Our Ideal State

        It's been my experience that as long as I remain in Christ, I have inner peace. The moment I step out of him to be on my own, that peace gets disturbed. We are in the ideal state when we have Jesus at our center with us remaining in total submission to him.

**Jesus My Center

        Jesus draws me to him, making me see that he is the absolute indispensable center of my life. He keeps me safe, for nothing can take me away from him! And he feeds me and fills my cup with living water continuously. Remember that he's the one who would turn the left cheek to the one who strikes him on the right one, hand his cloak to someone who wants to go to law with him over his tunic, and go with anyone for two miles when pressed into service for one mile? (Matthew 5.39-41.) In the same manner, even though my faith is limited, he always gives me more than I ask for. How can I possibly not love my most generous Lord?

Self-Generated Fear

        Know that if you feel uneasy about abandoning yourself or just turning to God, it is not God who wants to instill fear in you. How can he when all he wishes is to love and be intimate with you as your Father? If you hesitate or feel uneasy, that's because you are resisting him, thereby generating your own fear. May this understanding clear the way for you to approach God.

Aging Is a Blessing

        In my younger days, I pushed myself as hard as I could when working out in a gym. Now, my foremost concern is not to risk any injury when I exercise, walk, or just get out of bed. Aging slows one down, but does make you turn to God more. In this way, you are wiser. At last, a dreamer turns into a realist, and that should be one best thing that ever happens to you.     

**Jesus Essential!

        When I hear the sweet voice of Jesus in my heart, I feel his presence, his love, his mercy, his gentleness, his assurance, deep joy, gratitude, consolation, and my oneness with him. He is all we need, for there is nothing greater or more satisfying than God our creator. It's time for all prodigal sons and daughters to go home.

Treating God the Father

        With Father's Day coming up next month, this question came to me: Shouldn't we treat our heavenly Father at least as well as we treat our earthly fathers? 

Two Most Important Prayers

        To help us love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, we need to pray that we will always be obedient to God in all things and that he will lead all souls to heaven. 

Signs of Indwelling Holy Spirit

        How do you know that the Holy Spirit dwells in you? In the early days, I wasn't sure. I did not exactly expect to see a white dove or tongues of fire landing on me, but some tangible sign would surely help. Of course, you cannot see the Holy Spirit, for he works within your heart. Now I know that when you sense Christ's presence, hear him speaking to your heart, feel the urge to call on the Father, pity anyone who is suffering, can't help wanting to witness for the Lord, experience joy at the thought of God, yearn to be one with him, or . . . – all these are signs that you have the indwelling Spirit. This is the Jesus who promised that he would be with us till the end of the age.

**Disempowering Satan

        This is quite simple. Focus entirely upon God, letting him replace your ego fully with his humility, and you become invisible to Satan. Seeking to attain union with God will take care of all that and more. 

What I Admire About Jesus

        What impresses me about Christ is that even though he is God, he has zero ego, never boasted about his power, and always told straight the truth. We can be like that only with God's help. He is the Lord who never attempts to lord it over us.

*Choices of Living Our Life

        Broadly speaking, there are only two. First of all, life is never perfect, for things do not always go right for us. In fact, for some, life can be downright miserable. It is a no-brainer that we should want to live a most happy life forever after we die. Coming right down to it, we can either accept the offer of eternal life from Christ as he promised or turn him down and end up living the most miserable life apart from him for all eternity. It's a choice between "from bad to perfect" and "from bad to worst."

**Secret of Happiness

        Born with original sin, we can become self-centered and commit sins. On the other hand, we are capable of loving others too. There is another desire we are not always aware of: we want to feel happy. Deep down, there is an emptiness in life we want to fill, so we continually seek fun, pleasures, and security throughout our lifetime. But true happiness is never found this way until we know that we can be happy for all eternity. This is exactly why true Christians feel completely fulfilled and happy.

God Challenging Us

        At Mass this morning, as the priest raised the Holy Eucharist and proclaimed to the people: This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Happy are those who are called to his supper. Of course, I had heard this thousands of times and it had always sounded fine because I accepted it. Today I heard the Lord challenging us whether we believe that Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world or not. Not thinking about it would be tantamount to rejecting the claim. So we are challenged to either accept it as true with all our heart or reject it resolutely as false. The Lord is never to be ignored. 

Follow the Prodigal Son

        The most beautiful and powerful parable of all the parables of Jesus has to be The Prodigal Son. Realize that we are all prodigal sons or daughters to some degree because we all need to turn to the Father, repent, and beg for his forgiveness. Follow the example of the prodigal son and we shall likewise discover the infinite love and mercy of God and arrive at a happy ending.

God to Be Imitated

        Communion experience. After receiving the Lord, the clear message I heard from him was "Be like me." Yes, we are to imitate the Lord, never play him.

*Sinking Reality

        Imagine everyone stuck in quicksand. How deep we have sunk depends upon the degree of our sinfulness. And Jesus our Savior can easily lift us out of the sand if only we will to listen to and follow his instructions. I could have imagined a less dire picture, but the reality of truth remains the same. 

*Shining Light of the World

        Jesus is the only shining beacon in our dark world because he is the supreme example of selfless love. He said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" and he did just that to show that we are his beloved. He has set the highest standard so that the world may not be lost. If you do not see this, you won't find hope anywhere else.        

Dangerous World

        Our world is dangerous because it is where we can lose our soul forever if we do not watch out carefully. If you love the way of the world, you've already fallen into its trap. In today's Gospel reading at Mass from John 15, Jesus said to his disciples, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you." So if the world loves you, watch out. But if it hates you on account of the name of Jesus, rejoice.