Best Place to Remain In

        Today is the Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle, and the Gospel reading is the same as yesterday's at Sunday Mass ~ John 15.9-17. Most beautiful is when Jesus asks the disciples to remain in his love. Imagine resting in his love, being soaked with his love, and living in his love at all times! Give me the most expensive and luxurious penthouse of all Manhattan and I'll choose the love of Lord to live in anytime.   

Freedom, Peace, and Joy

        After you believe in and have come to know Jesus, since he is the true God, he sets you free ~ this is the first experience. This experience of freedom naturally leads you to inner peace ~ the second experience. As for joy, the Holy Spirit will give it to you whenever he pleases ~ the surprise enhances the joy.

Greatest Love Practiced

        Jesus has taught and shown us that the greatest love is to lay down one's life for one's friends (John 15.13). So why not show our greatest love by laying down our lives in serving others?

How We Live Comes True

        If we live as if there will be no next life, then there will be no next life for us; but if we live as if there will a next life, then there will be one for us after we die.

Grateful for Old Age

        If we have reached an old age, we should be grateful not because we have lived longer in this world, but because we have been give more time to grow holier before meeting God. 

Knowledge as an Obstacle

        In today's society, at least in this country (USA), people know so much, kids included. After all, this is the information age. What's sad to see is that so many people talk as if they know everything! They are opinionated, vocal, and even boastful. Showing some humility couldn't be further from their minds. They are not even aware that they are being self-centered and foolish in God's eyes. The knowledge of the world can be as dangerous as other things of the world that blind us from seeing God.

More than God

        Another quick thought: The Christian God is not just God, he is also our Redeemer!

In Touch with Heaven

        After receiving Holy Communion today, I realized that I had just received the bread of heaven. Then the Holy Spirit is from heaven too, so being the temple of the Holy Spirit is to have the heavenly guest residing within me. Heaven and I are definitely in touch with each other. 

Our "Resurrection"

        The Entrance verse today at Mass, Colossians 2.12: "You were buried with Christ in baptism, in which you were also raised again with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead." So you could say that we who have died in Christ and become new creatures in him have already gone through a resurrection. Indeed, the Lord raised us from the dead.

Real Presence Felt

        I just realize that my constant awareness of the presence of the Lord dwelling within me is due to the fact that he is truly present in the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, which I receive at each Mass.

What's Important to Gain?

        We go to a gymnasium to exercise, work out hard, and eventually achieve a better-looking and stronger physique. We attend a higher-learning institution, study hard, read extensively, and become a well-educated and -informed intellectual. But we neglect to pray and nurture our faith in God so that we may evolve into a holier person. Isn't gaining eternal life so much more important than acquiring temporarily a well-proportioned body or a headful of knowledge?

What to Ask from the Father

        In today's Gospel, John 15, Jesus called his disciples his friends and he told them that he had chosen them and appointed them to go out and bear fruit, so that whatever they ask from the Father in his name, the Father may give them. Obviously, "whatever" doesn't include anything going against God's will. Therefore, you can be confident that if you ask God to make you holier, to draw you to union with him, he will readily comply.  

Seek Union First

        In today's Mass Reading 1 from Acts 15, the Apostles and presbyters, in agreement with the whole Church, sent representatives to Antioch to correct the problem of some who went out without any mandate from the Church, upsetting others with their teachings. The unity of the faith must be maintained (Church of Ireland, take note.) If we oppose the teaching of the Church, we can not possibly be in union with Jesus. Seek union with the Lord first, then we'll have the wisdom and humility to know what's right and what's wrong.

To Sink or to Soar

        The rich are attached to their wealth and the poor want to become rich. In general, people are attached to what they already have and want to acquire even more things of the world. How to cure this problem? 

        Imagine that you are in your dying hour right now, luckily still with a clear mind. What are your thoughts? Are you looking forward to meeting God or still thinking or even worrying about what's going to happen to all your material possessions? Jesus has made it clear that we cannot serve both God and money. A soul heavily weighed down by material things is like a sinking ship, while one that chooses God first is more like a helium-filled balloon, eager to soar to God.

Burdensomeness Is Relative

        Today is the Memorial (optional) of St. Damien of Moloka'i, the Belgium priest who ministered to the lepers in their colony on the Hawaiian Island Moloka'i. He eventually contracted leprosy and died of the disease. I am thinking that if one of us is asked to work among the lepers, he or she probably would feel the assignment to be a great burden. So what's not burdensome to one may be burdensome to another. Mother Teresa is another case in point. To those who always seek to do God's will, burdens no longer exist, for they see performing each task as fulfilling their duty to serve the lord they love. Free of burden, they are joyful. 

God to Watch My Thoughts

        What I felt this morning as Mass started was that the Lord was going to oversee all my thoughts. This gave me no fear but joy. He sees all my thoughts anyway, so for him to supervise them to make sure that they meet his approval is indeed a great blessing I welcome with all my heart. The Lord can help us in all things.   

The Positive Approach to God

        One reason why I love St. Therese so much is because her faith in Jesus' love for her was predominant in her spiritual life. Personally, I also prefer to focus upon the positive. By letting the love, mercy, beauty, and glory of God draw you to him, all the negative aspects such as your sins and all other personal problems are then automatically taken away or overcome in due time. To me this is the joyful, effective way of approaching God. That's why I promote union with God above all. 

Church in Disarray

        The big news on BBC yesterday was that the Association of Catholic Priests, an organization which represents more than 850 priests in Ireland, had been meeting to discuss the future direction of the Church. The Vatican had criticized leading members of ACP for expressing views which contradict Church teaching. I watched the video: one priest spoke up against clerical celibacy and for ordination of women; another said that the educated people have the right to have a voice to be heard and if that voice leads to decisions to challenge the present institution, then that's progress. 

        I was saddened to hear these views expressed. Are the measures suggested by the first priest going to turn the Church in Ireland around and bring disillusioned parishioners back? I doubt it. The second priest spoke just like a present-day unbeliever ~ I just wonder where he got his education. For sure any voice attempting to break up the Church, which is the Body of Christ, could not have come from the Holy Spirit! What all these priests, including the bishops and the cardinals, should do is to get together to repent for all the sins (including the cover-up of child abuses) committed collectively by the clergy and ask the Lord to show the new direction for the Church.