God speaks to our heart constantly and it's beautiful to hear his sweet, gentle voice ~ but your heart must be pure and undefiled to hear him clearly, for sin makes it lose its hearing.
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
On Judging
At Mass this morning, a visiting priest made the distinction between judging someone's action and judging the person's intention. It is all right to judge someone's action to be wrong and correct him, but the intention is left for God to deal with. Jesus asks us not to judge ~ here "judge" implies "criticizing without love." It all goes to the saying: "Hate the sin, but love the sinner."
What Totally Matters
Where you go after you die matters. Whether you go to heaven or not absolutely matters. Therefore, believing in Jesus or not totally matters!
Works Matter
Today's response to Psalm 62 reads: Lord, you give back to everyone according to his works. God knows everything we do and everything we do matters to him and to us ~ this is the point. Happy is the one who always does God's will.
Being Alive Forever
I am alive now because God sustains all life. But if I let him dwell in me now (as in union), I shall be alive for ever!
Conserving Energy
One exercise book recommends that when you exercise with weights, do not show any strain on your face, but direct all your energy to lifting the weight. This makes sense in petitioning God too. It's natural for us to pray hard, wasting much energy on wondering if God has heard us or when and how he is going to respond to us. The superior and right way is to put all your energy into trusting in God and not any on feeling anxious and unsettled. In other words, pray from the heart, trust, and let it go.
Monday, October 12, 2015
Bittersweet Christian Life
As I prayed the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary today, I realized that they are all about what the Holy Mother experienced and that hardship accompanied her joy each time. (1) Annunciation ~ with the joy of learning that she had been chosen to bear the Savior came the great responsibility of nurturing and rearing him. (2) Visitation ~ visiting her cousin Elizabeth involved arduous long-distance traveling. (3) Nativity ~ with no room at the inn, Mother Mary had to give birth to Jesus in a manger. (4) Presentation ~ Simon foretold that a sword would pierce her soul. (5) Finding Jesus in Temple ~ the temporary missing child must have caused distress in the mother's heart.
After reflecting upon the above mysteries, I saw that the our Christian life is basically bittersweet. The bitterness are the hardships that are either necessary or brought about by sin, and the sweetness, the ever presence of Christ in our lives.
Connecting with God
It is not always possible to get someone to listen to you, yet you can easily penetrate the heart of God our Father with what comes from the depths of your heart. Be sincere and trusting and the Father hears you. Communication at such a deep level generates great delight in the heart.
Key to Freedom
There is only one who deserves all our love, and it is Christ the Lord. Recognizing this is the key to reconciliation with God, our inner peace, and our eternal happiness.
Blind Generations
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 11, Jesus said to the people gathered in the crowd, "This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah." What our generation, like all previous generations, has failed to recognize is that the biggest sign before us is Christ the Lord himself, the wonder of wonders!
Dealing With Reality
The bottom reality we face but do not always see in this world is the unceasing, ongoing battle between good and evil. In John 18.36, Jesus said, "My kingdom does not belong to this world." If we want to be with Jesus, we must not belong to this world either. So it is imperative that we overcome evil by being holy in this world so as to join Christ in his kingdom.
Joy of Holiness
In today's first reading from Romans 1, Paul reminded the Romans that they were called to belong to Jesus Christ, called to be holy. No doubt holiness pleases God, but anyone who is holy feels good himself too, being free and knowing that he pleases God. Anyone who does not feel any joy in the Lord cannot possibly be holy.
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Purpose of This Blog
The common means of fostering spiritual growth are reading good books, listening to inspiring speakers, attending various conferences . . . to name a few. I advocate that you go directly to the Lord to learn from him, that is, seeking union with him. Union with God has been sadly and mistakenly thought of as for the saints only. The fact is that it is for all of us and is what God desires the most from us! Seeking union is indeed the superior fast track to knowing and learning to be like God. The Lord made this clear to me six years ago and it is the central message he wants me to spread via this blog.
Parable of Love
Perhaps the best known and most beautiful parable Jesus ever told is that of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15,11-32). We know that God loves us because he had given his only Son, but when Jesus told this parable, he had not been crucified yet. It struck me then that no one could have come up such a parable except the one who intimately knows God or God himself.
Great Feeling
Communion experience. It is one of the greatest feelings to know that you have reconciled yourself to God and is ready to do his will. You get that home-sweet-home feeling.
Shakiness of Life
Life is on shaky ground, for anything can happen to us at any time and we are gone. Wise is he who realizes this, prepares for it, and is ready. For him the shakiness of life is a nonissue when he is assured of having a rock-steady future for ever.
Life an Endurance Test
In the Gospel reading from Mark 10 today, Jesus also said to Peter, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come." I see life as an endurance test. To receive eternal life, we are to given up everything, accept all persecutions, and live for Christ. The antithesis is to hold onto everything, reject sufferings and hardships, and live selfcenteredly, with no promise of eternal life.
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