***God Is Free!***

          I thought it would be appropriate to end November with this reminder. It is absolutely free for us to turn to God to get the best out of our existence. We only need to open our hearts to him and all he has will be ours one day soon. It sounds fantastic because it is fantastic! Know that with God, too good to be true is never true. He has no garbage to give out, only priceless treasures that are infinitely superior than anything you can find on this earth. Are you wise or foolish? Smart or dumb?

***Selfless Praying*

        We pray for others and ourselves. But we should always pray for God's sake and pray selflessly. All prayers are to glorify God. When we pray for others, it's for their good, but still firstly for the glory of God. Even when we pray for ourselves, we should forget about ourselves and focus upon glorifying God alone.     

****Our #1 Priority*

        It is to perfect ourselves. This is our best way to glorify God. If we were imperfect, we wouldn't be able to draw others to the Lord effectively. Besides, each one of us is ultimately responsible for ourselves. This makes our perfection our #1 goal.

***Living in God Alone***

        Communion experience and thoughts. After receiving the LORD, you become aware of his existence only, nothing else matters. To live a life in union with Christ alone is super satisfying! He is now your universe and you know that you are secure for all eternity.

***Life-Changing Breakthrough*

        To realize that Christ is the truth and decide to believe in him is a revelation, an illumination of your heart and mind, and a most precious gift and huge blessing from God. It has to be the most profitable and life-changing breakthrough you can have, for you are now a new creature returning to you heavenly Father for good. Let joy reign in your heart!

***Salvation Assured 100%

        We are either saved or lost forever, and Christ is the only one who can save us by delivering us from sin. I am not saying that you have to know Christ to be saved, for there are many who don't know him due to no fault of their own but are good people—surely the Lore will have mercy on them. What I am saying is that if you want to be saved 100% for sure, then you'd better get to know him. 

**Preparing to Be Blessed by God

        We love to have God bless us, but we need to have the right disposition to receive his blessings. To be ready, be open to him and expect fo receive all the blessings he knows you need. As he blesses you, believe that your life will truly change to bring you ever closer to him. After you are blessed, do not forget to thank the Lord. 

***Unchangeable Law

        Communion experience. I know that true rest can only come from total abandonment (submission) to Christ. It's just that way. 

**Cause of Our Misery

        We who were created by God are meant to obey and glorify him always. When we do that, we experience peace and joy. Now you know why we feel restless and unhappy.

***How God Speaks to Us***

        God has spoken or perhaps still speaks to a rare few souls audibly. For the majority of us, we "hear" his voice in our hearts. How well you hear him depends upon how much you are in tune with him. If you totally shut him out, then of course you won't hear a thing from him. On the other hand, if you are in full union with him, you do know his will for you always, and that's really hearing from him. All the other thoughts you receive in your heart come from him as well. 

***Smart Advice***

      You may not be aware of this, even if you believe in the Lord. It is that he not only knows everything about you, he also has a hand in everything that happens to you. This usually becomes clear when you look back. My advice to you is that you become aware of his involvement every present moment of your life. Then you'll accept and appreciate everything that happen to you when it happens.

***Our Own Salvation Comes First***

        This is not being self-centered. God wants to save all of us and we cannot help him if we ourselves are not saved yet. We need to be the shining examples for all to see. Our first obedience is to obey the Lord to save ourselves first.  

**Joyous Realization

        Communion experience. My eternal life has began!  

*****Do You Realize That . . .

the more you surrender yourself to God, the freer you feel and become? This is how he has made us! 

**Another Good Question

         You claim that you believe in God, the God of Christ, but can he depend upon you to do the work for him? In other words, can he trust in you to always do what he wants you to do? 

**Another Cause for Joy

        Revelation 2.10: "Remain faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." This is the reward the faithful shall receive from the Lord. It alone is enough to keep us rejoicing unceasingly! 

*****In Solitude with God (True Freedom)***

        We don't have an oxymoron here, for the Lord is ever present and we cannot possibly exclude him. As a matter of fact, we should always welcome and embrace his holy presence. I enjoy it so much that my solitude with him turns into an exquisitely beautiful experience, knowing that I've been liberated from the world and now belong to him alone—this is true freedom! 

**Most Consoling Words

         After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples to commission them to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that he had commanded them. His last words to them were "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." They were absolutely consoling to all of us.

*****Some Absolutely Serious Words*****

        If you don't believe in or accept Christ as your Savior, it's not something you can easily brush aside. For you must be able to prove that he never existed or he is a phony or he just came and died for nothing! Otherwise, you become one most foolish, insensitive, and ungrateful person in existence. You are foolish because you put yourself on the road to self-destruction. (In Matthew 10, Jesus said, Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.)

***No Christ, No True Joy*****

        I know the Lord well enough to declare unequivocally that one can never be truly happy without knowing the God of Christ. Any happiness you find sans Christ is pseudo and short-lived, while the joy of Christ is experienced by the soul and everlasting. You won't know this until you have tasted the Lord yourself. 

***Only Two Possible Outcomes***

        In Matthew 25:29, Jesus says, "To everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Let me use myself as an example to show you that this totally makes sense. When I first asked the Lord to take away my ego, he responded decisively in a couple of weeks. I didn't expect that and was amazed. I opened up more, giving him more freedom to change me. More results and more amazement until I finally felt in love with the Lord and surrendered to him. Now I am in full union with him. The other part is the going-downhill part. You simply let yourself go in the opposite direction, falling further and further away from God and end up losing your very soul. 

*****God Gives the Best*****

        Communion experience. The Lord God goes way beyond keeping me alive on earth; he raises me to the highest possible level of existence. I now belong to him forever and is heaven bound! You can't possibly top that.

***Secret of Inner Peace***

        In Matthew, Jesus gave so many good teachings to his disciples. For example, he told them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. He also taught them to stop judging others, and told Peter to forgive any brother who sins against him not just as many as seven times, but seventy-seven times. Come to think of it, if we can truly do what Jesus has taught us here, it would not be possible for us not to experience peace! This is how the infinitely merciful Lord is able to endure the innumerable offenses we commit against him.

****Improving Our Prayer Life

        When we attend daily Mass, we ask for the Lord to have mercy on us, but we need to do it a lot more. Also, we normall don't praise God enough unless you are a charismatic. In particular, realizing how much we depend upon the Lord just to remain alive, we really should thank him every chance we get. So, to stay in intimate commune with the Lord, praise him, beg for his mercy, and thank him for all things unceasingly.

***What God Will Do for Us!***

        Communion experience. I was not worthy to receive the Lord, but he made me "worthy" to receive him. And I became immortal!

*****Mighty Precious Deed of God

        When Jesus changes the bread and wine into his body and blood for us to consume during Mass as he did at the Last Supper, this to me is one of his mightiest deeds. It is the greatest self-giving performed with humility without any fanfare. It is an open invitation for us to attain union with him to become like him. Truly a gift from heaven as precious as the gift of our life, for whoever receives it will have eternal life.  

***Cause for Joy!

        Today is the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. In reading 2 from 1 Corinthians 15, Pauls writes, "Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." For all I know, Christ has already paved the way for me to have eternal life in heaven after this life. And this is a big deal—definitely a cause for great joy!

**Causes of Shedding Tears

        Sometimes I cry for all of us who offend the Lord continuously, causing him to suffer nonstop. Then there are times I am moved to tears because of the unspeakable joy I receive from him. Today it's realizing how great his love and mercy are that makes me want to shed tears. 

***Taking the High Road*

        Many Catholics do not strictly adhere to all the teachings of the Church or the counsels and commands of Christ, for some of them are just too hard to follow. But obey we must, even if we feel differently. The correct attitude is to admit that the Lord is always right and we need him to help us to become perfect. Then even if we don't quite succeed, he will forgive us. To disobey him outright instead is to ask for condemnation. 

***Ave Maria by Gomez, Kang***

        Many composers have written "Ave Maria" in honor of the Blessed Mother. I have listed a number of them under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos . . . in the right sidebar of the blog page. Schubert's "Ave Maria" is probably best known and a classic, but today the magnificent version by William Gomez rivals that one. My favorite recording has been the one sung by Elina Garanca which you'll find in the sidebar list. Today I came across this version by a Korean mezzo soprano. She may not be as famous as Garanca, but her voice is just sublime and sings most beautifully. I think you'll be moved by her performance.

***Perfecting Relationship***

        Communion experience. I let love draw me deep into my beloved Lord, perfecting my relationship with him.

*****Blunt Reality***

         We shall all go back to God from here. After seeing him, some will remain with him forever, some will be separated from him for a while and return later to be with him forever, and some will never see him again. The good thing is knowing all this, we get to make our choice and secure it in advance. The worst thing is we just don't care and let God determine our fate. 

***By Stark Contrast***

        A lost soul experiences his worst fear when he's dying without any hope before facing his unknown. By stark contrast, a faithful Christian rejoices, knowing that he'll be going to live forever in paradise!

****Thought Control

        All sins start with a thought. If we can keep our thoughts pure, we'll remain undefiled and have inner peace. Attaining union with God thru the Holy Eucharist is the effective and I believe the only way of keeping our thoughts pure, for the Lord alone knows our thoughts and can keep our hearts clean.

***Most Powerful Perfect Prayer***

         The Our Father which Jesus taught us is the perfect prayer. It defines our relationship properly with the heavenly Father. Know that praying it with all your heart can turn you into a saint!

***Cooperating with Love

        Communion experience. The Lord is completely selfless. He even sacrificed his only Son to save us. Our only proper and logical response is to accept his love for us so that we may love him back.

**Why Feel Unhappy?

        If we truly know that God loves us, why do we still feel unhappy sometimes? The only justifiable reason I can think of is that we see so many people still ignoring or offending the Lord. But the Lord does wish that we would suffer for his sake with great joy. Of course, if we don't know or trust in the Lord fully yet, we naturally get unhappy when things don't go our way.

***Clear Evil

        Today I attended the Thanksgiving Mass. I usually sit in the first row to receive the Lord early. At Communion time, I saw a mother cuddling her baby walking by after receiving the Eucharist. The baby was beautiful and the scent most touching. I just couldn't believe anyone would have the heart to abort any child not yet born! That abortion is pure evil is crystal clear.

***Communion Joy

        Communion experience. The joy of having received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist bubbles forth from within the heart and deeply touches the soul. It can only be given by God.

**Must-Have Awareness

        This awareness a Christian must have—it's recognizing that there is a fierce spiritual war being waged between God and the Evil One, with both sides fighting for our souls. So we must choose sides and get involved. If you don't do anything and believe that everything will be OK, I can assure you that it won't work out that way for you. The only sane choice is to join the Lord and fight alongside him. Then our final triumph shall be assured.

***The Importance of Prayer***

        You may or may not be familiar with Church Militant, but my purpose of posting this video by Christins Niles who used to work for Church Militant is for you to hear what she says about the importance of prayer which many Christians may not be fully aware of. A family (or any Christian group) that doesn't pray together regularly is bound to fall apart in times like ours. Blessed are those families that always pray and stay together. Sadly, they are rare and few nowadays.

****Why the World Doesn't Hear God*

         Here is one reason. The folks of the world are easily impressed by what they can feel thru their physical senses. On the other hand, the Lord God, being most humble and meek, never does anything to show off his power and might. To hear his gentle voice clearly, you need to shut off your physical senses and enter your own innermost first, and this is what the worldlings have trouble with.  

***Enjoying God's Love

        Communion experience. I just bask myself in God's love, the most beautiful and powerful force in the whole universe.

*How God Has Changed Me*

        It's already November 22, the eve of this year's Thanksgiving. Soon 2023 will be over. Looking back, I see that I've received Christ in the Eucharist thousands of times. I've experienced the greatest change since I started attending daily Mass a decade and a half ago. This change has been continuous and gradual. I now experience the Lord's presence at all times. Sins have become totally repulsive to me. The world has lost its lure. The usual activities people engaged in have become boring and this increases my desire to go to the Lord. In short, I've become otherworldly. Naturally, this brings some disadvantages in associating with others, but it's a negligible price to pay relative to what you receive from the Lord. Serving and glorifying God is now my sole mission. I feel totally fulfilled and just want to praise the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is real and amazing beyond words!

***Failings Are Blessings!***

        Every time you fail God, don't know what to do, lose peace, or suffer pains, it's a chance for you run to the Lord to seek advice, guidance, and consolation. Open up and enter even deeper into him! Never ever let anything weaken your faith and your hope in the Lord. In fact, see all you failures as blessings, for it's thru them that you get to abandon yourself to the Lord even more and become stronger each time. (Personally, I've found that God send sufferings my way always to strengthen me. If you love him, you may suffer for a while, but the sky always turns blue again!)

**Acting on Your Beliefs*

        One can be a Christian, but that might not be obvious to others. Similarly, you can believe that you depend totally upon God, yet what you do might seemingly contradict your belief. Any truly belief is be lived and acted upon. Otherwise, we are just being lukewarm, not much above a hypocritical Pharisee or scribe. By the Way, to live as if you depend upon God totally in everything is a great way to live!

***Being Open to God

        Communion experience. I surrender myself to the Lord completely; now he can bestow all his graces and blessings upon me freely without encountering any hindrance. Real cool!

***Union with God Extolled***

         This is truly a happy state! You are one with the Lord, in tune with him. You share his joys and sorrows. In commune with him, your learn of his thoughts and ways. To be aware of his constant presence within you is absolutely tonic to the soul. Hearing him speak to your heart just makes your day. Then if you sin inadvertently, you lose all your peace; but that's easily remedied thru the sacrament of penance. Once you tasted union with God, you don't want to be in any other state anymore. Freedom, peace, and joy are now all yours. It's truly nirvana.

**Another Joy

      Christ knows all about me. Because of that, he is able to love me. And I rejoice in that!

*****Only One Savior*****

        Are you a lost soul? If you don't know, then you are lost. I am saved and I know that. Christ, being God, knows all about us and specializes in saving lost souls. Don't fool yourself thinking that you can find another savior—Buddha, Mohamed, and any other religious leader either have already been or will be judged by Christ, period. 

***Loving Without Prejudice

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 19, Jesus came to Jericho and chose to stay at the home of Zacchaeus, the local chief tax collector. When people saw this, they began to grumble, saying that he had gone to stay at the house of a sinner. But Jesus let it be known that he had come to seek and to save what was lost. We often look down on those who are poor, uncouth, ignorant, or less holy, but the Lord hates the sin and never the sinner. And this makes him our ideal Savior. Let us be like him to become worthy to be loved by him. 

*****Most Special Daughter of the Father*

        Today is the memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Communion antiphon: Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the Son of the eternal Father. This is why Mary is so special and became the most favored daughter of the Father. It is proper that we venerate and love her, for Jesus had already given her to us to be our mother, knowing that she can lead us to him.

***Have Faith and Ask in Earnest

        In today's Gospel reading fro Luke 18, a blind beggar sitting by the roadside heard a crowd going by. After he found out that Jesus of Nazareth was going by, he shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" The people walking in front rebuked him, telling him to be quiet, but he kept calling out all the the more, "Son of David, have pity on me!" Jesus stopped and ordered that he be brought to him; and when he came near, Jesus asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see." Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you." He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God.
        When we want something from the Lord, we can ask for it quietly or shout it out loud—it doesn't matter, as long as we have faith and do it in earnest. Always remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:7—"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." The Lord awaits our move.

**Thoughts on Sinning

        We fail God when we sin. Every time I sin, I know that I have failed the test, so I asked the Lord not to test me to the point I would fail. Then I realize that as long as I love him, he will honor that, for love does strengthens us and makes us more impervious to sin.  

**What Christ to Me Is Like

        If I were a jigsaw puzzle, Jesus would be the exact missing piece I need to complete me.  

**Need for Prayer*

        As long as evils still exists among us, the Lord needs us to pray hard and unceasingly for our survival and his glory. 

***Focusing on Ourselves First***

        At Mass this morning I heard the prayer asking the Lord to shine light upon the POpe, the bishops, and the priests. It struck me that when we ask the Lord to favor us in some way, it's because we need to soften our hearts and be open and willing to change. So we need to pray for ourselves first. In fact, the Lord is always eager to bless and sanctify us. If we get out his way, we'll receive the favors we need.

***To Do Great Things for God

        The Lord God can create anything he wants. He can change anything too except in our case where he needs us to give him permission, as he respects our free will. So when we say yes to him, he can change us as much as we'll let him. Knowing this should open our minds and get us excited. Exercise your free will wisely that you may do great things for the Lord. 

***Never Risk Your Soul

        We all shall die one day. We can wait until sometime later or the moment before we die to get ready for meeting the Lord. I chose to accelerate the whole process by seeking to attain union with God in advance. This is being wise and prudent. Putting off the inevitable in this case amounts to playing Russian roulette with your soul. 

*Praising My Lord*

        Communion experience. Christ is most precious to me, my true treasure. He fulfills me completely. He is the one to be with and hold onto for ever.  

**No Less Blessed than the Apostles

        The Lord God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Christ came to us two millennia ago and is with us now. We should live as if he is right among us on earth. We are no less blessed than the Apostles.

**Poignant Scenes**

        Today's Gospel reading from Luke 17 is about the day of coming of the Son of Man. Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it. I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken, the other left." First, it's clear that the Lord should be more important to us than ourselves. If we are willing to lose our life for the Lord's sake, we shall be saved. This totally makes sense. The scenes describing "one will be taken, the other left" is disturbing or even terrifying. If you do care about your loved ones, you'd better do you utmost to love them, trust in the Lord and pray for them. 

***God Makes Us Beautiful***

        Communion experience. I have the Lord now. His love and beauty make me forget all my ugliness. 

*****How to Love God with His Love*****

        I wish to love God with his love. He shows me that the way to accomplish that is to let him love me as much as possible—what a beautiful solution! Again, letting the infinite help the finite.

**Power thru God*

        We are finite beings who can only do so much, but if we surrender ourselves to God, he can and will accomplish so much more thru us.

*A Special Joy*

        This is the joy known only to those Christians who know that they've been saved and are now heaven bound.

**Happening Only with True God*

        When you believe in Christ with all your heart, wonderful things happen to you. That's because he is the true God.

**The Fear of Death Measures . . .

one's faith in the Lord God and freedom from the world.  

****See Life Clearly

        I drove to Mass this morning. To get on the main road, I stopped before making the left turn to be sure that there were no oncoming cars as the view was blocked by a high point in the road. When I thought it was clear and started turning, a fast dark car with headlights off showed up over the high point. If it had gone any faster and I reacted slower, we could've had a close encounter. So we really have to be alert and careful when we drive. I know many people prefer to drive a heavier vehicle for security reasons. And when driving on a multi-lane road, many don't use the center lanes to avoid a possible head-on collision. We all want to make sure that our lives on earth are safe. Then I thought how infinitely more important our afterlife is! So be wise and farsighted. Life on earth is just our temporary beginning; eternal life is what we really need to focus upon! Being myopic is not always better than being blind.

*****Taking Advantage of Divine Mercy

        We are entirely at God's mercy. We live because he is sustaining us. We will die the moment his time for us is up. Fortunately, he is also our most loving Father. If we obey him always, we'll end up in heaven for sure. We urgently need to let all know of his mercy. Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet daily often for the salvation of the whole world.

****Our-Gravest-Moment Warning**

        We live each instant and each moment keeps changing. Soon we'll be at the moment of appearing before the Lord. This is the gravest and most crucial moment we must be ready for, for what happens after that will be fixed forever!   

**Total Submission

        Communion experience. I must submit myself to the Lord on all three levels, the physical (my body), the mental (my mind), and the spiritual (my soul). 

**Perfuming the Souls

        I adore the Holiness of the the Lord, for it imparts a fragrance to our souls. 

**First and Foremost Wisdom*

        From today's reading 1 from Wisdom 6, "To you, O princes, are my words addressed that you may learn wisdom and that you may not sin." It made me see that "to not sin" is our first and foremost wisdom! A holy person is indeed a spiritual genius.

**In Tune with the Lord

        This is today's entrance song from Psalm 88: Let my prayer come into your presence. Incline your ear to my cry for help, O Lord. This was exactly how I felt like praying to the Lord. Later, the response to Psalm 82: Rise up, O God, bring judgments to the earth. This was exactly what I wish the Lord would do. Finally, the Gospel acclamation from Luke 17: Has none but the foreigner returned to give thanks to God? This was what Jesus said to the Samaritan, one of the ten lepers whom he had cleansed earlier. We have so forgotten the Lord that we do not thank him for anything anymore. 

***How We Respond to God Matters**

        God is always calling us to return to him, for he wants us to have the greatest possible happiness. If we respond readily and follow him all the way, we can go straight to heaven after we die. If we are less perfect, we end up in purgatory before entering heaven. Then, depending upon your spiritual state, purification can be severe and long. This isn't my first choice for sure. Last, there are those with hardened hearts who just do not respond, but the Lord still loves them the same. Now the only way to get their attention is to have something shocking happen to them. It's still a grace, but I don't wish anyone to be foolish enough to advance to that stage, for that may be their last call and the experience can be traumatic. Be wise. Know that what's best for God is always best for you too.

**Old Age Thoughts*

         Old people's one big problem is loneliness. If they are still able physically, they try to do as many fun things as possible. If not, then they have no choice but to depend upon others to take care of them. You could say that they now just wait for death. This is a rather sad situation. One thing about attaining union with Christ is that you'll never ever feel lonely again, for you sense his constance presence within you in a most intimate way. I also see that as I age, I get the great opportunity to abandon myself to the Lord even more! And I rejoice that before long, I'll be seeing my beloved Lord face to face. 

**Ther God of Christ Is . . .

not our last hope; he is our only hope. 

**Natural Law

         The more you give yourself up to God, the more you experience freedom.

**It's All Relative

        The more you are awake to God, the deeper the world seems to be asleep. 

***Faith Being Tested***

       On Oct. 13, 1973, the Blessed Virgin Mary gave Sr. Agnes Sasagawa of Akita, Japan, a message in which she said "The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres . . . churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord." It was also reported that on June 18, 1965, Our Lady told Conchita Gonzalez of Garabandal, Spain, that many cardinals, bishops, and priests were following the road to perdition, and with them, they were taking many more souls. At the time, many people rejected this message as being implausible. Of course, now we see that both the Akita and Garabandal messages contain a prophetic truth. We are now living in a time of great confusion. That the good Bishop Strickland of Texas just got removed from ministry by Pope Francis was truly shocking. We should believe in the Lord more than ever and follow the good bishops and cardinals only. The purification and restoration of the Church will surely come. Meanwhile, our faith faces its greatest challenge.

***EXCITING FAITH***

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 17, the Apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith." The Lord replied, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you." What's so exciting is that there is no limit to how great our faith can be! 🔔🔔🔔 When all doubts vanish, faith becomes infinite.

***An Awareness to Be Aware Of*

          Let me just quote half of today's reading from Psalm 139. 

        O LORD, you have probed me and you know me; you know when I sit and when I stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My journeys and my rest you scrutinize, with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know the whole of it. Behind me and before, you hem me in and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; too lofty for me to attain. 

          The LORD is fully aware of us. Let us live in full awareness of this awareness of his and rejoice that he watches over us to keep us on the path to eternal freedom and joy! 

**Getting the Most Out of Prayer

        When you pray, if you just say the words and hope that the Lord will hear you, your prayer might not even reach him. On the other hand, it you pray from your heart, meaning every word you say and believing without a doubt that you will received what you ask for, you can be sure that the Lord will respond most favorably. (In Mark 11:24, Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." God will take you seriously only if you take him seriously.

***Sweetened by God

        Communion experience. A sweetness permeates my entire heart and soul.

***Most Berautiful Name

        During the breaking of the bread at Mass, we address the Lord as Lamb of God and ask him to grant us mercy and peace. "Lamb of God" strikes me as the most beautiful name I've ever heard. Then everything about the Lord is beautiful! 

****Fantastic Result****

        The Lord God loves us so much that he wants us to know him. So go before him and say, "LORD, here I am, all yours to know." And voilà, you now know him!

**Only One Relationship Needed

        All relationships we established with others on earth will end one day. So start establishing your most beautiful relationship with the Lord God that will last forever. 

*****Why We Are Unhappy

        We are unhappy because we sin against God! The Lord has made us this way so that we may seek to return to him. If we were holy and blameless, we would feel so grateful to God and be filled with joy! As long as we go against our conscience and continue sinning, we lose our peace and remain unhappy.

*Dying Advice*

        Do not delay doing God's will, and alway do it wholeheartedly, so that you may die in peace. 

**Extolling Holiness

        Holiness is a beautiful thing. Since God is most holy, he is most beautiful. I sense the beauty of all the saints and all my brothers and sisters who love the Lord. Other beauties we sense are just not in the same class.

*****Secret of Living an Easy Life*****

        Before I was fully awake this morning, the Lord impressed this thought on me. It wasn't new, but permit me to elaborate on it once more. The thought was "if we obey the Lord, everything becomes easy." How so? Well, if we obey him, we do his will always, and with us out of his way, of course everything will be accomplished for us. If we want to know the Lord well, this is also the right approach. He loves us and wants us to know him. We desire that and he reveals himself to us. This is also accomplished effortlessly by him with no struggle on our part. So be obedient and living your life become a breeze. 

*****Christ Is the ONE

       More thoughts on Christ the Lord. He is the only one who has revealed to us that he can save us from sin and lead us to eternal life. This is news one can hardly believe or wants to believe with all his heart!  Once you fall in love and attain union with him, all you desire is to remain in him forever! He is most special because he makes us special. 

***Existence Fulfilled***

        Today at morning Mass it came to me that God the Son loved me so much that he even died for me on a cross! This realization completely fulfilled my existence, making my life meaningful and rich; it's pretty incredible. Christ is truly our perfect solution to the riddle of life. 

***God Eager to Forgive*

        We can never be 100% pure in this life on earth. As long as our sins are venial and we are in a state of grace, the Lord still invites us Catholics to receive him in the Holy Eucharist. I believe that he removes all these sins as well before or as he enters us. From the Gospels, we learn that he readily forgave the sins of those who showed great faith in him. It's love for and trust in the Lord that count. Repent of our sins and ask him to forgive us and all our sins are gone! So there's no good reason whatsoever for us to remain in sin which causes only misery for all!

*****Readying Ourselves for Judgment*****

        We'll be judged by Christ either right after our death or at his second coming. Since we do not know which will happen first, it makes perfect sense that we live in order to be ready for our judgment. If this sounds somewhat morbid to you, then you are not yet ready. If you feel great joy, you are definitely ready!

*****Most Loved One

        Why do many of us love Christ more than anyone else? ANS: Because he is LOVE and love is the most powerful force there is. When we love him, we are set free and no evil can ever touch us anymore!

***Letting God Make Us Perfect

        Communion experience. I receive the Perfect one who can perfect me. Nothing is impossible for us after we let him be our Lord.

**Requisite for Discipleship*

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus addressed the great crowds on discipleship. He said to them, "Everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple." So the Lord come first and we detach ourselves from everything else and love others with his love. This may be tough for many of us, but at least we must have such an intention if we ever wish to gain eternal life. (We know that if we exclude God altogether, we'd get nowhere. So the truth is that the more we let the Lord take over, the easier it becomes; and everything becomes possible when we abandon ourselves to him totally.)

***Nonstop Blessing by God*

        Today's response to readings from Psalm 112: Blessed the man who is gracious and and lends to those in need. From the psalm, we see that the LORD also blesses anyone who fears him, who greatly delights in his commands. It's just so easy to get the LORD to bless you. If you follow his commandments and do his will always, you are blessed by him every single moment of you life! And that is absolutely awesome!

**Best Belonging

        Communion experience. It feels so good that I belong to the Lord and am totally his, such freedom, such consolation!

***Same Old Excuses*

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, we heard read the parable of the great feast from Jesus. A man gave a great dinner to which he invited many, but one by one, they all began to excuse themselves. It's the same today. Many give excuses for not accepting God's invitation to enter his kingdom, not revealing their real reasons. Hypocrisy will be with us so long as we rebel against God. 

***Greatest Possible Consolation***

        It seems that nothing can be worse than losing your own life and all your possessions. But Christians disagree because they know that no matter what happens to them, their souls will remain intact for all eternity! That's their greatest possible consolation.

****Most Exciting Learning Process*

        Learning or learning about something new can be fun and/or exciting. Examples are learning to swim, learning about a country and its culture, reading about how to save big money, etc. But the most exciting and satisfying learning experience is learning God's ways and thoughts, for you can end up becoming like God!

**Meaningless Living*

        There are many dramas you can watch on TV. The Koreans ones are particularly popular because the story or plot is always well written, easily drawing you in. The stories might not be true, but they do portray real lives. Most of us are like those characters in those shows—we seek happiness, but we also deal with problems at home, at work, among friends and lovers. It does seem to me that going thru life like that without involving God is ultimately meaningless, even if the ending turns out to be happy. With God involved, you would seek his will, do things according to his plan, and discover how he resolves all the problems for you, etc., and living becomes meaningful. Of course, this is not to be expected from a secular industry. They have succeeded in entertaining us, but we remain as worldly as ever. We need to experience the real God of Christ in our lives!

***Most Precious Food***

        Communion experience. This precious food from heaven I receive does not guarantee good health or longevity for me in this world, but it absolutely assurers me that I'll live forever with my Most Loving Father for all eternity after I leave here. This is plenty good enough for me! 

**Pure Giving & Serving Valued by God

        This is today's Gospel reading from Luke 14. On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He said to the host who invited him, "When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or sisters or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment. Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." So we should give and serve without expecting to be repaid in any way. We work for the Lord alone and will be repaid by him alone.

**No Time to Waste*

        Whether you are young or old, there is no time to waste. Our lifetime is limited and every moment counts. You live it either with or without God. 

*****When Life Becomes a Tragedy*****

        Again, here's the quotation by Léon Bloy, the French Catholic writer: "The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint." Let me say that the saying remains true if I were to replace the last part "is not to become a saint" with "is not to believe in Christ," "is not to seek union with God," "is not to abandon yourself totally in God," or "is not to love your God with all your heart, with all you mind, and with all your soul." 

*****About Christ the LORD

        It's so easy for us to dismiss Christ when we don't really know him yet. But once you know him well, you never want to leave him ever, for he is that beautiful! Advice: never rush to conclusions about Christ!

***Fighting Our Worst Enemy***

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus denunciated the scribes and Pharisees for exalting themselves instead of serving others. The ego was at play here. Our ego is our worst enemy, blocking us from ever becoming truly humble. Do you know that when we lose our ego, Satan loses all his power over us? To becoming egoless, just don't do anything that would make others think highly of you.

*****Inner Peace Attainable!

        The world is in chaos for not embracing Christ the Lord. Will it ever become completely peaceful? I doubt it. Then I realize that we can still attain perfect inner peace when we attain union with the Lord thru the Holy Eucharist! This is absolutely uplifting and heartwarming. Rejoice that in Christ there is always hope for our salvation!

***What We Basically Lack**

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. The lesson he wanted to teach them was given in this saying: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Here's the secret to being exalted by God, but alas, not enough of us get and practice that! It shows that we basically lack the humility of obeying the Lord fully.

**What Best to Look Forward To

        What do you look forward to when another day begins? Getting your paycheck? Attending a friend's party? Just relaxing at home? Test driving the car you've always wanted? They are all OK, but the most appropriate, edifying, and rewarding thing we look forward to everyday should be "serving God."    

***Being Good Not Good Enough

        Being a good Christian will most likely get you into heaven, but being a perfect Christian really should be our aim, for the Lord deserves the very best from us! We can never love him enough.

**Faith over Means**

        I've learned that faith is what make things happen, not the means you use to obtain what you want from God. A couple of examples to show what I mean. Once I blest my son when he suffered a severe virus attack, putting him in a dire condition, with a cotton ball soaked with the tears of Mother Mary which I saw flowing from her eyes on an icon at a certain monastery, and my son miraculously recovered shortly afterwards even though later I found out that the tears were not genuine. Second case, I am thinking of sending a donation to a religious organization asking them to help praying for certain individuals for whom I've been praying for a long time. Then what if they don't really honor that? I do hear the Lord assuring me that as long as I do believe in him, he will honor my wish.

***Eucharistic Experience***

        We have Eucharistic adoration at our church today, so I spent an hour there with the Lord. Here's what I experienced. (1) I yearned for the Lord and even union with him in this life couldn't totally satisfy me. I just knew that there's a higher perfect union awaiting me in heaven, and that's keeping me going. (2) You don't always have to speak to the Lord. Just simply being with him is a very satisfying form of prayer. You sit or kneel at his feet, enjoying his presence and being attentive to him. (3) I was still overwhelmed by the fact that the Lord I worship and adore doesn't mind entering me daily through the Holy Eucharist. It's like I am nobody and I am really somebody at the same time. In sum, the Lord is awesome.

****Time to Be Alert!****

        The Irish Saint Malachy, a bishop of the 12th century, prophesied about 112 future popes since his time, and our present Pope Francis turns out to be #112. Here's the saint's prediction on his last pope: "In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church there will reign Peter the Roman, who will feed his flock amid many tribulations, after which the seven-hilled city will be destroyed and the dreadful Judge will judge the people. The End." In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to Peter, "I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it." I am not a prophet, but considering the states of the world and the Church today and the facts stated above, and using common sense, I can see that big things have to be imminent. How soon, I don't know. Nevertheless, they are likely to happen when we least expect them. We are in or near end times!

***Best Choice

        Communion experience. If I were given the chance to become the richest person in the world, to become the most famous idol of the world, to become the healthiest and longest-living person in the world, or to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist, I would choose the last without any hesitation. 

***Only One True God***

        Only total reconciliation with the God of Christ will bring us peace.

        Only the love of the God of Christ can heal us, body and soul.

        Only the God of Christ can deliver us from sin. 

        Only the God of Christ cans lead us to heaven. 

        For he is the only true God.

***Savoring the Lord*****

        Communion experience. After receiving the Holy Eucharist, I truly savor tasting the Lord while the consecrated host remains on my tongue. Personally, I don't kneel yet because the Lord, having not yet occupied me fully, is only with me, and he shouldn't bow to anyone. I start to kneel only after I have totally consumed the Eucharist. (I'd like to mention again the time I really appreciated the Holy Eucharist and the Lord rewarded me by not completely melting away until after over twenty-two minutes.)

***Treasure Every Second We Have***

         It's already November 2023. We are losing our time on earth every second. Let's be aware that the Lord God is with us every single moment sustaining us. Without his support we would instantly die. So every moment we have now we should appreciate and cherish, while enjoying his presence and care.