**Fast Track to Holiness

        Trying to make spiritual progress without accessing the Lord God is like trying to lift yourself up by pulling on your bootstraps—it won't work! This is not a new message; I am giving it again only because I saw people again praying that they might become more patient, more sensitive to others' needs, more obedient to God, etc. . . . all centered upon themselves. It should be obvious that the effective way to getting results is to go straight to the Lord, telling him all that you desire and asking him to take over to help you succeed. And you'd be surprised by how easily he can fulfill all these good desires of yours.

*Sign Seeking Is Evil!

        Today's Gospel reading came from Luke 11. Jesus said to the people that their generation was an evil generation, for it sought a sign, but no sign would be given it. Our generation today is the same. Many of us do not believe in the Lord unless they personally witness a sign. If you have a hardened heart, do not even acknowledge that you are a sinner, and still expect the Almighty God to do some wonder so that you might believe, you have to be out of your mind! Don't you see that Jesus has been our greatest sign for the past 2,000 years? If you don't see that, no other sign will do you any good. Be humble and know your place before the Lord first and desire to know him, then you'll have made the right start. 

**To Be with Christ Completely

        Jesus is always present and among us anyway. What we need is to have the Lord dwelling within each of us to be one with us. Otherwise, we are not completely with him.

**Purpose of the Eucharist

        Communion experience. The Lord gave us the Holy Eucharist to consume so that we may know that he is always with us and that he wishes to become one with us. In receiving this most precious gift, we also get to savor and enjoy him.

***Our Perfect State***

        To hear the Lord speaking to us, we need also to go limp so as not to offer any resistance. To go limp is to open up ourselves to God completely, to abandon ourselves in him totally. It's letting the Lord take over, do whatever pleases him the most with us. This is the ideal perfect state for us to be in, with us "vanishing" in him and all set to spend eternity in heaven. 

*Good Intentions Matter

         God reads our hearts and minds. We may not succeed in doing something good, but if our intention is good, God values that. We try to imitate the Lord to become like him. Of course, we'll never be as perfect as he is, but he would still appreciate our intention. Always have good intentions and do your best, and the Lord will not blame you.

***Like Getting Up in the Morning

        Abandoning yourself to God is like trying to get up in the morning. We all want to sleep or relax some more in our comfortable bed. To get up requires making an effort. But once you are up and see what a beautiful day it is out there, you are glad that you are up. Not to deal with God may make you feel guilty, but it's a "comfort" you enjoy after all. So to abandon yourself to God would require a great deal of effort on your part. But once you've done it, you would never want to go back again, for you feel and know that you've been liberated. The truth is that as long as we play God even for a tiny bit, we are not free. Let God be God and we are finally set completely free. 

*No Longer Afraid of Death

        When you attain union with God, you no longer fear death, for (1) God is so real that you know the eternal life he promised is real, (2) you are so in love with him that you long to see him in person, (3) experiencing the freedom in the Lord, you become detached to all things of the world, (4) you already possess the Lord and lack nothing anymore.

*For Me Alone

        Communion experience. The Lord is so personal that he would have died for me alone to save me. Now he enters me just to feed me and to be one with me alone. 

**How to Appear Before God

        It it better for us to remain on the timid side or be bold when we go before the Lord? Neither! Just know that he is your most loving Father who desires ardently to be one with you, and act naturally.