**Blessed the Clean of Heart

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Here's one of the Beatitudes he gave: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God." I say amen to that. One who has a clean heart is with the Lord, for he has nothing to hide, and he enjoys his constant companionship. Let the Lord purge you of all your sins so that you may enjoy living a happy and peaceful life in him.

*****Beautiful Ave Maria

         I have posted a number of recordings of Ave Maria in the right sidebar under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos.... Of course, Schubert and Bach/Gounod's Ave Maria are best known. But in recent years, William Gomez of El Salvador composed an Ave Maria that's magnificent. I also love the version by the Polish composer Lorenc which was played in the Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ film. You can find all these videos in my list. Today I am going to post another beautiful Ave Maria attributed to the 16th century Italian composer Giulio Caccini and the 20th century Russian composer Vladimir Vavilov. I listed both names because no one is sure who the original composer was. 
       I was deeply moved by the song. The melody is gorgeous and the images shown in the video made me realize how sorrowful Mary must have felt about the death of her son. Her sorrow must have been doubly intense and painful, as Jesus was not only her son, but also her Lord! Then I realize that Jesus is not only my friend and soulmate, but also my Lord and Savior, and my joy doubled! The video is long because the song was played I think three times over. But if you are drawn into it, you can meditate on it and time will go by quickly. May watching this video increase you love for both Christ and his (and our) mother.

**Christ Our Liberator!*

         As you might know, I like both music and photography. I enjoyed listening to various genres of music. Performed well, music can touch one's heart and perhaps even the soul. As I photograph, I look for images that resonate with me. So what I see often touches me deeply too. Then Christ, whom I do not hear nor see, captures my heart and soul totally—this is the amazing part. I know that there are people who live only for their music or the art they create. But only Christ is worth dying for! After you know him, all else just fade away. Now you remain free in him and live for him only, no longer attached to anything in the world.

**Jesus the True God

         Today is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. If Christ is truly our Lord God and Savior, then we must absolutely take him seriously, for our entire existence and survival now depends upon him. To ignore, dismiss, or reject him can no longer be an option. If you don't have him, you'll have absolutely no one else to go to, for there is not another one like him. I am being dead serious. Again, it's all or nothing with the Lord, a mark of the true God.

*Who Are Our Worst Enemies?

         In today's first reading from Tobit 12, one statement the angel Raphael said to Tobit and his son Tobiah struck me: "Those habitually of sin are their own worst enemies." So every time we sin, we simply convict ourselves.

*The Panicky Evildoer

         A good Christian has no fear of evil because God is with him; he always hopes for the best in the Lord and never panics. On the other hand, an evil person panics easily for fear of being exposed at any time. (At least he still has some conscience left, one reason we should never write anyone off completely.)

**Do You Realize . . .

that how many good deeds you perform in life doesn't count as much as how much you obey the Lord in all things?

**God's Will, Our Emergency

         We normally do what we want to do first. If some emergency comes up, then we have no choice but to drop whatever we're doing and attend to that emergency first. If God's will is made clear to us, we must also treat it like an emergency and drop whatever we were doing to attend to his will first. The Lord will sure reward you amply. (Think of yourself as an emergency doctor serving the Lord, saving souls.)

****Obedience Took Time

         I talked about being of one heart and one mind with God in my last post. I recall my early days as a Christian. Yes, i believed in Christ, but I wasn't one with him yet. I called him Lord, not realizing that in reality I was still my own lord. I did not go against him, but I didn't obey him in all things either. My conscience sharpened only after I got to know him better. To transfer all my authority to him is not something that dawned on me, especially when I wasn't committing any sin that seemed to be serious to me at the time. Only after knowing him much better did I realize that God demands perfection from us, for any sin wounds him. Of course, once you fall in love in him, you naturally want to become like him. Now your conscience becomes super sharp, guarding you against sinning. With that you experience freedom and peace. Now I know why I didn't feel free nor have peace before—I didn't let my Lord be my lord. I was a hypocrite all right.

***Our Ultimate Fulfillment***

        I know of people who practice meditation, hoping to achieve some sort of nirvana or enlightenment. This is playing a dangerous game because you don't know what you can get yourself into. Unknown spirits are legion out there, ready to enter your life. This I can personally testify. Then you can meditate like that for many years and realize nothing extraordinary, and whatever you might realize still turns out to be your own thoughts. Meditating upon the Lord is totally different. For one thing, you already know who he is, the only true holy God. The other thing is that you don't have to strive hard in any way, hoping to receive wisdom or illumination. On the contrary, you only need to be receptive to his word and rest passively in him at all times. Then he'll reveal all you need to know for your salvation. This is spontaneous, effortless learning, opposite to how we learn things in the world. This is how how we can achieve union with the Lord with the aid of the Holy Eucharist. To be of one heart and one mind with the Lord is our ultimate fulfillment on earth.