Fulfilled by God

        Communion experience. God came to me to fulfill me. What I received from the Lord were the three Cs: consolation, contentment, and completion.

No. 1 Priority

        God is to be enjoyed to the fullest. Therefore, our No. 1 priority of life should be making our relationship with God as perfect as possible. Then everything else just wouldn't matter much anymore.

**Correcting Our Focus*

        Good to be home and resume attending daily Mass again. The thoughts I felt in my heart today were nothing new, but worth re-expressing. Once more, the Lord made me see that focusing upon how we can get to know and love him more is not the productive way, as it's much like concentrating upon ourselves to figure out how we can lift ourselves off the ground. The right, quick and efficient way is to focus upon the Lord exclusively to let him draw us to him. We must always let God take the center stage and he'll do all the lifting for us. 

Key to Seeing God

        Only the humble will see God. If we voluntarily humble ourselves before God, he will exalt us high. If we do not humble ourselves before God, we will be humbled by him and crushed forever in the end.  

How Much Are You With God?

        We can go to Mass every Sunday out of habit and not feel anything. Robotic Catholic might be a fitting name. Then there are those who hang on to God because they feel miserable about life. Truly blessed are those in union with God, who no longer struggle on their own, just living a triumphant life in the Lord. [Since I'll on the road with my son for the next three or four days, I won't able to attend daily Mass nor blog. I should be back on Dec. 30, if not sooner.]    

*Beautiful Prayer for Us

        Today is Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr. Response at Mass from Psalm 31: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. As Stephen was being stoned, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Before Jesus breathed his last on the cross, he cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." This should be a prayer for us too. Whether we face martyrdom of not, it shows our trust in the Lord and readiness to go to him.

*Great Question

        What profit is there to be the most famous and admired, the wealthiest, the most honored, or the most talented or intelligent person in the whole world when your name is not even written in heaven? 

**God Our Consolation

        There are things in our hearts that no other human beings can possibly understand or are impossible for us to express precisely to them, yet the Lord knows them all perfectly without our saying a single word. Therefore, I appreciate him immensely and treasure my intimacy with him. He is our greatest consolation!

Sorrow on Christmas Day

        Merry Christmas to all of you! Should it be a joyful day? Of course. Yet at the same time, I felt great sorrow. As usual on Christmas day, the church was filled to overflowing as on Easter day. The adjacent space normally partitioned off had to be opened up to accommodate the extra crowd. And people chatted and chuckled so much before Mass began that the priest had to tell all to quiet down. I am not here to judge anyone, but I am sure that many were there just for Christmas. You probably have heard about cafeteria Catholics who only pick and choose the teachings of the Church they can accept. These Christmas and Easter Catholics are known as submarine Catholics who surface just twice a year. Can God be pleased with them? I doubt it. My sorrow came from feeling his sorrow.

***Letting God Do It

        If you want to search your heart to see what's in there, do not do it by yourself, for you are not capable of understanding yourself thoroughly. Instead, go before the Lord, open your heart up, and ask him to search it. And he will help you see what he sees and what shouldn't be there. Then ask him to cleanse and heal you heart. This conforms to the smart practice of always entrusting God to do the hard work for you. This is how you get to live a life carefree in the Lord. We struggle so hard on our own to do so many things, forgetting that God can accomplish what we want to achieve for us. Good example, to attain union with God, a lot of people dismiss it for being too hard. But ask the Lord to do the work to prepare you and it becomes totally attainable. Just remember that we are weak and God is super strong and eager to help.