***A Most Blessed State***

        It's being humble and in union with the most humble and meek Lord.

**Remain Lowly to Become Mighty**

        Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Communion Antiphon, Luke 1:52, "The Lord has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly," came from Mary's Canticle after the angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to her. Be lowly and the Lord will make you mighty. This is in accord with what Jesus said later in Luke 14:11: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

***Faith in God Is Everything***

        In Matthew 17:20, Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Of course, whatever we ask the Lord to do has to be serious, urgent, necessary, and reasonable. But most of all, it should always glorify him. Now, when we pray that the Lord would heal someone who's sick, we usually plead for his mercy mercy. I'll never forget the time my son was hit by a virus when he was 27. His heart almost stopped beating and the doctor informed me that even if he recovered, he'd need a heart transplant. I walked into the ER with a cotton ball I had which I believed to be soaked with the tears from a weeping icon of Mother Mary. I made the sign of the cross with it on my son's forehead and said, "Be healed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." It was the first time I sounded as if I was giving a command. My son was discharged on the 4th day. It was a miracle! Now, praying for someone's conversion is more complex, for it involves the free will of that person. Still, believing that nothing will be impossible for God is the way to go, and those who hold great faith in the Lord God will witness his wonders, experience his joy, and have life forever!

*****Keeping Our Intentions Pure*****

         If we truly believe in the Lord, knowing that he is our only judge and will totally take care of what we ask for, then after we pray to him, we should absolutely feel at peace. This is a good test of our faith. We should always keep God's will intact, not to taint it the slightest with ours. This is a great way of purifying our intentions.

**Short-Lived vs. Lasting Happiness**

         When we do things just to feel good momentarily, we are being self-centered. On the other hand, when we just remain humble and experience great peace, that results from being God-centered.

***Our Greatest Triumph***

         It is to be able to not fall into sin for the sake of God the Father who loves us.

**Destined for Greatness**

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus said to the crowds: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he." So all of you who are on the way to entering the Kingdom of heaven rejoice, for that you are going to be great in the eyes of the Lord!    

***Perfect Submission to Christ Brings . . .***

perfect peace to us. 

***True Love***

         Communion experience: The Lord invites us to receive his own body and blood—he truly loves us!

*****My Most Urgent Appeal to All*****

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 18, Jesus said to his disciples: "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." We see how precious our souls are! Don't you see that when you reject the heavenly Father, you basically go against his will that you not be lost? We are all his children, so to all of you, my brothers and sisters, please do not commit spiritual suicide, for the Father truly loves us.

**A Lesson Learned**

        This morning after I got up, I found a knot in the stainless steel chain on the miraculous medal I wore around my neck. That was somewhat unexpected and a mystery. And it took me quite a few minutes to untangle the knot. I saw that the Lord was teaching me a lesson here. You see, I'd been bothered by this problem. I bought something online and it didn't work out. So I requested to return the item, and the company issued me a return label and would deduct the return shipping cost from the refund amount later. That sounded fair enough until I noticed that the return label was marked 2ND DAY AIR. That would cost a lot more than regular no-rush shipping. It seemed that they were trying to make more money from my return. I emailed them to inquired about this, but received no response for days. I began to believe that I was right—another unpleasant issue now to deal with. I finally phoned them earlier today and was told not to be concerned about that, for the standard charge on my kind of return was fixed at $12. So it's a matter of bad communication. The lesson of the knot in the chain is that unexpected problems happen and we must not project the worst so that we may remain unperturbed. Then deal with each problem patiently to arrive at a resolution. 

***Most Wonderful Gift from God***

         Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I praise God for having created her without original sin so that she might be fit to bear his divine Son and our Savior. I also praise God that Mary willingly followed the Father's plan, is now actively praying for all sinners, and will be used by him to crush Satan in the end. Last, I rejoice that Christ has given his own mother to be our mother too—what a most wonderful gift! This truly fulfills a basic need of ours as children of the Father.

**Laura's Testimony*

         A short that's beautifully honest which I forgot to post when I first caught it earlier.

***The Lord My Defender***

         Communion experience. We do get to drink from the chalice of Jesus' Most Precious Blood at Sunday Masses. This Sacred Blood is so powerful that it can ward off attacks from all evil spirits. The Lord is now my defender!

***Best Preparation for Entering Heaven***

         Attain union with Christ through the Holy Eucharist.

**How Do We Straighten the Lord's Paths?*

         In the Gospel reading from Matthew 3, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. The Lord is already here, so how do we prepare his way by making straight his paths? The answer: We remain wide open to him so as not to obstruct his paths in any way. 

**Trusting in God's Justice**

         We learn today from the first reading from Isaiah 11 and the Responsorial Psalm 72 that the Lord will judge all of us with perfect justice. This should put all of us who follow him at ease, for whatever each person receives in the end will be perfectly justified.  

***Warning Continued***

         In my last post, I stated "if you think that you are good enough to get into heaven, you are not taking the whole matter seriously." So you may not even make it. The sure way is to do the very opposite: You assume that you are not good enough to enter heaven, and you submit yourself totally to God's mercy and humbly follow his will as best as you can. Now you have ensured the opposite effect.

*****Dire Warning*****

         If you think that you are good enough to get into heaven, you are not taking the whole matter seriously. To be serious, we must realize how horrible it'd be to end up in hell! What's truly horrible is that our separation from God and the agony and suffering we experience there is forever! For this alone, we need to believe in Christ our Savior right now. Going to hell is a no-fun oneway trip—don't ever let it happen to you!

**How Christ Sees Us**

         While Jesus was on earth, he never really judged others. He always loved everyone and felt sorry for those who were lost. He even pray for his enemies: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do" after they crucified him. The Lord is truly magnanimous!