**I Wasn't Out of Order!

        After I posted "Church Priorities Out of Order" yesterday, I thought I might be rocking the boat a bit, as I was a lay nobody, criticizing the Church. Then I saw Fr. Goring's new video "What's Your Opinion?" today and knew I was all right.

***More Union with God Advantages*

        Once you attain union with Christ, you'll be so fulfilled, so content, and so satisfied that you no longer wish to search, to question, or to go elsewhere anymore. The Lord is your final stop and home. You are now inseparable from him!

Making Sin Your Blessing

        God can draw you closer to him through your sins. See every sin as a stepping stone to greater holiness. Each time after you commit a sin, turn to the Lord to ask him to forgive you and to draw you close to him. As you are drawn closer and closer to him, sin becomes more and more repulsive. When you reach union with the Lord, he removes even you tendency to sin. Make good use of you sins when you are weak. Then you won't need them anymore after you become strong in the Lord.  

*Heaven on Earth for God

        Communion experience. The Lord entered me, so I became heaven on earth for God! How awe-inspiring!

**Quick Summary of Union with God*

        It is being one with God. His ways and thoughts are now yours too. You experience the same joys and sorrows as he. It is dwelling in the Lord in total freedom. You no longer struggle spiritually, for he is right in you and with you. You simply enjoy his delightful company. 

Discerning Promptings

        If you feel prompted to spread the good news of Christ in some specific way, should you go right ahead and do it? If the urge came from you, then hold off, for you do not want to rush ahead on your own. You will know that the prompting did come from God if you've been led to this point and feel no anxiety about it. Peace of mind is a good indicator.

**Aiming our Prayer

        If we pray that we may grow closer to God, we miss the mark. If we pray that we may become holy, we still fall short. If we pray that we may open ourselves up to let the Lord make us holy, we are on target.

**Christ, Only Teacher We Need

        The Apostles were all sinners. They followed the Lord and learned from him directly and became saints. Let them be our models. We can also follow Christ, learn from him directly, and become saints. Seek union with the Lord so that we may become like him. Then we'll understand everything.

**Sinner Responding to God

        If I were perfectly holy with no sins, I would not understand why Jesus came into the world to die for me. Since his Passion truly affected me and I feel so grateful for what he has done that I can't even help falling deeply in love with him, I know that I must be a sinner. In my case, a sinner who has found the perfect remedy. 

***Church Priorities Out of Order***

        Global warming is a controversial subject. Even if it is a fact, it certainly is not the most urgent issue we need to deal with right now. For Christians, saving souls has to be the foremost goal. After all, that was the primary goal of Jesus when he came to us to die for us. And the souls today in this evil world need salvation more than ever! I cannot possibly imagine that Jesus would talk about something like global warming more than about our sins and our need for salvation. We truly need to be concerned about Christ's Second Coming! Yet Pope Francis repeatedly warned us about global warning as if it's the most pressing issue today. I am truly disappointed. Meanwhile, the world and Church continue entering the evil's orbit. When the Church loses credibility, fighting spirit, or focus, myriad souls are lost! If we don't shape up, there is no point in begging for God's mercy.

*Our Only Gift for God

        Communion experience. I received what the Apostles received at the Last Supper. When we return fully to the Lord, everything he has is ours. Since we do not have anything except ourselves, all I could offer him was myself.

***Perfect Soulmate*

        I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ at Mass, we belong to the same Lord, but somehow we do not talk about him with each other very much outside church. My wife believes in the Lord too, but she and I do not share the same spirituality, so we end up not talking about Christ with each other as much as we should. This leads me to Christ the Lord himself. We can get to know him as intimately as we wish and he understands every one of us perfectly. You can share whatever with him all you want and he listens and communicates with your heart. Here is our perfect soulmate.

***Praying to Be Holy First!

        As long as we pray only for others, but not for ourselves to be holy, we'll never have true peace in the world! For peace must first start within our hearts and only being holy can bring us inner peace. If sinfulness is our first order of business, then holiness must be too.

God All-Knowing

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, people were astonished that Jesus spoke with authority and power. Even the best politicians or most learned pundits today stumble or make gaffes under questioning, but no one was ever able to trip, trick, or stymy the Lord, for he knows everything!

Absolute Fool

        In reading 1 from 1 Thessalonians 5 today, Paul wrote that the day of the Lord would come like a thief at night. Jesus himself said that of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angles of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone; and that we must be prepared, for at an hour we do not expect, he will come. Therefore, anyone who spends time trying to figure out when the Lord will come instead of staying alert and sober has to be an absolute fool, and there has been no shortage of them.