**God's Great Mercy*

         God's mercy endure forever (Psalm 106:1). His mercy is infinite, for he does not judge you as long as you still have time on earth or before his Second Coming. Accept this mercy, and heaven is yours. Reject it and you gain nothing and can lose everything. The wise take full advantage of God's great mercy by praying for it unceasingly.

*A Depiction of the World

         It's estimated that we now have 7.9 billion people worldwide. I wish I can say that all of them are in total obedience to God. A realistic description would be that we have 7.9 billion people at various stages of rebellion against God. If I plot a graph, I am likely to get a bell-shaped normal distribution with the most number of people in half rebellion against God. This is why Jesus came to us. Our prayer and hope is that the peak of this distribution will shift to the right toward total obedience to God. Surely God can beat statistics!

***Divine Mercy Prayer

         In these times when God desires that we pray, pray, and pray, besides praying the Rosary, I suggest you pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy too if you haven't done so yet. In the main part, you begin each decade by saying, "Eternal Father, I offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your Dearly Beloved Son, Our Lord, Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world." Then you recite ten times the prayer "For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world." Last night the Lord made me see that this short prayer is neat, clear, and to the point. Of course, we can make other specific requests, but mercy is what we generally need the most for now. We can pray for that and let the Lord administer it as he sees fit. Click here to learn how to pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. God bless you all.

***Secret Blessings*

         As times goes on, many things continue happening and we don't even realize it until some time later. I used to live in a different city and heard that the neighbor across the street just had a new baby boy. I saw him once in a while in the following years when he played outside his house. Then one day the mother told me that her son was getting ready to go to college—I couldn't believe it! How could time have gone by so fast? Things have a way of sneaking up on us. I've mentioned that Christ is more real to me than any other living person I know and see. Apparently, I've been aware of his holy presence at all times for quite a while, so this feeling isn't new. Today, it dawned on me that before 2009, the year I started this blog, I never exactly felt this way. I now know that God's blessings can also sneak up on us without our being aware of it. When we live a secret life in the Lord, we receive his blessings in secret too. 

***Only One Savior

          In today's reading from Acts 4, Peter declared to the leaders of the people and elders that other than Jesus Christ, there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. We know that only God can save us, so Christ must be God. And there can be only one God, so Christ has to be our only Savior. Seeking salvation through anyone else is doomed to failure.

***All or Nothing with God

        We pray to God for many things, why not pray to him about everything? Would the Lord who loves you so much be happy if you are not with him completely? I don't think so. He has given all of himself to you so that you might live, shouldn't you give all of yourself to him too?  As I've said, with God it has to be all or nothing! We won't feel totally satisfied until we possess all of him. He has made us so that only complete abandonment to him can make us completely happy and content.   

*Cost of Rejecting the Best

        Again, I look at extreme cases to make me see things clearly. Suppose God has made salvation extremely difficult for us. Say we must go through many loops and meet all kinds of stringent requirements. Then even if we don't make it, the consequence understandably probably wouldn't be so bad. Now that the Lord has made salvation so simple and direct for us: basically, all we need to do is believe, I intuitively see that the consequence of not appreciating his great offer would be a lot more severe too.

*Jesus Tests Our Heart

        Jesus came to die for us so that we might have eternal life. Our proper response should be gratitude and joy, yet many ignore or outright reject him. I see that our hearts are being tested by the Lord. To a good extent, how we respond to him reveals how hard our heart is.  

***The Sad and the Beautiful

       Two things from today's first reading from Acts 9 stirred my heart. First, verse 31: "The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers." The Church today is in trouble precisely because so many of her hierarchy no longer walk in the fear of the Lord. They spew heresies and their own opinions, no longer following the teachings of the Lord, and as a result, have lost the consolation of the Holy Spirit.
        Next, verses 36-41 tell the raising of Tabitha to life by Peter. Tabitha had fallen ill and died. After Peter got to her bedside, he sent everyone out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise up." She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. There's something very beautiful here. Peter knew that he could raise her by the power of the Lord, but he still turned to him and prayed first. I see the oneness of Peter and the Lord. Being in union with the Lord and turning to him—this was the beauty I saw.

***Demons Exist

        On most days I walk outside the house, the weather has been quite nice since spring began. When the sky is blue and clear, you see fresh leaves sprouting from all the branches and hear the birds singing all around you, and the temperature is perfect, you can't help feeling good and happy. But this morning was different. The sky was cloudy and grey, the wind rather chilly, and I heard strange sounds made by various animals. Since I am not a wildlife expert, I can't tell you what I heard. One sounded like an owl, but do owls show up in the morning? Anyway, I realized that things around us in life could change unexpectedly. I recalled how people lost their lives when a natural disaster suddenly struck. Worst yet, evil had caused many to lose their soul. Demons do exist! You may enjoy eating, drinking, partying, and doing all the fun things in life, but if you are not aware that evil, demons, and hell also exist, you are living in great danger, for things can change quickly and unexpectedly. There is only one in whom you can find security for all eternity and that's Christ our Lord and our God. [I posted the above 4 days ago and had found out that one strange sound I heard was actually the cooing of wild doves communicating with each other.]