Faith Journey

        Jesus said to Thomas after he saw the wounds on the Lord and believed: "You became a believer because you saw me.  Blest are they who have not seen and have believed."  So we who believe are blessed. The other known part is that God will always lead us to what's best for us because he loves us so much.  The only unknown are the details, exactly how God is going to make things happen.  And it is this unknown part that turns our faith journey into an adventure. 

        From Psalm 23: "Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side..."  I love this verse.  For me, it describes the true faith journey.    

Loving God with No Limit

        Just two weeks ago, I brought up Einstein's theory of relativity.  A little bit more physics today. 
        You probably have heard of Absolute Zero, the temperature of -273 deg C.  We get heat when molecules vibrate.  At absolute zero, all molecular activity ceases and you reach the coldest possible temperature, for you cannot possibly get "deader."  On the other hand, there is no limit as to how high a temperature can go.  The sun is plenty hot, but there's no reason why there shouldn't be something else that burns even hotter.
        All this makes me think of loving God.  To not love God, just reject him, be like the Devil, and you reach the very low limit of spiritual death.  On the other hand, if you love God very much, some saint probably loves him even more.  And even the most loving saint cannot say that he has loved God enough.  So we have an open high end and can say that there is no limit as to how much you can love God.  Well, this is exciting because you can go as far as you want! 

Beautiful Praying

        After the morning Mass, two young ladies remained in the chapel to pray the rosary.  Normally, prayers said aloud can be disturbing to those who wish to contemplate in silence, but today I didn't mind and even joined in.  At the beginning of each decade, you could hear them say their intentions truly from the heart.  Every syllable sounded sincere.  When they expressed their sorrows, you could hear the tears in their voices.  I finally appreciated these two line in the prayer Hail, Holy Queen: "To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.  To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears."  After these two sisters in Christ finished the rosary, I almost wanted to applaud.  Yes, praying can be beautiful if it truly comes from the heart!   

The Spirit's Way, Only Way

        It turned out that this morning's first reading was on the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 2: 10b-16.  Before Mass began, my meditation fell upon the Holy Spirit and the Lord made me see that the way of the Spirit is the ONLY way for us.  What does this mean?  First, the Spirit gave us the mind of Christ.  With his mind, we should view the the world and see all things as he does ~ this is the way of the Spirit. Any other way deviating from it is imperfect.  Anything that happens to us should be "irrelevant" in the sense that we must not let anything affect our way of the Spirit.    

Same Love

        We pray for our loved ones because we love them.  We pray for them because we love God.  And God loves them.  God has already made it clear that we cannot love him without loving others and vice versa.  So it's that same love, God's love, that binds us all.  May this love penetrate every single soul in this world!   

Have God Be With You

        People turn to God only when they feel that they need help. Don't you think that the better way is to have God be with you at all times, to save all the "traveling" to and back from him? Pray that you'll feel his presence at all times.     

Joyful March

        It's almost the end of August ~ time surely flies.  Every Sunday night when I take the garbage out for Monday's pickup, it seems that I just did it yesterday.  We all are moving toward the end of this life.  Someone once said that our heart beats like a drum, accompanying us marching toward death.  That's a pretty grim picture.  But for us who follow the Lord full of hope, our heartbeats accompany us on our joyful march toward heaven.  What a difference faith makes!   

Thank You

        At this point, I just wish to pause to thank all readers of my blog.  I wish you the very best and will lift all of you up to the Lord for his blessing in my prayer.  

Sign of Progress

        When people praise you, you feel uncomfortable and wish to go into hiding ~ this is a good sign.

Awesome Responsibility

        The Gospel reading for today is the Parable of the Silver Pieces from Matthew 25.  A man disbursed silver pieces to his three servants before going on a journey.  During his absense the two industrious servants invested what they had received and doubled their money, while the timid and lazy one simply buried the money he had received.  After the master came home, the two dependable servants were rewarded and the worthless one was punished.  

        My thoughts are: What we have received from God is far more valuable than silver pieces ~ every one of us has received God's infinite love!  It follows that we have an awesome responsibility to bear.  Are we to keep this love just to ourselves?  Are we to spread it a little bit?  Or are we to multiply this love for widest possible distribution??         

Satisfying God

        Today is the Memorial of St. Augustine.  Father Matthew celebrating the morning Mass passed on this remark that's going to stick in my mind forever: "God is easy to please, but he is very difficult to satisfy." 

        Indeed, whenever you do a little good deed, you put a smile on the Lord's face; but he's not satisfied because he wants all of you!  We are supposed to love him with all our heart, all our strength, all our mind, and all our soul.  He loves us so much that he wants to possess us totally ~ that's why. 

Joy Follows Sadness

        We are not to obstruct or impede God from carrying out his will.  Peter was scolded by Jesus when he expressed that he didn't want to hear that Jesus was going to die.  We must step aside and let the Lord freely do as he wishes.  Today, while meditating on the 5th sorrowful mystery of the rosary, I could hear the pounding of nails into the Lord's hands and feet at the scene of crucifixion.  I knew that I must not interfere, but I just couldn't help wanting to yell out as loud as possible to those doing the hammering: "What are you doing to my Lord???" 

        Thank you, Jesus, for dying for us.  I know that I should rejoice.

A Most Happy Sound

        I am referring to the crisp sound you hear as the priest breaks up the consecrated hosts into smaller pieces before distributing them at Mass.  The multiplication of the loaves and fish to feed the hungry crowd comes to my mind.  Now, the Lord is ready to feed us who hunger for him.  A welcome sound to hear. 

Achieving Intimacy with God

        Get in touch with the Holy Spirit dwelling within you to ask him to form and shape your conscience to his heart's content and you will experience a great intimacy with God. 

The Proper Focus

        If you have done something good, don't rejoice in that you have done it.  Rather, rejoice that you and the Holy Spirit are now another step closer.

Two Sides of God

        It seems that we always have two sides to everything.  In today's Gospel reading of the Parable of the Ten Virgins from Matthew 25, the five foolish ones were not ready when the groom arrived and were barred from entering into the wedding in the end.  God loves, but he also judges.  I pray for those who believe that God loves them, but forget that he's also the judge.  Being ready is critical if you want to make sure that you don't get shut out in the end, for you don't know when the Lord is going to arrive.   

Link Between Cross & Love

        Today is Friday.  As I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries, I saw deeply that to truly appreciate the depth and breadth of the love of Jesus, we must first ponder upon the Cross to fully understand its meaning.  It was through the Cross that Love was manifested.

"Do It Anyway"

        Chances are you've already read this poem attributable to Mother Teresa.  Just in case you haven't, here it is:

         People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.

         If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway.

     If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.

        If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.

        What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.

        If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.

        The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway.

      Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you've got anyway.

       You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.