Where Peace Dwells

        Peace dwells in the heart of one whose will coincides with God's will.

How to Ask in Prayer

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 11, Jesus counseled "all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours."  Again, faith is requisite. 

        I started thinking: how shall we ask in prayer?  If I ask to win the lottery and believe that I will win, will it happen?  Then I realize that whatever we ask must glorify God.  Therefore, ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to ask before asking.  Basically, we must always ask out of love for God.  We ask not to have our way but to have God's will be done.  Looking at it this way, I see that asking is also a form of listening to God, a way of discerning his will to which we must conform.

Real Living

        As I drove to Mass in the morning, I was acutely aware of God's existence and presence.  I know that I trust in him, being not anxious about anything, and just want to follow him with no desire to go off on my own to chase after my own dreams.  A peace pervaded me.  I realized that this was real living.  Any other way would be squandering away the time of my life.   

Listening to God Is Essential

        It was just in the news that members of certain denominational Christian church picketed with "hate signs" at the funeral service of a veteran.  They were anti-gay and believed that God was punishing this nation for tolerating homosexuality.  Would their kind of action draw other to Christ??  It just made me realize how we could be so easily mislead when we don't listen to the Lord carefully enough.  I always stay away from anyone who proclaims self-righteousness.  Let's ask the Lord to teach us in all things and lead us in everything. 

God Alone Is to Be...

desired, sought, listened to, and followed. To get ahead, go for the best and ignore the rest.       

On Feeling Good

        If you feel good when you know that you look good to others in or out of clothes, have won honors and earned higher degrees, or possess good health and great wealth, then you must be a pretty vain person.  Whatever pleasure you derive from such satisfaction only feeds the ego and is therefore superficial and short-lived.  By contrast, the hidden joy you feel when you humbly serve the Lord is pure and deep, permanently affecting the soul.

Most Wonderful Offering

          One person prays for a job and he's offered one.  Another prays for healing and gets well speedily.  These are all wonderful happenings.  But the most wonderful of all to me is that when a sinner prays to become holy, God transforms him or her into a saint.  In all cases, God shows his love for us and hopes to draw us closer to him; but in the last, he is most pleased because instead of asking to receive something, the sinner offers himself to God for his glory ~ meeting him halfway, you could say.  God's love for us deserves our all.

To Get Closer to God

        If you yearn for God, the only way to get closer to him is to love him more and he will draw you to him ~ most satisfying and rewarding.

Faith Leads to Beauty of God

        The more your faith deepens, the more you see the beauty of God.  This is somewhat like a spelunker exploring a cave ~ the deeper he enters the cave, the more it opens up before him a new, more beautiful world. 

Holy Eucharist, the Most High

        Today's Communion verse is from Matthew 28.20: "I, the Lord, am with you always, until the end of the world."  To me, the Holy Eucharist Jesus instituted for us confirms this promise in a special way.  The Holy Eucharist is the bread of life, the Lord himself, the greatest gift he has left us, so special, so extraordinary, a treasure beyond measure...  When I receive the Holy Eucharist, not only Jesus touches me, we become one.  This gift is absolutely necessary to attain full union with the Lord.  I shall extol and exalt it as long as I am still breathing.

Living a Life of Love

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 10, Jesus makes it clear that anyone who gives up everything to follow him will receive a hundred times more in this life and eternal life in the next.  Basically, I see that Jesus wants us to to love him, to experience his love, to be filled with his love.  Our whole life then should be one fully immersed in the love of God. 

To Take on the Heart & Mind of Christ

        On the way to morning Mass, I felt that I wanted to pray like Jesus.  He is completely intimate with the Father (they are one) and always asked for the will of the Father to be done.  Then I thought that I wanted to think like Jesus and feel like Jesus too.  It's clear that union with Christ will bring about these desired changes.

Back to Abandonment in God

        The other day I had a chance to urge someone to come back to the Church.  I began well; but gradually, because of my zeal, I started swamping him with too many words.  The lesson I learned is that even with zeal, I should always follow the Holy Spirit and not take over his lead.  And I must always leave the outcome to him so that my zeal may not get out of bounds.  It's back to abandoning myself to God.  

To Achieve True Freedom

        Today's Entrance at Mass from Psalm 18: "The Lord has been my strength; he has led me into freedom..."  

        How to be truly free?  Anyone in slavery himself has no power to free himself.  It's like trying to lift yourself up by pulling on your own boot straps.  He needs someone greater than himself, a master, to free him.  And that master is God, with whom nothing is impossible.  It is in letting ourselves be captives of God that we become free ~ one of those paradoxes that are true.      

On Expecting to Be Rewarded

        If you expect to be rewarded for what you do, you'll surely have disappointments; but if you do not expect any reward for what you do, then you'll be free to enjoy whatever surprises coming your way. 

        A footnote.  Do everything for the glory of God and you'll always be rewarded. 

All in Your Hands

        I was inspired to pray "all in your hands" before Mass.  Believe it, desire it, and submit to it, and freedom begins.

Living by Faith

        I prefer living by faith in this life because the joy of seeing the Lord face-to-face later will be greater.

We're Living on Borrowed Time

        Photography used to be my hobby and I thought of the many hours I spent in the darkroom.  When I was deeply immersed in developing and printing pictures, I didn't think of anything else.  I was fortunate that I survived those hours ~ what I mean is that I didn't die or anything like that happened during those hours; for life is so unpredictable and fragile.  As if to confirm my belief, yesterday out of the blue an electric outage occurred in my neighborhood ~ the storm did it.  The power was not restored until 24 hours later.  I am now keenly aware that we are all living on borrowed time.  Only God knows the length of each individual borrowing period.  Not making good use of this time is like not reading a book we have borrowed from the library, and that's wasting time.  Jesus' advice on always staying awake and be alert is to be acted upon.