**Another Tragedy

        In Matthew 15:11, Jesus said to the crowd, "It is not what enters one's mouth that defiles that person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one." Jesus is right. People don't change unless they allow God to change them interiorly, and that's difficult for many, for they have already become deeply mired in the material world. So they remain the same. And God gets shut out.

***God Infinitely More Merciful

        God is infinitely more merciful than us. If I pray that someone will not be lost, I am sure the Lord would want to save him even more. Suppose my guess of the ratio of those who'll end up in heaven to those who'll end up in hell is say 7 to 3, I wouldn't be surprised that it turns out to be 8 to 2 or even 9 to 1. God is always more generous than we can expect.

**Our Choice Here

        God knows all about us and it's up to us to create the kind of record we'd like to have in heaven. We can make it delightful for the Lord to look at or make him want to vomit when he sees it. It's our choice.

*Help Galore

        To the Catholics, help is available not only from God, but also from all the saints, the angles, and the souls in purgatory. Pray for the last listed and they'll in turn pray for you.

**Full Request to God

        Ask God not only to take away our sins, but also to prevent us from future sinning by giving us the discernment to know what is good and what is evil and by letting us taste his love and sweetness as well as the pain of offending him. 

**Praying for the Worst Evildoers?

        In the Fatima prayer we say at the end of each decade of the Holy Rosary, we ask Jesus to save from the fires of hell and lead to heaven especially those in most need of his mercy. This makes sense. But we are often so turned off by the worst evildoers that we wish them dead. Of course, this is wrong, for God loves all of us equally. Pleasing God must be our sole concern and goal.

***Serving the Lord

        In today's Gospel reading from John 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be." It's so comforting and a joy to know that when you serve the Lord faithfully, you are always with him. What a beautiful relationship!

***First Step to Knowing God***

         Realizing and acknowledging to God that you are a sinner. With this new humility, your journey to him can now begin. (To speed up things, surrender to God as much as possible.)

*Controlling Our Emotions

        Sometimes we get excited about the wrong thing. For example, my wife and I would react differently in a certain situation. We both think that our own reaction is the appropriate one and the argument can get a little heated. Then I realize how silly all this is. First of all, the whole thing is a trivial matter. Then why didn't I keep my calm? Was it my ego surfacing? Anyway, a good Christian should be able to keep his emotions in check by remaining calm always and getting excited only about the Lord.

***Quick Way To Know God***

        God already knows you. If you want to know him, you need to let him know that, for he won't force his way in if you are closed to him. The quickest and best way to get going is to pour your heart out to him. For if you are free to let him know all about you, he is ready to let you know all about him. If telling him everything about yourself is hard, look at it this way: he already knows everything about you, so what's the point in hiding anything from him?  And there is a point in telling him everything, for it shows that you now trust in him.