**Right Choice Crystal Clear**

        The last verse from today's reading 1 from Romans 6 reads, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What a clear, sharp contrast between the two! You can't possibly make the wrong choice here unless you've already been duped by pride to the point you can no longer think clearly.

**God Is Both Merciful and Strict**

         If you humble yourself before the Lord, you'll find him to be most merciful. But if you exalt yourself before him, you'll find him to be a lot stricter than expected. 

***Perfect Experience**

         Communion experience. Receiving the Savior to be in union with him both physically and spiritually is a heavenly experience. It's more than beautiful, so I'd describe it as a "perfect" experience.

**Logical Conclusion*

         If God can get us into heaven, he certainly can take care of everything else for us unless we get in his way.

****How to Gain God's Trust****

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 12, Jesus told the Parable of the Vigilant and Faithful Servants to his disciples. He concluded, "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more." Would you like to be someone the Lord can entrust? Know that if you are someone he cannot entrust with anything, you are doomed! To gain the Lord's trust, just trust in him all the way, for he'll reciprocate by trusting in you in equal measures.

**Resurrected in Christ**

        In  today's reading 1 from Romans 6, Paul wrote, "Present yourselves to God as raised from the dead." We who have accepted Christ as our Lord and God can indeed be seen as to have been raised from the dead, for its Christ now living in us, with us living for him alone. We are no longer dead in sin, but alive and vibrant, living a new life in the Lord! 

***Are You Perfect?*

         I'll start with this simple question. If your answer is no, then you need the God of Christ, for he, the Almighty, can make you perfect. Then if you don't want him to make you perfect, you're basically telling him you don't care about going to heaven, right? Is this what you really want? Avoiding or running away from God who honestly loves and only wants the best for you is being unconscionable and foolish to the extreme! By tbe way, it never ends well.

**Mark of the Blessed Christian*

         Today's Gospel acclamation, from Luke 12.37a: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival, says the Lord. If you expect and look forward to the coming of the Lord at all times, you are blessed.

**Mishaps Can Be Blessings**

        We all have mishaps happening to us, causing pain or suffering. Since God loves us, everything he allows to happen to us has to be for our ultimate good. If you don't see that and blame God for it instead, no good will come out of it for you. Now, we are all sinners. Even if God forgives us all our sins, we still need to pay for our offenses, just like a remorseful criminal still having to serve his sentence. If we'd see all our mishaps as payment for our sins, they become blessings, for they will now shorten (or eliminate) our time in purgatory later! Suffering now is always preferable to suffering later after death.

***Time to Be Holy*

        The time to be holy is now when you are still alive. After you die, you cannot make yourself holier when you appear before the Lord.  Now is the perfect time to love your God as much as possible to be fulfilled to the max, and you'll experience freedom, peace, and joy, the three big blessings from him. 

****Changing Our Destiny***

        Part of today's Communion antiphon based upon Psalm 33:18-19: Behold, the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, who hope in his merciful love, to rescue their souls from death.... Know that as sinners, we are heading toward death. Therefore, we need to fear the Lord and hope in his merciful love to let him rescue our souls!

***Praying for Ourselves First***

        When other people hurt us, we usually realize it right away. But when we do something that hurts others, we are often much less sensitive to that. On judgment day, the Lord is going to show us all the times we hurt others. So let's be more aware of how we treat others. It'll be a good humble practice to pray for ourselves before taking any action. We might need more prayers than others!

***No Appointed Time for One Thing**

        If you are familiar with Ecclesiastes 3, you know that there is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. Looking at my own life, I see a time to give up certain worldly attachments, a time to change my entire outlook on life, a time to get ready for meeting my God and not to ever look back again.  The only big exception is that we should always love God. Keep that love alive and it will take us through eternity (of course, you can never get through it and that suits me fine)!

***Spiritual Blunders*

        There are many, but two cases I've recently noticed are as follows: (1) One claiming his belief in God, but not knowing anything about his God and it's not Christ. (2) One not totally rejecting Christ but choosing not to follow some of his teachings, such as that on forgiving others many times. Such blunders can be detrimental to one's soul.

**Praising Turning into Submission**

         I yearn to praise God, but words fail me. Out of frustration, I give up and switch to yielding myself to him completely. This is a lot easier and I am sure it pleases the Lord just as much. Praise God! 

**Feeling Sorry for the Right One**

        We profess to be Christians, yet among all the people we know or know about, we seem to think about or talk to Christ the least. So we may feel sorry for the Lord, but we really should feel more sorry for ourselves as the Lord is pitying us right now.

**Communioin Prayer

        After I received the Lord, I asked him to reveal all my faults and blemishes so that he may perfect me more. When you are holier, you always experience greater joy.

***Prayer for All Earthlings*

         From Holy Scriptures, what God has revealed to many saints, mystics, and seers, and numerous NDE accounts, we know that heaven and hell definitely exist. Those who believe in Christ know that the day of their death will be the day of entering paradise where their'll be totally free and enjoy bliss. On the other hand, those who don't know nor follow Christ are not sure what awaits them on the other side; they simply avoid thinking about it. We all live on the same planet now, how I pray that we'll all end up in the same happy place!