How to Belong to God

                Give your heart to him.

Being Tested by God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 15: 21-28, Jesus tested a Canaanite woman's faith; she passed and won the Lord's heart. Every difficulty, hardship we encounter in life is a test that comes from God. Instead of getting upset and complaining about it, we should put our faith in God, remain humble always, then we'll invariably pass the test and come out stronger in faith and closer in our union with God. See every test as an opportunity for us to store up treasures in heaven.

Faithful Servant

        The faithful servant of Christ takes advantage of every opportunity to serve God. He does not pick or choose only what he prefers to do nor ignore the small things. He can be trusted in every respect and is willing to let the heavenly Father make him as perfect as possible. And he knows that no order is too large for God.

God We Need

        Communion experience. God is exactly what we need, for he can give all the help we need and make us perfect. Let his powerful love do the work for us and transform us.  

Making Faith Beautiful

        Today is the Memorial of St. Dominic. The Gospel reading from Matthew 14 tells that the disciples of Jesus in a boat saw the Lord walking on water toward them. Peter also wanted to try, but after he got out of the boat and began to walk toward Jesus, he became frightened and began to sink. Jesus caught him and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" The lesson to me here is that we should never doubt the Lord. Have full confidence in God is such a beautiful thing! If God cannot be trusted fully, then life would not be worth living.

Saving Soul Beyond Body

        Saving the soul of a person saves that person for all eternity. Saving the life of a person only gives him another chance to find salvation, in case he is not a believer in Christ yet. To love someone, we need to be concerned about the soul beyond this life, which is what made the Lord come into the world. Therefore, as Christians, we must make saving souls our foremost priority.

*Way to Perfect Freedom

        Perfect obedience to the Father leads to perfect freedom in him.

**Communion Significance

        Communion experience. Receiving the Lord in the Holy Eucharist is much more than coming into physical contact with him – it is the complete dissolution of the Lord in you to be absorbed by you to become one with you!

Short Review of Christ

        Today's Communion antiphon, Wisdom 16.20: You have given us, O Lord, bread from heaven, endowed with all delights and sweetness in every taste. My short review of Jesus would be "He is most delightful and sweet." 

*Smart Tactic

        We all enjoy being appreciated and loved by others, then why not redirect this desire to letting God appreciate and love you? God is ever ready; you only need to allow him to do it. Other people can only inflate your ego, but when God does it, he humbles and exalts you at the same time and your heart will rejoice.

***True Humility

        Humility is measured by how much you are willing to let God change you! You are humble when you are ready to let God do whatever he wants with you.

**Some Signs of Ego Presence

1. We get unhappy when things don't go the way we want. 

2. We notice only what we do not have, but don't appreciate what we already have. 

3. We go over in our mind what we have said or done before others, concerned about our own image. 

Only by immersing ourselves in God can we let go of our ego. Therefore, be wide open to God to let him enter to displace your ego.

*Foregone Conclusions

        If you fight God by rebelling against him, you will lose everything, you soul included, at the end. On the other hand, if you love him as your Father by obeying his every will, you shall inherit his kingdom in heaven.  

Something to Beware

        We do not know the day of our departure from earth, but it is marked on God's calendar. Beware of this so that we may live our life right and please the Lord.

**Jesus Most Personal!

        The Lord who has died for us to redeem us knows all about us and we are to face him alone to account for how we have lived our life on earth and he is to determine our fate for all eternity.

**How to Gain God*

         Simple! Humbly surrender yourself to him and he is yours.         

**Most Beautiful Win-Win Deal

        You let God into your life and he's happy to let you have all the spiritual support you need, freedom, peace, joy, and eternal life to boot. 

Most Appropriate Short Prayer

        Communion experience. I felt that the shortest, most appropriate general prayer to God for us was "Lord, have mercy." It shows that we acknowledge that we are completely at his mercy and are willing to submit ourselves to him.