, while holiness doesn't. My point is "Don't sin," for sin can affect a lot more people than you know. All the more we need to be holy and perfect, which is the Lord's calling.

***Be a "Good" Talker*

        Today we hear so many people talking all around and over us nonstop. Most of them, even if they are genuine, waste too many words on whatever they wish to convey. If the speaker are fake, then they definitely commit the sin of polluting the minds of others. Now, look at Christ our Lord. He is alway direct to the point. He never wastes words, He never talks around something just to sound good. He means what he says, always aiming at our hearts. Above all, love motivates all what his says. Be like him. 

***Do It When It's Possible!***

        Communion experience. I was speechless for the Lord's generous reception of me. I voluntarily submitted myself to him. The time to do this is now.  For if you wait until you see him, it'll be too late! There are things we must not postpone and here's one among others that are first on the list.

***Thinking Your Prayers

        When I think my thoughts, the Lord already knows what they are before I say anything to him. Very early this morning, while still half asleep, I hummed a tune with mouth closed, prompted by the Holy Spirit to seek relief from a burden I was carrying on my heart. No words were spoken, yet I knew that the Lord heard and understood me perfectly. Praying to such a Lord is a delight. You can think a prayer and it works just as well.