**On Our Own or With God

        If you submit yourself to God, you let him take over and are taken care of by him for all eternity. On the other hand, if you say no to God and decide to strike out on your own, even if you work hard, you'd be extremely lucky to be able to take care of yourself in your brief time on earth. After this life is over, you have no more control. The best comment out of pity I could think of for you is "What a damn 'brave' fool!"

*Between Us and God*

        The Do It Anyway poem was found written on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta, India, and is widely attributed to her. It is always good to read it, whether for the first or umpteenth time. I posted it in 2010 and am posting it again with some thoughts added at the end.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough.
Give the best you've got sanyway.

You see,
in the final analysis it is between you and God;
it was never between you and them anyway.

        That last verse remains poignantly with me. Each of us stands alone in the universe, responsible for our every single thought, word, and deed to God alone. Whether we go to or away from him for all eternity, each of us has the final say.   

Simple but Hard

        The saying of Thomas à Kempis from his book The Imitation of Christ came to my mind: All is vanity except to love God and serve him alone. We can all agree that this is supreme wisdom, but not something we can easily practice. As usual, God makes the truth simple and we make it hard.

Great Blessed Feeling

        Communion experience. I had two great feelings: knowing that I possess the Lord and knowing that I also belong to him. That is, we have each other. How more blessed can one be?

God's Straight Way

        Today's Communion antiphon, Matthew16.24 or 10.39. Both are Jesus' saying to his disciples. First one: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Second one: Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Here Jesus spoke as God with authority. He is to be No. 1 and tells you how to find life. He gives you the straight truth and you have your free will to make the choice. (By contrast, Satan never tells it like it is and always uses deception to lure you into his trap.)

Undoing the Opposite

        Realizing that God is our creator, we should then, of course, thank him, trust in him, submit to him, and know that only he can help us in all things, even remake us. We should want to return to him eagerly. This is all common sense. Yet we, enslaved by sin, do exactly the opposite, keeping him as far away as possible. Now that Christ has revealed to us that God is loving and merciful, we should feel free and confident in approaching him, knowing that he can free us from all our enslavement. 

Realizing the Living God

        If you think that God is dead, it's because you are dead to the Holy Spirit. For those who possess the Holy Spirit know that God is living and well. Who else but God can make us more certain about his existence than about our own?

Dying-in-Sleep Alert

        Jesus taught his disciples to stay awake, for they did not know on which day the Lord would come. So dying in sleep is not recommended, for you did not stay awake (just kidding). Essentially, the Lord wants us to be prepared for his coming or our death. If we are always ready, dying anytime should be fine. If not, dying in sleep could be a disaster!       

**Ideal Mass Celebration*

        The best, most appropriate and perfect Mass would be one celebrated with Jesus alone (God alone) being placed in the spotlight, all in attendance – priest, musicians, servers, ushers, the entire congregation – doing nothing to make themselves noticeable. To love God is to focus upon him alone and forget about ourselves.

**Same Prayers!

        Communion experience. The Lord made me see that all my prayers were prompted by the Holy Spirit, thus they were his prayers! Therefore, they will be answered.