Union Turns Life "Upside Down"

        Ordinarily, we find it difficult to remain holy as it's just too easy to sin. When you attain union with Christ, the reverse becomes true: remaining holy is now no work as God removes your desire to sin. 

God Our Transformer

        Today's the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena. After receiving the Holy Eucharist, I saw positively that the Lord could cleanse and purify us, transforming us into temples of the Holy Spirit. It was a glorious feeling. St. Catherine, pray for us.

Who Christ Is to the World

        A lot of bad news made headlines today. For example, "Syria blasts kill dozens in Homs," "Seized Nigerian girls 'taken abroad,'" "Severe weather threatens eastern US." But to me one sad piece of news came from Palermo, Italy. A two-meter tall statue of Christ of the Abyss will be placed underwater off the coast of Sicily to attract divers. The mayor of Palermo hopes that the attraction will stimulate tourism and signal a "new step forward" for the city's growth. Using Christ as a bait to attract tourists so that the city can earn more money? If that's the sole motive, then the idea borders on being sacrilegious!  

Finding Happiness Anyway

        At Lourdes, the Blesses Mother promised Bernadette happiness not in this world, but in the other. It is true that Jesus never promised that if we followed him, we would become rich, famous, and have an easy life. On the contrary, we're to deny ourselves and take up the cross. But while still in the world we can always find freedom, peace, and joy in God by seeking union with him.   

To Be Your Own God Is...

to be your own slave.

Onward to Freedom!

        Here's another mental picture that came to my mind. The soul wants to rise to God, but it's weighed down by so many things like tethered weights, with serious addictions more like anchors. All such burdens are attachments. Anytime you cut one attachment, you feel a bit more freedom. If you surrender your all to God, you break through to the other side by cutting all your attachments to the world and the soul soars to God in complete freedom. Once you experience that, you'll never want to go back again. 

       Jesus had said more than once, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." This is what it's all about.

God's Clear Intention

        When I received the Holy Eucharist at Mass this morning, it's again the perfect time to renew my surrender to the Lord. I asked him what he's going to do with me now. His answer was that he's going to lead me straight to heaven. It's obvious that this is his intention for all his children, but surrendering just make his job so much easier and you would be rewarded for that.        

Guarding the Lord

        As Christians, we must do our utmost to prevent anyone (ourselves included) from offending the Lord. In this sense, we become his guards. This duty of ours is a great heavenly privilege to be treasured. 

Joy, Peace, Freedom

        What are these three in the world? Joy ~ we do feel happy temporarily when things go our way. Peace ~ we can find some relief from stress by breaking away from our regular routine. Naturally, peace is impossible to experience in the many countries that are in turmoil. Freedom ~ even in a most democratic country, freedom can still be limited. Anyhow, true joy, peace, and freedom must be deep-rooted and permanent and can come only from God, for whatever God gives always touches the soul, a foretaste of heaven.    

Smart Living

        We separate the temporary from the permanent. Our body is temporary, for it gets older and weaker every moment and we can't do anything about it. Our soul is permanent, for it lives on forever. When it becomes unclean, we turn to God for help and purity is restored. Bottomline advice: take good care of the soul and don't get too attached to the body.