**Goal of Our Journey

        The goal of all our spiritual activities, including attending Mass, should be to become one with God so that we may follow his will perfectly. 

Be Beautiful to God

        Jesus makes everything beautiful, you included if you'll let him.

***Spiritual Breakthrough for All***

        We struggle spiritually because we are still rebellous to God. Therefore, if you surrender yourself totally to God, with the help of receiving the Holy Eucharist, he wipes out all your struggles. This is the very message God wants me to spread, the purpose of this blog.

*Essential Moment for Salvation

        Today's Gospel reading from Luke 5 was on the call of Simon Peter the fisherman by Jesus. Astonishment seized Simon and his fishing partners at the catch of the great number of fish after Jesus told them where to drop the nets. This happened after they had worked hard all night and caught nothing. Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man" after he realized that Christ is the Lord. This is a moment that we all need to have to be saved.

*Endearing Yourself to God

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 86: Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of mercy to all who call to you. We need to cry to God and call on him. Tell him everything that bothers us, even the silly things and those that show our spiritual immaturity. Nothing shall be hidden from him, for he knows all our shortcomings. Sharing your heart with him this way will surely endear you to him, your heavenly Father.

Complaining to God?

        When something bad happens to us, we are likely to ask God why he allows it. We feel that God is not being fair to us. We must remember that we are all sinners who offend God continuously, so we don't have the right to feel that nothing bad should ever happen to us. The fact that heaven and hell exist takes care the fairness question. Once we are in heaven or hell, all the things that happened to us on earth, good or bad, become immaterial. This is how I see it. Instead of complaining to God, We should be aware of our sinful status, trust in God's mercy, and live aiming for heaven.  

God's Ingenuity

        Communion experience. The Lord gave us the 5 senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. It struck me that he was being most ingenious in choosing to unite with us most intimately through taste.

Heed the Warnings

        Hurricane Harvey has just swept through Texas and caused up to $180bn-worth of damage. Now on its heels is Hurricane Irma, even worse than Harvey and projected to hit Florida. Is God telling us something? To me, it is loud and clear that we must repent and return to him or face the worst in the end, worse than all the hurricanes and all the other natural disasters put together. Yet we don't even mention God in our daily conversations. Some possible reasons. You don't believe in God so much yourself. You are afraid that you might "offend" others. Religion is a personal thing, not to be shared in public. You are ashamed of your faith in God. God is of no urgent concern to you right now. All good people will be saved anyway. None of these reasons can back you up at judgment time. Let the fear of God bring you to God. Get to know him until your fear vanishes. Then you are all set for eternity.

Trusting Demons

        In the Gospels, we read about Jesus delivering those who were possessed by demons. In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, demons came out from many, shouting, "You are the Son of God." They knew that he was the Messiah. In yesterday's reading from Luke 4, a demon cried out in the loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!" While we live in the material world, demons live in the spiritual world, so they ought to know who Jesus is. Here we have them testifying that Jesus is the Lord and God and we can trust them for that.

Most Delightful Companion and Guide

        Communion experience. The Lord is my delight and with me always. I shall not go wrong.       

*Key to Obedience & More

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, the spirit of an unclean demon in a man recognized Jesus. The man cried out in a loud voice, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!" With authority and power Jesus commanded the unclean spirits to come out of the man and the demoniac was cured. The spirits knew who Jesus was and obeyed him. If we know who Jesus is well, we would want to obey him too! How much you obey the Lord is proportional to how much you know him. The key to holiness is to know Christ as much as possible. As a matter of fact, everything about you is dependent upon your relationship with God. Surrender to him to let him reveal himself to you fully.

*God Forever New & Incredible

        Communion experience. Even though I knew without a doubt that I was receiving the Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, it's still incredible to me that I was receiving him.

Exciting Spiritual Journey

        My Catholic spiritual journey is exciting because I do not know how the Lord is going to lead me, yet knowing that he will lead me on for my good and his glory. It's knowing the unknown.  

Danger in Following God's Will

        Even though we intend to follow God's will, there is the danger of taking our own good will as God's will. When Jesus showed to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, and be killed and raised, Peter, not wishing such things to happen to his Lord, rebuked him. Jesus then said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." (Matthew 16.23.) Wow, let us learn how to think as God does first! 

*Beauty of Perfect Obedience

        Today the Lord made me see the true beauty of fulfilling his will, that is, perfect obedience, and the rich reward he will give to those faithful servants, now his friends, and always his children and heirs. 

**How to Be Truly Free*

        You hear about all kinds of freedom . . . freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of choosing to keep or terminate the unborn, freedom of worship, etc. It seems that basically, people demand the freedom of being able to do whatever they wish to do, calling it their right. But all such freedoms are created by man and none of them can set you free. The only true freedom we ever need is the freedom given by God when we submit ourselves to him, for we are only free when we get to do God's will. Think about it.  

**Know God to Know

        Know God and you will know. Here "you will know" means you will know all you need to know, which is the will of God. 

*Unique Lord

        It struck me that when Jesus asked his disciples to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him, and spelled out other stringent demands to all, he did it out of love for our good and not in any way to lord it over us. Unlike the lords, gurus, teachers, leaders, kings, heads of state . . . of the world, he had no ego, no ulterior motive, and no self-glorification. He simply reveals what we need to know for us to be saved.