*Crux of My Existence

        I woke up early in the morning and it was still dark outside. Again, I felt that I was not alone and it was the existence of my creator that matters most and only to my existence. Therefore, my relationship with my creator becomes the crux of my existence.

Perfect Rules

        Never let anyone's imperfection influence you to be more imperfect. Rather, let God's perfection alone inspire you to be even more perfect.

A Sweet Feeling

        It's a sweet feeling when you truly forgive someone from the heart, knowing that you've stopped playing God to let God be the sole judge.

*What Matters to Life:

Knowing and accepting that God is love.

Life Needs God

        First of all, without God we wouldn't be alive breathing and with a continuously beating heart. Then, without the Lord we wouldn't know how to live a joyful life in spiritual freedom. Last, without him we won't find the way to heaven.

**Moment of Creation

          Communion experience. The famous fresco painting The Creation of Adam done by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel shows God about to touch Adam to give him life. Anyhow, as I received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, it was also a moment of creation when God imparted a new spiritual life on me. Such is the power of the Blessed Sacrament.

         [Dear readers, as I'll be on the road for the next two weeks, please check back next month for new postings. God be with you all!]

Testing the Heart

        Communion experience. I was in awe of God's love and mercy. If he hasn't won you over yet, your heart must be too hard and cold.

*Begging Question

        Jesus has nothing but love to offer us, for he is love. Please tell me why you still stay away from him, please, please...

*God's Perfect Balance

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus taught his disciples about the law and a host of other subjects, and he was demanding. I love the Lord for being merciful and demanding at the same time. If he is only merciful, then we don't even need to be good to be saved. On the other hand, if he is only demanding, then who can possibly be good enough to be saved? Being both gives the perfect balance and I rejoice in that. 

**Where to Find God*

        We tend to look for God somewhere in outer space, but do you know that if you enter deep, deep, deep your inner self and search for him, you will find him there and realize that he's been waiting for you always?

Tabernacle in Our Heart

          The tabernacle which houses the Eucharist on the altar at the church looks magnificent, but I know that it would please Jesus even more if we would set up a tabernacle on an altar in our heart.

Importance of a Clean Heart

        An unclean heart is not a peaceful heart. To experience peace, one must first reconcile oneself to God and ask for his forgiveness. The souls in heaven are happy because their hearts are clean as God had intended them to be from the beginning.

*Loving God With Our All

        Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all you strength, and with all your mind." The only way for us to achieve this is to surrender ourselves totally to God so that he may transform our heart, our being, our strength, and our mind to his heart's content. What a beautiful event it would be!

Made After God

        No matter how sinful we are, we still at times feel that we should help someone in need or actually help someone without thinking and feel good afterwards. This reminds me that we are made in the image of God.

What to Live For

        Netflix just released the new series Abstract: The Art of Design. You can watch the trailer on YouTube. Being artistic in nature, I knew I would enjoy watching it. But before finishing watching the first two parts of this eight-part series, I also knew that living for Christ is so much more fulfilling and superior than living for any of the arts or, for that matter, anything else. True, many artists are happy doing what they are doing, but they shortchange themselves for not knowing that what they pursue is perishable in the end! Leaving your mark on the world is far from storing up treasures in heaven. It is vision going beyond this brief life that is needed to make living truly meaning and fulfilling. 

Unhappy Phonies

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus healed a deaf man who had a speech impediment and ordered the people who brought the man to him not to tell anyone. Of course, Jesus had done so many other even greater wondrous deeds. So we have a Lord with infinite power, yet zero ego. Relative to him, we have zero power, but a huge ego. No wonder we are not free and happy, for we are phonies! 

*Our Only Big Chance

        We entered the world as nobodies. If in this life we do not get God to adopt us as his heirs, we will leave the world again as nobodies. 

All in God's Mercy

        I did not know my son's friend who passed away (read my last post), but I did pray hard for him, for I heard from my son that he was a decent person. Of course, I don't know where his soul is now, but I trust in the great mercy of my Lord. I recall the story that St. Therese of Lisieux prayed hard for a notorious criminal named Henri Pranzini who had been sentenced to die at the guillotine. After the execution, she read in the paper how when he was about to be beheaded, he turned, took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times. This further reminds me of one of the thieves crucified along with Jesus who begged Jesus to remember him when he enters into his kingdom. And the Lord promised that he would be in paradise with him that day.