*Our Shortcoming

        From today's entrance antiphon taken from Psalm 27: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; whom should I dread? It is true in theory that if we have the Lord, we shall fear nothing. But in practice, we are still afraid of many things because we fall short of abandoning ourselves entirely to God.

**Dark Days for Christians

        Christians are experiencing worldwide persecution, even in basically Christian countries. Here is a recent example that came out of Canada. The liberal news media do not report such stories. We are in our last days!

Flesh vs. Spirit

        How much are you living in the flesh and how much in the spirit? 50-50, 49-51 or even 1-99 is not good enough. We need to live 100% in the spirit! Hence, seek union with God to live in the Holy Spirit.

*You Matter to God

        You matter a lot to God.  Everything you do matters to him, because it affects you whom he loves.

**We Have Heard from God!

        From John 15.15, today's Communion antiphon: I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father, says the Lord to his disciples. Since we have heard from Jesus, we have heard from the Father. In short, we have heard from God, everything we need to know. Time to rejoice and celebrate!

Brief Guide to Living the Christian Life

        Today we celebrated the Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle. The Gospel reading was Matthew 10.7-13 on Jesus' commissioning of the Twelve. Rather than quoting the verses, I'll just summarize by saying that Jesus instructed the Apostles to (1) proclaim the Kingdom of heaven at hand, (2) do the works of mercy, (3) travel light, not taking any money nor supplies, and (4) look for a worthy person and stay there, letting their peace come upon the house. Verse 14 was not in the reading, and it reads: "Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words – go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet."

         These instructions also make a good guide for us. That is, we should (1) spread the good news of salvation every chance we have, (2) love all our neighbors, (3) be detached from material things, and (4) based upon verse 14, let God, not us, take care of those who would not follow him – this may seem heartless on our part, but we must place our trust in God the most.

**On Accepting Oneself

       It is important to know and accept who you are and what you are. Never compare yourself with anyone else and imitate the Lord Jesus only. To ensure your own happiness, reconcile yourself to yourself and to God first. Whether you are strong or weak, it is not relevant, for God often choose the weak to make strong. He can use you as you are and mold you into the right one to serve him according to his will.

**Our Most Satisfying Bond

        Shuan Hern Lee of Australia, age 16, just won the First Prize at the Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in Dallas, Texas. Both his parents are pianists. Their dedicated support of their talented son over the years has contributed to his success. You can see the close, loving relationship between the young pianist and his father in this old video made when he was 8. I post this video to show how common interest in something like music can strengthen the bond between a parent and his child. Of course, the greatest bond between two people is formed when both love God equally and share this love with each other. This goes beyond family relationship and any affinity at the physical, emotional, or intellectual level. Short of finding such an ideal person to bond with, we really only need to seek union with God to enjoy the most satisfying bond we can ever have!

**God Our Only Candidate . . .*

        Communion time thoughts. To become one with someone, that person has to be God. For it is impossible to attain union with anyone else, as no two persons can be completely compatible. I suppose if both of them are in union with God, then it follows that they are in union with each other too. But still your firsthand union with God would be more perfect. Union with God is possible because God is able to transform you to make you compatible with him. By the same token, I can say that God is the only one who can truly be our soulmate.

**Praying for Ourselves First

        We pray to God constantly for our government leaders, the Holy Father and our bishops, our own communities, world peace, those who are sick or need help, etc. Yet what is lacking and needed is asking God to draw us close to him to make us holy. Perhaps it's because looking at problems around us is so much easier than looking at ourselves. Yet peace in the world must start with each one of us, for if we all become holy, there will be peace within and also without us. So let us pray for ourselves first before praying for others. Otherwise, we may appear to be somewhat hypocritical.