Saving Faith

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 17, ten lepers asked Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus told them to go show themselves to the priests and they were cleansed on the way. Only one returned to Jesus, fell at his feet and thanked him. Jesus said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." None of us is perfect, but it's good to know that as long as we believe, our faith can save us.

How to Stand God

        Today's entrance antiphon at Mass from Psalm 130: If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But with you is found forgiveness, O God of Israel. If God pronounces us to be guilty, we are doomed. Since God is forgiving, we can repent our sins unceasingly to remain in a state of grace always. 

Complete Trust in God

        Trusting in God completely is abandoning ourselves to God. By so doing, we fulfill "Thy will be done" as the Lord had taught us to pray.

Desire for God

        Since God first loved and loves us, he is our most precious jewel to be worshipped and praised. Let's not forget that we must also desire him with all our soul. It's this desire and longing for him that he treasures, for his love desires union with us.

2016 Presidential Prayer

        With this year's presidential election day just about a month away, please join me in saying this short and concise prayer sent to me from a friend.

        

Merciful Jesus, 

with firm faith relying solely on You, 

we entreat You to raise up a suitable candidate 

for the office of the president of the United States of America. 

O Jesus, we surrender this to You. 

"Thy Will Be Done!"

      Amen.       

God Essential to Us

        The following thoughts clearly entered my mind. (1) Everything we enjoy in this world except the Lord God is temporary. (2) We cannot exist in any way without God. (3) Only Christ, our God, can fundamentally change our inner self and we absolutely need to be transformed.

Unique Teaching

        It is unique in Christianity that God directly teaches us in our hearts in addition to through others.

Forever With God

        Habakkuk 2.4, from Reading 1 of Oct. Mass: the just one who is righteous because of faith shall live. When God says we shall live, it means we shall live with him and forever. This is exactly what Jesus has come and promised. When God settles something, it's settled forever. 

Dream Living?

        Those of the world who dream only about achieving success in the world are living in a dream world, and their dreams will evaporate in time into nothing.

Appreciate God

        To look for a husband or wife or a friend, there are virtually millions of candidates out there for you to choose from. But to choose a Savior, there is only one candidate, Christ.  

Unappreciative Hearts

        God's most profound message of salvation is to be understood by the simplest of all hearts, yet we make it so far-fetched as to be irrelevant, not realizing that we are all prodigal sons and daughters who need to wake up and return to the Father.

Fulfilled by Christ

        Today's Communion experience. How good it is to have Christ the Lord complete my joy so that I lack nothing!

Why Love God?

        Reason enough for us to love God with all our heart: he has created us out of love.

Perfect Departure Time

        Communion experience. It was the perfect time to go to Jesus right after receiving him in the Holy Eucharist.

Why Make God Wait?

        I heard from a priest who served in South Korea that only about 20% of Catholics there attended Sunday Mass regularly. Then one year when they thought North Korea was ready to launch an attack on the South any minute, he heard 500+ confessions (I wasn't sure if that happened in one day or not). I am thinking that if you got there late, you might not reach your turn to confess if the attack did materialize. 

On Hurting God

        We can easily hurt our family members or friends who are close to us if we do not treat them kindly. Imagine how we hurt God, the closest one to us of all, when we sin against him!

*God Indispensable

        We need God to make us holy, but this need is unaffected by how holy we become, for we need him for our existence and salvation. We absolutely need God, period!

Keep Communicating to God

        Sometimes because we are mentally occupied by various tasks or lack solitude, we do not hear God speak to us in our heart. Consider this to be a perfect time to pause and speak to him as often as you can. All the Lord needs is a quick word, glance, or thought from you.