**God Our Consolation

        There are things in our hearts that no other human beings can possibly understand or are impossible for us to express precisely to them, yet the Lord knows them all perfectly without our saying a single word. Therefore, I appreciate him immensely and treasure my intimacy with him. He is our greatest consolation!

Sorrow on Christmas Day

        Merry Christmas to all of you! Should it be a joyful day? Of course. Yet at the same time, I felt great sorrow. As usual on Christmas day, the church was filled to overflowing as on Easter day. The adjacent space normally partitioned off had to be opened up to accommodate the extra crowd. And people chatted and chuckled so much before Mass began that the priest had to tell all to quiet down. I am not here to judge anyone, but I am sure that many were there just for Christmas. You probably have heard about cafeteria Catholics who only pick and choose the teachings of the Church they can accept. These Christmas and Easter Catholics are known as submarine Catholics who surface just twice a year. Can God be pleased with them? I doubt it. My sorrow came from feeling his sorrow.

***Letting God Do It

        If you want to search your heart to see what's in there, do not do it by yourself, for you are not capable of understanding yourself thoroughly. Instead, go before the Lord, open your heart up, and ask him to search it. And he will help you see what he sees and what shouldn't be there. Then ask him to cleanse and heal you heart. This conforms to the smart practice of always entrusting God to do the hard work for you. This is how you get to live a life carefree in the Lord. We struggle so hard on our own to do so many things, forgetting that God can accomplish what we want to achieve for us. Good example, to attain union with God, a lot of people dismiss it for being too hard. But ask the Lord to do the work to prepare you and it becomes totally attainable. Just remember that we are weak and God is super strong and eager to help. 

Deep Joy in Christ

        Communion experience. I experience deep joy in the Lord. This is a joy that wells up from within the innermost of the heart and touches the soul, making you aware that the Lord indeed dwells in your heart. It seems that he keeps me alive just so I might taste this joy.

Finding or Not Finding God

        I often like to depict a spiritual situation with a picture. In life, you will come to a Y intersection sooner or later. One road will take you to God, the Truth, while the other one will lead you to explore on your own. Since God is not there, you will invariably hit a dead end. I know, because it's either finding God or becoming lost.

**How to Possess All of God

        If you want all of God for yourself, give all of yourself to him. Make your humble move first.

*A Bright Spot in Old Age

        What can get better and better as we age? Certainly not our physical condition, as the joints get stiffer and even getting out of bed in the morning becomes a challenge. Likewise our mental condition, as we forget things more easily. I used to be able to learn playing a piano piece in a few weeks, now I practice for months or longer and still keep hitting the wrong keys. Poorer eyesight doesn't help. But there is a bright spot and it's our spiritual condition which can improve as long as we are alive! By remaining close to Christ, we can become more acute and wiser spiritually, and grow holier with no limit whatsoever. This is definitely something we should not overlook, but to rejoice about.  

**God Is Calling You*

        Today's Communion antiphon, Revelation 20.3: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. You can easily picture this scene. The knocking may be faint to you right now, but if you stop and listen carefully, you will hear his voice and you know it. Whether you will open the door to let him enter is another matter. The Lord is insistent because he wants to save you. He is gentle because he want your faith to be genuine. He is ever so polite and patient that I almost feel sorry for him, but I think I ought to feel a lot more sorry for those who do not wish to hear his voice or hear but do not open the door to let him in. Anyway, reading this verse makes me respect and love my God even more. Ignoring his voice is ignoring your own eternal future.

God Removes All Fears

       If you don't know God, experiencing fear is common. This is generated by not knowing what is happening or might happen. For example, people fear abandoning themselves to God. In the Gospels, we read that people saw Jesus perform some mighty, wondrous deed, were amazed, and started to fear. Now, if you know Jesus well, you have a different story. Know that God loves you dearly, you are at ease with him. And you are no longer concerned about Satan, since God now protects you. In conclusion, knowing God removes all fears.

What God Is to Me

        Communion experience. God is my life, my soul, and my existence. I don't mean them literally. My life because he is as dear to me as my life; my soul because he is as close to me as my soul; and my existence because I owe my whole existence to him. God is also my most beloved. This I mean literally.

*Christmas Present for the Lord

        Give your heart to God as your Christmas present for him. The heart still remains within you; giving it to him simply permits him to transform it to his heart's content. We and God become one when our hearts become one. It's a sheer win-win joy! 

**God to Be Praised!*

        We petition and thank God, but often neglect to praise him. While petitioning and thanksgiving center upon what we'd like to receive and what we have received, respectively, from God, praising is centered upon God alone, most likely most popular in heaven. In the Charismatic Renewal Movement of the Church, praising God has been the first order of business, and wondrous things happen as a result. Of course, the vocabulary for praising God is rather limited and this explains why your hear God being praised in tongues. You see, speaking in tongues is not something mysterious, but simply the natural outflow from us with an intense desire to praise God. Praise the Lord as often as you can to receive great blessings from him. 

*Rallying Cry*

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 24: O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors. Let him enter, the king of glory! As 2017 is coming to a close, we are also getting closer to Jesus' 2nd Coming. Here is my rallying cry to all who can hear: Let the God of Christ enter! Open your heart! If you shut him out, you will be shut out by him. Would you rather end up to be all alone than go over to his side to join him to be taken care by him forever? . . . . .  

**The One to Live For

        We all need something to live for. When there is nothing to live for, people experience despair, and contemplate suicide. My former piano teacher live for music and other artists I know for their art. Many parents who do not do well live to make sure that their children will have a brighter future. For me, living for Christ is absolutely the best, for he is the eternal loving God. He fills my life with hope and will grant me the brightest possible future I could ever wish for. 

Love Is Sufficient

        Is God a mystery? There is so much we do not know about God, but at the same time we can attain union with him and feel that we have known him for all eternity. In fact, once I realized that he is all love, there was no more need for me to know more about him. Love alone is sufficient.

***Union With God for All!*

        Union with God is loving God with all you've got, the giving of yourself to God. It is an unspoken, simple but profound, most intimate relationship with the Lord. You open yourself 100% to him and he communes with you freely. It is imitating how God the Father and God the Son are in each other. Above all, it is what God desires from us. Union is achieved by submitting yourself completely to God. When that happens, he takes over and accomplishes all that's impossible for you to accomplish. It's letting God be God. We struggle hard only because we have not let God reign over our private little kingdom. Union is for you and me, for everyone! Why do you not consider it? Is it because you don't think you are good enough? Then let God make you good enough! Is it because you don't think he can make it happen to you? Then you don't believe that nothing is impossible with God! You don't need to be a mystic or saint first; it is in union that they become mystics and saints. Short of union, you remain struggling through your life, which strictly speaking, is rebelling against God.

**Beware of Slipping*

        Life and death seems to be such a pair of opposites, yet they are seamlessly connected, for we can slip from life into death in an instant. I got this feeling when I felt dizzy once after neglecting to take my medication for a short time. Another time I fell, suffered a concussion, and momentarily lost my consciousness. So is heaven and hell a pair of opposites. Here exists a chasm between the two that's impossible to cross, but slipping from our present state into either one of them can happen in an instantly too. Therefore, beware of this to be sure that we do not end up where we do not want to go.

Faith and Truth

        God is our truth and this remains true forever whether we believe in it or not. If we are not connected with God, we are simply lost. If we have faith in God, then we are saved, as Christ had demonstrated to those who believed in him. Faith connects us to the truth, making all the difference to us.