**Today's Great Feeling:**

 realizing that Jesus knows and loves me—I am really somebody!     

***Most Gratifying One-Way Trip***

        The process of attaining union with God through the Holy Eucharist may take a while for some, depending upon how you let yourself go. But once you get there, you'll feel so satisfied and fulfilled that you don't ever want to look back again; you simply want to go deeper into the most beautiful Lord. 

**May I Ask?**

        Why don't most Christians talk about Christ when they get together informally? Aren't we supposed to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength? If you are not very excited about the one you love, you are not really in love.

*****Only One We Need to Know on Earth*****

        Almost all of us have known or heard about people who died in our lives. So we all entered this world, get to know a bunch of people, and depart again. While on earth, we either got to know Christ or not. I can speak for all of us who came to believe in and followed him: When we leave this world, we'll be going to be with the Lord in heaven forever.

****God's Drawing Power****

        Communion time thought: Knowing the Lord makes you want to learn as much as possible from him. And anything he reveals to you is most sweet to the soul.

*Commandment vs. Tradition*

         In today's Gospel reading fro0n Mark 7, Jesus chided the Pharisees and some scribes for disregarding God's commandment but clinging to human tradition. We are the sane today. We follow social customs in doing what we think is proper in order to look right in others' eyes, not out of true love. This is a hard nut to crack because we all so care what people think of us. I hope that if we realize that this is not right, we are not true hypocrites.

**A Lovely Feeling*

         Today's Mass Response from Psalm 84 reads, "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!" If you feel the same way and want to be there, you are close to the Lord.

**How Open Are We to God?*

        In Matthew 13:12, Jesus Jesus said to his disciples, "To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Based on this, we can say that "To anyone who expects a lot from God, he will receive much; to anyone who doesn't, he will end up with naught." Basically, it comes down to how open we are to the Lord.

***God Cannot Be Fooled*

         If you think you can serve the Lord by doing some good works and gain entry into heaven, but still haven't gotten all your sins removed yet, you are only fooling yourself. Your good may outweigh the bad, but the former cannot cancel the latter. God does not judge us with a balance, but by our purity alone.

**A Top Priority**

        Most of us feel it's OK to go ahead and do whatever we'd like to do if it's not something bad. Strictly speaking, this is still self-serving. While what we want to do seems OK, it may not be God's will, at least not yet. For example, I get an idea of spreading the gospel and am excited about it, but I could be rushing ahead of the Spirit or the Lord might want me to do it some other way. So it's best to let him motivate us and show us the way in everything we do. This takes patience and self-effacement, but follow the Lord we must.