**Love Most Beautiful

        I love the Blessed Mother and many other saints. Why? It's because they are so beautiful and lovely, made possible by their love for Christ. Christ is the one who has shown us how beautiful love can be and that he can make all of us beautiful!

Redirecting Negative Feelings

        Since I am familiar with piano playing, I know that many performing pianists when they experience nervousness on the stage channel that wasted energy into concentrating upon playing the music even better. In the same way, when we pray to God and nothing seems to happen, we can channel our anticipation into placing our trust in God even more. 

*Time to Abandon Ourselves

        Everything we need and enjoy comes from God. He always gives. Instead of feeling grateful or responding to his love, we who are powerless to save ourselves hold tightly onto ourselves and won't let ourselves go. How foolish we are, not to abandon a sinking ship! It's time to get on God's rescue boat and sail with him to eternal security.  

To Be Smart or Dumb

        To be smart is to know that God is greater than you, that he is your Father and loves you, that you should obey him and he'll bring you eternal happiness. To be utterly dumb is to rebel against God and believe that you can survive without him – do you really think that when you pit yourself against God in any game you play, you can come out on top? 

*Key Step to Heaven

        In Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter responded, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the the living God." Jesus said to him, "Blesses are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." Here is the first truth we must come to acknowledge to be saved. The journey to heaven begins with this little giant step.  

Unique Inner Peace

        You experience the ultimate inner peace after God has made you clean and you and God become one in total harmony. There is no other peace greater or more profound. This is how God has made us.

*Better Way of Doing Good

        My thoughts following might very well upset some people, but please hear me out. I do believe that the Holy Spirit made me see it. Parish churches have been raising money by many ways. Some common examples are holding bingo nights or auctions, selling raffle tickets or tickets for feeds. Everyone has a good time and helps a good cause. But does the end justify the means? For the means play on your gambling instinct, your desire for material goods or your indulgent appetite. Wouldn't it be far better to do good without the need to be lured into doing it. What the Lord wants from us is doing good in secret without expecting to receive any gratification or reward.

Only God Can Do It!

        Today is Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome. In the Gospel reading from John 2, Jesus at the beginning of his ministry already knew of his Resurrection when he said to the Jews, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." He was speaking about the temple of his Body. For me, anyone who can destroy death has to be the creator of life, our God.

Perfect State of Existence

        Revelation 21.3: I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God. When we belong to God and he becomes our God, we and God become one and he is all ours. God and his people in perfect harmony – this is our perfect state of existence. 

**Quick Reminder

         We can only get rid of our sins during our brief time on earth.        

**Glory and Humility

        I blogged not too long ago that the transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ on the altar during Mass is as great and wonderful a miracle as his transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. During the transfiguration, when his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light, he displayed his dazzling glory. Then when he quietly comes in the form bread and wine for us to consume, he shows his utter humility. Glory and humility in one person – what an awe-inspiring combination!

All Will Be Fair

        Life seems unfair until you realize that there's our God who is always just and there is also life after death. Then you know that all will be fair at the end.

Appreciation Through Loss

        We often don't appreciate something until after we lose it. Years ago, I left my wife in front of a hotel in Merida, Mexico, to check if there was any vacancy. Since I couldn't stop my car there for long, I told her I would drive around the block and back, not realizing that it's much easily said than done. It's also late evening and hard to look for street signs plus the fact that I did not read Spanish. Soon I went around and around and lost my way. To make a long story short, I found my way back almost an hour later. Of course, the overwhelming joy of finding my wife waiting out there made me appreciate her even more. Today's example. I enjoy the peace of the Lord until I commit a sin. It only needs to be a minor offense to make me lose my peace. This makes me treasure his peace even more.

Christ Speaking as God

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus laid down some conditions for discipleship. He said, "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Everyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple." Was he mad and being irrational? Not if he spoke as God.

**Fundamental Focus for All Christians*

        In the older days, many youngsters attending Catholic schools experienced harsh treatment that would affect their whole life. Tragically, his had caused many to leave the Church. Of course, there were truly loving and understanding nuns and teachers too, but the "horror" stories you hear a lot more. I believe that the major cause was not knowing the Lord personally well enough, for you can know all the teachings of the Church, say all the prescribed prayers, be active in ministries and still remain a cold person. One other thing I see is that children can go through religious classes for years and lose their faith in college or later. Again, the focus of the classes might not have been proper. Once I suggested sharing personal spiritual experiences with the children and the person in charge of the program didn't seem to know what I was talking about. The goal of all programs and activities should be to bring the participants closer to Christ. Even Bible studies can become so focused on history and other peripheral facts that you feel you are taking an academic course. As for preparation for confirmation and other similar programs, the ceremonial aspect gets top attention, whereas the focus should be 99% on the Lord. The strength and vitality of the Church depends foremost upon how well her people know the Lord.

Most Beautiful & Pleasing to God!

        Communion thoughts. Jesus listens to us! He makes us see our sins; we ask him to take them away and we are clean. There is nothing more beautiful and pleasing to the Lord than a pure heart filled with his love.

Feeding on Jesus

        One of the Communion antiphons today was what Jesus said in John 6.57: Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. What struck me was that anyone who feeds on Jesus will have life. So how do we feed on Jesus? To me, to feed on Jesus is to depend upon him for everything, not just for spiritual sustenance and growth. To feed on the Lord successfully, we must become branches of his vine. That is, we become part of him, inseparably in union with him.   

**Fooling the Lord

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the great feast. It illustrates the point that God invites many to dine in his kingdom, but one by one they excuse themselves, giving some reason for not being able to attend the feast. It is absolutely true that many are called, but few pay attention. If you turn Christ down for some reason, are you being truthful? If not, then you  are merely trying to fool the Lord, which only a fool would do.