***Our Greatest Triumph***

         It is to be able to not fall into sin for the sake of God the Father who loves us.

**Destined for Greatness**

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus said to the crowds: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he." So all of you who are on the way to entering the Kingdom of heaven rejoice, for that you are going to be great in the eyes of the Lord!    

***Perfect Submission to Christ Brings . . .***

perfect peace to us. 

***True Love***

         Communion experience: The Lord invites us to receive his own body and blood—he truly loves us!

*****My Most Urgent Appeal to All*****

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 18, Jesus said to his disciples: "If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost." We see how precious our souls are! Don't you see that when you reject the heavenly Father, you basically go against his will that you not be lost? We are all his children, so to all of you, my brothers and sisters, please do not commit spiritual suicide, for the Father truly loves us.

**A Lesson Learned**

        This morning after I got up, I found a knot in the stainless steel chain on the miraculous medal I wore around my neck. That was somewhat unexpected and a mystery. And it took me quite a few minutes to untangle the knot. I saw that the Lord was teaching me a lesson here. You see, I'd been bothered by this problem. I bought something online and it didn't work out. So I requested to return the item, and the company issued me a return label and would deduct the return shipping cost from the refund amount later. That sounded fair enough until I noticed that the return label was marked 2ND DAY AIR. That would cost a lot more than regular no-rush shipping. It seemed that they were trying to make more money from my return. I emailed them to inquired about this, but received no response for days. I began to believe that I was right—another unpleasant issue now to deal with. I finally phoned them earlier today and was told not to be concerned about that, for the standard charge on my kind of return was fixed at $12. So it's a matter of bad communication. The lesson of the knot in the chain is that unexpected problems happen and we must not project the worst so that we may remain unperturbed. Then deal with each problem patiently to arrive at a resolution. 

***Most Wonderful Gift from God***

         Today is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I praise God for having created her without original sin so that she might be fit to bear his divine Son and our Savior. I also praise God that Mary willingly followed the Father's plan, is now actively praying for all sinners, and will be used by him to crush Satan in the end. Last, I rejoice that Christ has given his own mother to be our mother too—what a most wonderful gift! This truly fulfills a basic need of ours as children of the Father.

**Laura's Testimony*

         A short that's beautifully honest which I forgot to post when I first caught it earlier.

***The Lord My Defender***

         Communion experience. We do get to drink from the chalice of Jesus' Most Precious Blood at Sunday Masses. This Sacred Blood is so powerful that it can ward off attacks from all evil spirits. The Lord is now my defender!

***Best Preparation for Entering Heaven***

         Attain union with Christ through the Holy Eucharist.