God's Personal Giving

        During consecration of the bread and wine at Mass this morning, again I heard through the priest the words of Jesus at the Last Supper: "...this is my body which will be given up for you....this is the chalice of my blood...which will be poured out for you..." The words struck me ~ how personal the Lord was! And such giving! I can't possibly imagine myself giving as such. 

Sign of Ego Presence

        Impatience.        

How Holy Eucharist Assists Union

        Seeking union with Jesus is to make him No. 1 in our lives. The Holy Eucharist assists union in the following ways:

        (1) Receiving it initiates a physical union with the Lord, and this union can grow into a spiritual one.

        (2) Since the Lord is present in this Sacrament, it is a power source from which we receive the grace needed for attaining union.

        (3) The Holy Eucharist ensures the attainment of ultimate union.
        (4) Receiving the Sacrament strengthens our union with God. 

Surefire Prayer

        If you ask for what God wills, how can he resist you? That's why when you ask the Lord to transform you spiritually, he does just that without delay ~  showing that he's well pleased.

Most Amazing Accomplishment

        Human accomplishment has been amazing in numerous areas; but human capabilities are limited. God's power being infinite, no human can possibly match him. The most amazing accomplishment comes from God ~ the spiritual transformation of a soul. Without God, that would be impossible. Spiritual transformation is satisfying precisely because God accomplishes it.  

A Blessed State for Us

        Romans 8.38-39: "...neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus..." God's love is ready and waiting. If we completely accept this love, we become inseparable from God. What a blessed state for us to be in!

We Are Loved!

        Entrance antiphon at morning Mass, Matthew 25.34: Come, you blessed of my Father; receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. This is what Jesus will say to his sheep on Judgment Day. Another saying that should make us jump for joy. God always does his utmost to make us happy!  

Freeing the Heart

        John 12.24: Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit, says the Lord. Similarly, unless our enslaved heart turns to God and surrenders, it remains enslaved; but if it surrenders, it gains great freedom. 

Joyful Tidings

        In today's Gospel reading at Mass from John 20, Mary Magdalene was weeping outside the empty tomb, thinking that someone had taken her Lord away. Then Jesus appeared and asked her why she was weeping. She first thought he was the gardener, but recognized him after he called her by name. Then Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Jesus' Father is our Father and his God is our God! ~ surely our hearts should jump with joy upon hearing this.

Our Only Good News

        All news get old except the Good News of salvation from God. It is as fresh as it was two thousand years ago and is needed as long as one unrepentant sinner still lives. In today's dark world, the Good News, our only good news, is our last and only hope! Whoever rejects this Good News rejects the love and mercy of God, in effect believing that Christ has died for nothing! And they'll have to answer for that before the Lord. 

Know Your Eternal Destination

        I got up this morning before 6 and saw dawn breaking over the eastern sky. As surely as the sun would appear next, Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. Chances are I shall meet him before the Second Coming. Either way, I'll be ready. Once my eternity destination was clear, peace settled in my heart. Anyone who does not know where they are heading is like sailing on the Titanic, for disaster can strike unexpectedly. 

In God We're Free

        Quoting St. Augustine once again: "O God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." I felt this morning at Mass that I wouldn't be happy until God took full control of me. One taste of freedom in him and you desire more of it. 

To Lapsed Catholics

        As always, the churches were packed yesterday because so many lapsed Catholics attended Easter Mass to ease their guilty conscience. Some never had much faith, but others stayed away because they didn't like something about the priest or a fellow Catholic. To the latter, I pose the question: "Were you, as a Catholic, attracting others to the Church or turning them away from her?" Since the Church is the Body of Church, to leave her is to not want to belong to Christ.

Easter Hope in Christ

        Happy Easter to all my readers! May Jesus draw each one of you deep into him where you'll find peace and freedom. "Deep" is the word here. Pray deep too ~ pray with all your heart and you words will go deep into the heart of God. Take full advantage of the Lord's mercy and love! 

        I'd like to end with what Pope Francis said in his Easter message: "We ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, and war into peace." Amen.

Secret of Gaining Eternal Life

        Water tends to run downhill by itself. And it's always easier to tear something down than to build it up. Similarly, to lose eternal life is practically effortless and to gain it is not so. It's been said that the road to heaven is both narrow and steep. So how can we make it? Answer: We need to hook up with God first. Once he is with us, he will do all the work, making the impossible possible for us. It's both simple and logical. (Union with God hooks us up with God in the most secure way.) 

God Has Shown His Love

        If you truly love someone, you wouldn't mind dying for that person should the occasion compelling you to make such a choice arises. Of course, God lives forever and cannot die. Therefore, to show that he truly loves us, he sent his Son to become one of us so that he might experience death in this life. Naturally, Jesus had to rise from death, for he is eternal like the Father. This all makes perfect sense to me now.   

Pre-Easter Thoughts

        I've been doing Way of the Cross, using Pope Benedict XVI's meditations and prayers. I would like to borrow some of the his thoughts from the meditations he wrote for the Seventh and Ninth Stations, which are "Jesus falls for the second time" and "Jesus falls for the third time," respectively. 

        We have fallen too, fallen miserably short of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. People of today in general no longer believe in anything; they simply drift through life, having built a new kind of paganism. In attempting to do away with God, they have ended up with doing away with man. Christians have also fallen away from Christ into a godless secularism. Do we ever think of how much Christ suffers in his own Church? How often is the Holy Sacrament of his Presence abused when he must enter empty and evil hearts! How often is his Word twisted and misused! What little faith is present behind so many theories, so many words! How much filth there is in the Church, even among those in priesthood who ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency! What little respect we pay to the sacrament of Reconciliation, where he waits for us, ready to raise up whenever we fall! Jesus is enduring his greatest suffering right now! Let's call to him from the depths of our hearts: Lord, save us.    

Changed Outlook

        Father M who gave the homily at today's Liturgy told that when he and a Jewish college friend attended a Catholic wedding of a mutual friend together (this was before he became a priest), his friend was "horrified" to see the ceremony held in the presence of the big crucifix in the church. Whereas we Catholics see in the crucifix the love of God for us, suffering made meaningful, the obedience of Christ, our liberation by him; and we adore the Lord on the cross! It just shows how God can completely change our outlook.