*****Rejoicing in Mary Our Mother

        Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I feel so blessed that we have her as our model, our ally, and most of all our dearest personal mother. She watches over us and prays for us always. I want to thank Christ my Lord and my God for giving us such a wonderful gift, beautiful beyond words.

**Burden of Riches

        Being rich and wealthy is not a blessing. It can become a curse if you are enslaved to it. Learn to detach yourself from all material things. Surrender yourself to Christ and he will deliver you free. There is not another effective way.

***Me-First Generation

        Many Christians no longer take their faith seriously. They turn to the Lord only when they need help to get them out of some trouble. Otherwise, they live the way they want and God gets to share little of any part of their lives. It's always me first and God only when I need him. This is today's big tragedy.

**Need for Salvation

        Communion experience. Before the Holy Lord, I saw the utter ugliness of sin and felt so sinful that I absolutely need Christ to save me.

***Way to Become Ego-Free

        The ego is so tenacious that to become thoroughly free of it, you need to be humble enough to see that everyone else is better than you in every way.   

**Healing Past Wounds

        God is not limited by time. If we have hurt someone in the past and deeply regret it, we can ask the Lord to go back to that time to heal all the wounds we caused, and it'll be done for us. 

**Accepting Reality

        As I was heading home after Mass this morning, driving on a straight road, it seemed as if the earth was fast slipping rearwards under my car wheels. This reminded me that my life is slipping fast away from me as I head nonstop toward God. There is no sadness here; I simply accept the reality in peace.

***Deep Commnion

        Communion experience. As the Lord dissolves in my mouth. he is in direct communion with my soul. 

**Be like Little Children to God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew19, Jesus said to his disciples, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Little children are always amazed by the many things their fathers can do. We have a most amazing heavenly Father for whom nothing is impossible. Shouldn't we then believe in him like little children? If we do, the whole Kingdom of heaven belongs to us!

**All Up to Us

        As sinners we start out with a big disadvantage—we must work out our salvation. But God has taken care of that—we only need to accept and follow Christ. So it all comes down to how we personally choose, which I think is very fair.