Real Living

        As I drove to Mass in the morning, I was acutely aware of God's existence and presence.  I know that I trust in him, being not anxious about anything, and just want to follow him with no desire to go off on my own to chase after my own dreams.  A peace pervaded me.  I realized that this was real living.  Any other way would be squandering away the time of my life.   

Listening to God Is Essential

        It was just in the news that members of certain denominational Christian church picketed with "hate signs" at the funeral service of a veteran.  They were anti-gay and believed that God was punishing this nation for tolerating homosexuality.  Would their kind of action draw other to Christ??  It just made me realize how we could be so easily mislead when we don't listen to the Lord carefully enough.  I always stay away from anyone who proclaims self-righteousness.  Let's ask the Lord to teach us in all things and lead us in everything. 

God Alone Is to Be...

desired, sought, listened to, and followed. To get ahead, go for the best and ignore the rest.       

On Feeling Good

        If you feel good when you know that you look good to others in or out of clothes, have won honors and earned higher degrees, or possess good health and great wealth, then you must be a pretty vain person.  Whatever pleasure you derive from such satisfaction only feeds the ego and is therefore superficial and short-lived.  By contrast, the hidden joy you feel when you humbly serve the Lord is pure and deep, permanently affecting the soul.

Most Wonderful Offering

          One person prays for a job and he's offered one.  Another prays for healing and gets well speedily.  These are all wonderful happenings.  But the most wonderful of all to me is that when a sinner prays to become holy, God transforms him or her into a saint.  In all cases, God shows his love for us and hopes to draw us closer to him; but in the last, he is most pleased because instead of asking to receive something, the sinner offers himself to God for his glory ~ meeting him halfway, you could say.  God's love for us deserves our all.

To Get Closer to God

        If you yearn for God, the only way to get closer to him is to love him more and he will draw you to him ~ most satisfying and rewarding.

Faith Leads to Beauty of God

        The more your faith deepens, the more you see the beauty of God.  This is somewhat like a spelunker exploring a cave ~ the deeper he enters the cave, the more it opens up before him a new, more beautiful world. 

Holy Eucharist, the Most High

        Today's Communion verse is from Matthew 28.20: "I, the Lord, am with you always, until the end of the world."  To me, the Holy Eucharist Jesus instituted for us confirms this promise in a special way.  The Holy Eucharist is the bread of life, the Lord himself, the greatest gift he has left us, so special, so extraordinary, a treasure beyond measure...  When I receive the Holy Eucharist, not only Jesus touches me, we become one.  This gift is absolutely necessary to attain full union with the Lord.  I shall extol and exalt it as long as I am still breathing.

Living a Life of Love

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 10, Jesus makes it clear that anyone who gives up everything to follow him will receive a hundred times more in this life and eternal life in the next.  Basically, I see that Jesus wants us to to love him, to experience his love, to be filled with his love.  Our whole life then should be one fully immersed in the love of God. 

To Take on the Heart & Mind of Christ

        On the way to morning Mass, I felt that I wanted to pray like Jesus.  He is completely intimate with the Father (they are one) and always asked for the will of the Father to be done.  Then I thought that I wanted to think like Jesus and feel like Jesus too.  It's clear that union with Christ will bring about these desired changes.