God's Presence Made Aware

        I have not specifically asked for this grace, but just by desiring union with God, I've been made aware of his holy presence both in and around me 24/7. This is most beneficial because it definitely helps me not to offend the Lord in any way, thus preserving my interior peace. If you specifically ask for this grace, God might even grant it to you sooner.

Abandonment Necessary

        Today I realize that if the transformation I have asked God to bring about in me has not happened as quickly or smoothly as I have anticipated, I am the one at fault, not the Lord. To let him have the full freedom to change me, I must abandon myself totally to him first. This applies also when it comes to surrendering to God, repenting my sins, and asking for favors from him. In each case, we must go all out, letting our guard down before God. It's all part of loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind.

Communion Excitement

        Just before receiving Holy Communion, I sensed that the finite was going to merge with the infinite and that the imperfect, to join the perfect ~ no trepidation, just excitement.      

Going with God Advised

        Jesus is God Incarnate ~ why did God want to become man? Left to ourselves, we could never have imagined that he would show his love for us in such an amazing way! It just shows that God's ways are not our ways. All the reason for us to follow him and not go off on our own. 

The Infinite God

        St. Augustine is known for his saying "Our hearts are restless until they rest in God" ~ that's how God had made us. This morning as I was driving to Mass, I marveled at the infinitude of God, who has always existed and is eternal. He is Alpha and Omega. He is what he said he is, "I am." I then realized that he had made us finite so that we might marvel at his infiniteness. Mathematically speaking, any finite quantity, no matter how huge, compared to infinity is no different from comparing zero to infinity. Realizing this should keep us humble. Anyone who thinks that he is a god in any way before the true God is out of his mind.      

Proofs

        Jesus is the proof that God the Father loves us and the Holy Spirit, the proof that Jesus is with us. The martyrs prove that God is worth dying for and the saints prove that God can transform us. And all sinners prove that we need God's mercy.

We Need God

        I thought of "authority" today. The word itself is neutral, neither good nor bad, only necessary. Imagine a family in which the parents have no say over the children or a government with no control over its people. If the Church didn't have the Holy See, she would certainly have disintegrated into many fragments. Therefore, I am so happy that we have the Heavenly Father as our authority. Without him, we'd all be lost and in chaos. We absolutely need God.  

Letting God Reign

        Thoughts received during Mass. (1) Only what God thinks of you matters. (2) Let God do whatever he wants with me. (These thoughts were inspired by the desire to seek complete union with the perfect Lord.)

Mind Your Thoughts

        Thoughts occupy our minds most of the time. We even think in my dreams. If you add up all the hours you're awake for an average lifetime, you get way over 300 thousand hours! So what kinds of thoughts occupy your mind? Do they offend God? Do they draw you closer to him? Are these thoughts angry, impatient, or prideful? Are they self-centered or humble? Are they loving or resentful? I am sure no one wants to waste all the waking hours thinking negative thoughts.

        In the past, I mentioned that the Lord can simplify our lives. To be more specific today, I want to say that he can declutter our soul. Once you let him take charge, he will clean out all the recesses of your heart and mind and fill you with his holy thoughts. Then your lose interest in all the things that can lead you to sin, keep you away from him, or simply waste your valuable time by thinking about them. Such is the power of God. It is the desire of the Lord that we each should keep our soul uncluttered and pure, beautiful for him to behold.              

Humility, a Must

        During Mass, the Lord made it crystal clear to me again that to truly love anyone, one must be truly humble. Humility is at the foundation of love. Without it, one cannot truly love. Jesus' supreme model of humility and meekness is the big message for us.   

How to Pray

        I ask myself ~ if Jesus wants me to have faith in him, then should I just pray once and believe that he will answer my prayer? From the Scriptures, I also read that the Lord wants us to be persistent in asking for favors. The conclusion I come to is that we must pray, pray, pray, and at the same time trust, trust, trust.  That is, pray unceasingly, but remain in peace always. 

Jesus Is God-Man

        As the front-runners among the 2012 Republican presidential candidates come under increasingly close scrutiny, my mind turns to looking at Jesus in the Gospels. All I find is that he showed his love for others in all that he did; he was humble to the core; and he came to serve all ~ not a normal human being for sure, but a perfect one as our example. He deserves to be noticed by all.     

God Speaks in Silence Too

        For a few rare souls, the Lord speaks to them aloud or clearly to their heart.  For the rest of us, the Holy Spirit often plants a thought in our mind. But the Lord speaks in silence too. Even though you do not hear anything, things develop in such a way that you know he has heard you. This is like the silent rests written into a piece of music. Even though you do not hear them, they are still played. Therefore, pray and trust.             

How to Be Free

        Love the Lord above everything else and your love for everything else will fall into its right place. Then you are free.

Why Celebrate Christmas?

        I see people busily shopping for Christmas gifts, decorating their houses both inside and outside, and getting ready for holding or attending parties. Is this the way God wants us to celebrate the birth of Christ our Savior? I believe that God is more interested in how we feel in our hearts and not in seeing all the external glitter and worldly activities we participate in. It's a sin for a Christian to use Christmas as just an occasion to have a good time and not as a time to deepen their faith in the Lord. Christmas should remind us that Jesus did come to us two thousands years ago and he has been around ever since. And it's for this fact that we celebrate. The one who loves us the most deserves recognition.   

Jesus as Friend

        I am sure that most of us have had friends with whom we just got along great. I could still recall my best friends in both elementary and high schools from way back. It's always a joy to meet someone with whom you can easily hit it off. At the opposite end, there were some people with whom I had great difficulty even in starting a conversation. Then there is Jesus, most special. As a friend, he loves us, watches over us, listens to us, teaches us, consoles us and gives us hope when we are troubled, uplifts us when we are down, shields us from evil, replaces the void in our hearts with heavenly joy, always does what's best for us, and so much more. Once you get to know him, you know that he is a true friend and the only one you'll ever need. Furthermore, he laid down his life for us ~ there cannot be a better friend than that. Seeking union with such a friend should be our natural response.         

A Warning

         Watching the news on TV is extremely depressing. You see myriad sins being committed nonstop both at home and abroad, causing unbearable pains and sufferings to so many people worldwide. It's even sadder when you realize that all these sins are committed against our God who's filled with love for us. Then I remember that when Jesus was carrying his cross on his way to being crucified, he turned to the mourning and lamenting women who followed him and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.'" Indeed, this is also the time for us to weep for ourselves, for the worst is sure to come if we do not turn to God. 

To Die to Live

        To die in Christ is to live in him. If there's no death, there cannot be new life. To enter God, who is Life, one must die first.