On Serving God

        Serving God is a full-time occupation. We live for God alone; we are always ready to serve him and we do all things in order to serve him. How is this possible? Seek union with God and you'll know that it's not only possible, but also the natural thing to do. 

Experiencing Freedom

        Today's Communion experience. When I received the Holy Eucharist, I knew I was receiving exactly what the Apostles had received at the Last Supper. I was so happy that I abandoned myself to the Lord and experienced great freedom.

Fruit of Listening to God

        A Christian who listens to God remains humble and does not judge others.

No Halfhearted Loving

        The Gospel reading at Mass came from Luke 10. Jesus used the Parable of the Good Samaritan to teach how we should love our neighbor. A man fell victim to robbers; they stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest and a Levite both passed by, saw him, and did nothing. But a Samaritan traveler came upon him and was moved with compassion at the sight. He poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, "Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back." It's clear that of the three, the Samaritan is the one being neighborly to the robbers' victim.

        Therefore, we are to give our all in loving ~ to do everything within our power and reach. So many times we have the chance to help someone, but we never really put our heart into it. Jesus' commandment You shall love your neighbor as yourself demands going all out because loving your neighbor is loving the Lord, our God.

I Know Jesus!

        In Reading 2 from Colossians 1 at Mass, Paul speaks of Christ Jesus as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and the one in whom all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, were created. Furthermore, he is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is also the beginning and the firstborn from the dead. All the fullness dwells in him and God reconciles all things through him, making peace by the blood of his cross. 

       I proudly "boast" that I know this Christ Jesus because he dwells within me and is the one who has made my life worth living, giving me the reason to rejoice. 

Enjoying God to the Utmost

        Rest in your heavenly Father to let him love you and transform you into a new creature worthy of this love. 

Surrender to God Now

        The best time to surrender to God is NOW. As long as you are alive, it's never too late or too early to make this commitment. Why surrender? God truly needs us to help him find the lost sheep and bring them back to him! Saving the soul is so much more important than saving the physical life. To work for the Lord, we must be ready and fit, and surrendering to God is the best preparation for us. Without it, we won't be able to follow him every step of the way. 

Easy Judging

        Yesterday I heard about a young man in a Catholic family who didn't want to remain in the Church, one of his reasons being that the Vatican is so rich and wealthy with all its properties, art treasures, etc. I believe that this was his honest question and not an excuse. He had a point, but missed the real point ~ he should have looked at Jesus and not the sinners that are all of us.

        In teaching his disciples not to judge others, Jesus said, "How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove that splinter from your eye,' while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother's eye" (Matthew 7.4-5). Judging is precisely the problem of the world. It's too easy to point your finger at someone else and not ever to examine yourself. The young man mentioned above was no exception. This is why families fall apart. This is why nations are at war with each other. If we all follow just this one counsel of the Lord, there would be instant peace. No humility, no peace, and I mean peace for the heart too.

Freedom in God Only

        Communion experience today. The Lord made me sense that true freedom for us exists in God only, and this freedom is indeed the greatest freedom we can possibly experience ~ nowhere outside God is there true freedom.

A Freedom Test

      If we do not die, we can never get to heaven. So if God calls you to go to him, what would be the point of delaying your departure from this world (unless you aren't sure of your final destination yet)? If you can answer "Here I come" without hesitation anytime he calls, then you are indeed free.

Staying Close to God

        It's good to share every little thing with and tell every little thing to Jesus. For doing things that are normal and routine, it's sufficient to be aware that he is aware of what you're doing. For doing anything you're not sure of, just tell him. Then if it's not his will, he'll let you know. For facing something unknown, you definitely need to pray to him for protection and guidance. The whole point is to show that you want to be intimate with the Lord and aware of his holy presence at all times. 

Remaining New in the Lord

        The Holy Spirit is my sensor because he lets me know right away when my thought or feeling is inappropriate, showing lack of love. For example, yesterday someone phoned me and I knew that talking to that person would be unpleasant ~ the Holy Spirit calmed me down and I was able to listen and talk nicely. Again, this morning at church before Mass started, quite a few of us were praying, but two people in the back started talking in a low voice, making it impossible to concentrate on praying. The Holy Spirit again calmed me down and the talking stopped after several minutes. So the Holy Spirit senses my reaction, checks me, and renews me. Let the Lord renew us every single moment that we may remain new at all times. 

Solidifying the Union

       Communion experience today. The Lord showed me that to solidify the union, all I needed to do was to be more passive, more letting go, and it would lead me to greater peace.

Beware of Ego

        It saddens me to see someone who has a good paying job, drives an expansive car, lives in a nice house, but still unhappy because he doesn't think he has enough. If the intention is to impress others, then there will always be others wealthier than you, so you remain unhappy. One has to be practically brain-dead not to know that billions of the world's population are living at the poverty level. It just shows that without God sharpening your conscience, the ego easily enslaves you. 

Life-Changing Belief

        I needed some consecrated hosts this morning to conduct a Eucharistic service at a senior retirement lodge. As I was kneeling before the opened tabernacle praying, the Lord made me see that once you truly believe that the Holy Eucharist is the body and blood of him, everything about you changes. "Truly believe" is believing to the point you know and feel it. This was eye-opening to me that a deep belief in this truth can transform a person.

The Ultimate Thing to Do

        Today's Communion experience. When I went up to receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, it was more than going up to touch his cloak, shake his hand, or hug him ~it was going up to let him enter me to become one with me! I saw this as the ultimate thing we can possibly do in this life and in this world. If you are humble, you'll also see this as receiving the greatest possible reward in this life, in this world.

Listening Is Important

          Go on YouTube and you'll find all kinds of talks... the hateful, the self-righteous, the accusatory, the irreverent,.... In general, people like to talk and not listen. If we don't listen to those we say we love, then we really don't love them that much. To listen to someone is to respect that person. You cannot love someone if you don't respect that person. The one we need to listen to the most is the Lord our God. If you listen to him, you will automatically love all others. If you can listen more than you talk, you are on the road to perfection. 

Heaven & Hell, Beyond Imagination

        There is a retail store, which I shall not name, in my area that sells things a lot of people like, but I am not one of them. It is filled with old-styled, mostly dark-colored, home-decorating items. There are also artificial and dead flowers galore. When I am in that store, I feel the gloom and even sense death. So if you were to sentenced me to live in that place, I would feel miserable. Then there is music equally hard to take, the kind that's loud, vulgar, animalistic, often with a lot of screaming. Should I be forced to listen to that day and night, I might go insane. And I thought of hell. The punishment you experience there would probably be unbearable beyond imagination. I can walk out a store or away from the source of any music, but what you experience in hell is forever! In driving, I learned to avoid head-on collisions at all costs. Common sense should tell us to avoid going to hell at all costs. On the other hand, with my finite mind I cannot possibly imagine how happy I'll be in heaven. But I know for certain that whatever I experience up there will exceed my wildest imagination.