**Overwhelmed by God*

        Communion experience. Jesus came to take away my sins! Think about it; this is a huge deal! More than meeting each other, the Lord entered me to be one with me when I received the Holy Eucharist – another huge deal! I love the Lord overwhelming me.

Our Roles Before Jesus

        In today's Gospel reading from John 3, John the Baptist said to his disciples, "I am not the Christ; I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease." So John regarded himself as the best man at the wedding. I guess we can take on the roll of flower girl or ring bearer. Rejoice!

**Power of the Holy Spirit*

        The Holy Spirit is gentle, but can be overwhelming too. When he permeates you with his peace, you want to rest in it forever. When he fills your heart, he sets it aflame with his burning love. When his joy moves your spirit, its sweetness is irrepressable and you desire to be totally crushed by it. I love my Lord, the Holy Spirit.

**Responsible for Our Own Journey

        We all have our free will to exercise. If God had forced us to believe in him, faith would have been unnecessary and become meaningless. The bottom line is that God has shown the way, but we ultimately choose our own journey.

*Heaven Is Good Reason

        If you think that the correct reason for believing in Jesus is that he is truly our God and Savior, you are right. I have not heard anyone say directly that he believes in Jesus because he wants to go to heaven. This is also a perfectly good reason. To want to go to heaven is not being self-centered, for heaven is exactly where our heavenly Father wants us to go, exactly why Jesus came to us to tell us in the first place. So, yearn for heaven and believe, and Jesus will take care of you.

**Evolving Lifetime Goal

        In my early days, I lived for this life. My goal, like almost everyone else's, was to do something to make a lot of money to achieve security and have a lot of fun in this world. (Wouldn't it be nice to win the lottery?) As I grew older, I became wiser and less myopic. I now finally see that the only worthwhile goal is to serve God, the God of Christ. It doesn't sound very glamorous, but it will get you to heaven. After all, it's only where you'll end up that counts. 

***God Most Personal

        Back when I first accepted Christ into my life, it was like after hearing a good story, I found it to be exactly what I needed to hear and decided to believe in him, not particularly feeling the presence of God in any way. Fast forward to the present . . . I know Christ as my Lord and God so intimately that he is more real to me than anyone I see or know now in the world – it is most personal knowing. When you and God are in each other, God becomes as real to you as yourself. I enjoy and love it!

*Our Role and God's Role

        Remember that we are not God and are powerless in changing people's hearts. We are to serve the Lord by bringing others to him for him to change their hearts.

**What God Thinks of You!

        One obstacle in our spiritual life is that we cannot totally accept ourselves yet. This shows that you still have that ego in you. But if you have a pure heart that God cares about the most, you should rejoice and not dwell on your imperfections. It is what God thinks of you, not what you think of yourself, that matters!

*True Abandonment to God

        I have heard people say that they don't worry and just leave everything up to God. Is this abandonment to God? True abandonment to God involves total detachment to all things, everyone else, and even yourself, so it goes a lot deeper. Since birth, each of us knows only our own self best. Therefore, transferring trust in yourself to trust in God would understandably be hard, but this is a fundamental, life-changing shift that will set you free to return to God in heaven! It is good to know that once you make that shift, God will make the rest of you way easy and a joy. Let's remember that in both Matthew 10 and 16, Jesus said, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

**Living on Borrowed Time*

       Time and space all belong to God. With God, time does not exist, for he is eternal. For us, you might say that we exist on earth briefly on borrowed time from God and if we remain obedient to him, we become eternal too after our earthly life ends. Basically, we do not own anything, but can be owned by God as his beloved sons and daughters. Then if we rebel against God, we get ourselves disowned by him in the end. It's all pretty straight forward.

*Blood on Our Hands*

        I've been promoting my short pro-life video "Magnitude of Abortion" which I posted on Nov. 16, 2018, and came across the website www.jacksonvilleforlife.org. This is Jacksonville, Florida. If you look in the left column at the statistics on abortion, they are pretty horrifying. I feel that the God-fearing, more civilized, and law-abiding majority of this country have remained too quiet. Before they wake up, abortion has been legalized, same-sex marriage too, and now rich powerful corrupt public figures can literally get away with murder. We have plenty of them committing perjury, treason, violation of others' constitutional rights, etc. We need to get fired up and fight for God with all our trust placed in him. Or we'll have blood on our hands (not from fighting for God, but for not fighting for him) when we appear before him.

**Dissolving Into Each Other*

        Communion experience. As the Holy Eucharist dissolves in my mouth, I let my whole being be dissolved by the Lord spiritually. Now that we are one, I feel verbal communication is no longer necessary.

***The Way to Sainthood

        Jesus said to us, "Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Do you believe that God want you to become a saint? I believe that you would answer yes because we can't imagine that God would ever say to any of us, "You are good enough for me; you don't need to be holier." So, you agree to become a saint. Now that you have the desire, do you think that the Lord would just leave you alone and let you struggle to be holy on your own? Of course not. He is now so joyful that he would do all the work to fulfill your desire to comply with his wish. You see, the path to saintliness is really straight and simple: you desire and surrender, and God does the work. And it's a beautiful, most satisfying journey. You feel the joy when you give your Lord joy. 

**Brown Scapular and Miraculous Medal

      Many Catholics wear these two sacramentals given to us by the Blessed Mother. In 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite, in England. She handed him the brown woolen scapular and said, "This shall be a privilege for you and all Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall not suffer eternal fire." In time, the Church extended this privilege to all the laity who perpetually wear it. The Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel has promised not only to save those who wear the scapular from the fires of hell, but also to free them from purgatory on the Saturday after their death, should they go there before entering heaven. There are certain requirements to meet before wearing the scapular. You can find all about it online. 

         The Miraculous Medal was created in response to a request from the Blessed Virgin through St. Catherine Labouré in 1830 in Paris. The inscription on the medal reads: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Mary promised to Catherine that those who wear it around their neck will receive great graces. Again, you can read all about it online. I have worn both the scapular and the medal for decades. The fact that I get to know the Lord so well today has to be one of those graces. The Church does not require us to believe in these sacramentals, but they both are silent prayers. Considering the benefits promised by the Blessed Mother, wearing them is a no-brainer. 

Merging With the Holy Spirit

        Communion experience. The Holy Spirit and my spirit merge and I am no longer of this world. Let the Lord take you out of this world in spirit now to make your entry into the next a great joy.

*Letting Christ Be Our Guide

        This is a world filled with confusion. People follow all kinds of leads, express all kinds of opinions, not knowing where they are going. They are troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd – this was how Jesus described the crowds he saw in his days. Confusion is what Satan loves to sow in our hearts. Therefore, we need to wake up to let the God of Christ into our hearts. He is the exact guide and anchor we need amidst all the confusion. Know Christ and we'll know exactly where we should go and how we should proceed.

**The Lord IS Here With You

        I got to church a little early this morning, so I sat in my parked car, looked at the parking lot and saw the trees, the cloudy sky, and noticed the bright sunlight behind the clouds. The Lord made me see that he was right there with me. Indeed, you do not have to reach hard for him, for he sees you, hears you, and knows everything in your heart. You can witness a miracle in an instant if he so wishes and you can communicate with him at any time too. He becomes instantly yours if you give yourself to him. And he can immediately touch your heart when you open your heart to him. He is remote only when you do not believe in him!