In today's Gospel reading reading from John 15, Jesus said to his disciples, "I am the true vine, you are the branches, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit." This is consistent with what Jesus said: "To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." If you remain in Christ, the Father will prune you so that you might bear even more fruit. This process grooms you for living a healthy and satisfying Christian life.
Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
*God All for Us
Life becomes meaningful when you live for God alone. Everything becomes easy after you let him draw you close to him. Now, doing everything for his sake is a joy.
Jesus' Unique Peace
Yesterday I posted about the peace of Jesus. The same verse came up in today's Gospel reading from John 14. Jesus said to his disciples, "My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." I believe that the peace Christ gives is the peace you receive after you realize that your eternally destiny is all set and that your heart is no longer troubled and afraid.
Examining Your Deed
Instead of considering what you do is good or evil, it might help to see that you either please or inflict pain on God.
*More Than Showing God's Love*
Jesus came into the world to show how much God loves us, but he also showed what God is like, giving us the perfect example to follow.
***Beautiful Kinship With the King
Do you have enemies? If you do, do not see them as your enemies, but realize that if they did sin against you, they have offended God. Therefore, let the Lord handle them, whom, by the way, he loves. As a matter of fact, we should let the Lord handle all our problems. That is, we deal with them according to his will. This way, we see things as he sees them and understand things as he understands them. Union with the will of God is union with God.
Monday, April 30, 2018
**Simple Questions*
Question #1: Do you believe that nothing is impossible with God?
Question #2: Do you believe that he wants you to be holy?
Question #2: Do you believe that he wants you to be holy?
If you answer yes easily to these two questions, then answer this next question: What don't you want to become a saint?
*The Blessed Person
Today is the last day of April; time marches on relentlessly. Blessed is he or she who is ready to greet the Lord God at any moment.
God Understands Us!
Communion experience. It's so satisfying to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist, making me realize that the Lord our creator knows and understands our nature perfectly.
God Is Peace
Today's Communion antiphon, John 14.27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you, says the Lord. As sinners, we'll never have peace on our own, for we continue to sin. God has made us so that if we desire to have him take away our sins, he'll do so and we receive peace from him. This is almost common sense and I can testify to you that it is true.
**Through Christ in All Things
Earlier in John 14, Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Therefore, we should all connect ourselves to Christ first. It all comes down to that each of us is to go and respond to him, learn from him, and become channels of his love for all others. Yes, we love through him too.
***Union Promised by God
Today's Gospel reading today at Mass from John 14 more or less confirms what I said in the last post. Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him. Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."
***Most Beautiful Coming Together
The closer we get to Christ, the more we are awed by his perfection, and the humbler we become. Then finally, we enter him (or rather we let him enter us) and we completely vanish in him, with him dwelling in us alone.
Sunday, April 29, 2018
**Most Private Moment
Communion experience. Being just with the Lord alone was a most private moment. The ego no longer existed and I was filled with peace and freedom. Where God resides, ego has no place.
***Spiritual Journey With the Surprise***
Achieving union with God is our greatest challenge, precisely because it make us saints. Actually, the hard part consists of just one sticky point: surrendering yourself to God. Here is how a fruitful spiritual journey progresses. You struggle along and eventually reach that sticky point. You stop, but you brave yourself and decide to go beyond it. Now God picks you up and carries you all the rest of the way! This is the big surprise.
Importance of Remaining in God
In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus talks about the vine and the branches. He said to his disciples, "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned." Matthew 12.21 comes to my mind, in which Jesus says "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven." Those who do not remain firmly in the Lord can easily be targeted by Satan. I have seen this happening time and again. My personal recommendation is to achieve union with God so that you and the Lord might remain in each other firmly.
Evangelizing Ourselves First
We must evangelize ourselves first before evangelizing others. It's always between God and us, never between others and us. And only God can convert our hearts. Our sole responsibility should be to evangelize ourselves, then we'll automatically be effective in attracting others to the Lord. Peace on earth starts with the evangelization of ourselves.
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