**Are You Your Own Enemy?

        Telling yourself that becoming a saint is not for you proves that you are your own spiritual enemy.

To Be Made New Again

        Communion experience. It was a golden opportunity for me to be made new as thoroughly as possible by the Lord.

***Be Proud of the Lord!

        The Lord is everything to us. He is our creator, our Father, and our Savior! Therefore, we should be proud of him and proclaim his name and greatness boldly and loudly to the whole world! Shame on you if you consider yourself a Christian but hide him from others! If you are not proud of him, how can you expect him to be proud of you? With the Lord, either you are with him or you are not. 

Our Role Before God

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, Jesus talked about the leaven of the Pharisees, and his disciples did not quite follow. We are like that too with hardened hearts. In general, the Lord made me see that even if we do not understand what's going on, he knows exactly what he is doing, and he always prepares everything in the background for us. We must see that his plan would turn out well if we just trust and follow, not to get in his way. 

Another Fr. Goring Video

      Here's Fr. Mark Goring's latest video. I enjoy listening to him because he always gives a compelling message. This one is entitled "If Jesus is just 'another' way, forget about celibacy!"

**Very Sad Reality**

        At Mass this morning, I realized that Jesus just doesn't come up in our ordinary conversations. When I was active in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, Jesus was mentioned a lot within the charismatic circle. Then you started talking like that to non-charismatic Catholics and met only silence – they probably thought you were nuts or something. No doubt when Christ was on earth with us, people talked about him a lot after witnessing the wonderful deeds he performed. They were so overwhelmed and couldn't keep quiet. Today, most believers seem to have assigned the Lord to a compartment separate from theirs, living their lives by themselves. I do recall one pilgrimage I went on though – the priest who accompanied us was filled with the Holy Spirit. The first thing he told us each morning was what he learned from the Lord the previous day. Why can't all of us be like that? Yes, the Lord is real and most exciting to know!

**Cool Spiritual Progress

        When I was still the old me not that many years ago, I was a lot more anxious about getting things done. If I was on a project, I just wanted to finish it before I could relax – no time to waste. I am a lot different today. Even though I am doing something to which I believe God has lead me, I feel very calm about it all. If I don't get it done, it's OK. After all, it's his work and his call. If I die now, well, that must be what he has planned too. If he wants me to get it accomplished, I am not going to die early. This is clear thinking, good logic, showing trust. I am very happy about the new cool me.

Completing Our Trust

        Attaining union with God is simply letting God be our Lord. Prior to union, we are our own gods in our lives. By relinquishing our hold onto our lives, God properly takes over and we are freed, now receiving power directly from him. Our trust is complete and order restored.

No Partial Following the Lord

        In Luke 14.26, Jesus said to the crowds, "If any one 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. It occurs to me that this condition applies also when we go to him to surrender to him. He deserves our entire, sole devotion. His self-giving requires our self-giving. 

***Our Mortal Enemy

        It is sin. If we lose our battle to sin, we will spend time in horrific misery for all eternity. If we get sin lifted off us by God, we'll experience the most exuberant feeling and live in paradise for all eternity. So, heed my advice – take sin seriously and defeat it when you still can. 

One Example of a Hypocrite

        Anyone who believes that the way to "liberate" people is to give them all kinds of rights and free stuff, but is not willing to suffer in any way himself is an egoistic hypocrite.

**Do You Realize That . . .

the joys and the sorrows we receive in this life are nothing compared to the joys or sorrows we shall receive after we die? 

A Short Testimony

        My soul used to be quite tattered, but Jesus has made it whole again. 

God's Flexible Mercy

        God does not judge us like a college professor who fails you if you score below some prefixed mark or passes you after you have earned enough credit. I am sure that in some cases there is no question that the soul will go to heaven or hell. Anyway, I believe God will consider many factors at judgment time. If you are right on the borderline, he may just let you pass. The best policy is to love the Lord as much as possible and we don't have to be concerned about how we'll be judged.

***Our Only Savior

        By default, we are going to lose our soul to Satan! Therefore, we must turn and submit ourselves to God, our creator and only Savior.

***Our Spiritual Jam***

        The Lord made me see that we have inherited the original sin and ended up in this jam, helpless on our own, and he is committed to saving us because he loves us. It would be erroneous to think that we are basically evil, wanting to fight him. If that were the case, he needn't be merciful to us at all. With this understanding, we see that we are just capable of being bad as well as being good. The important thing to see is that by God's mercy, we can be freed and restored to holiness. All it takes is to believe in and follow Christ, something we can easily accomplish once we see that it is what God has planned for us. 

***Jesus Our Secret Help

      Great news! Accept any challenge from Jesus our Lord and he'll secretly assist you to make sure that you succeed. Now, aim high and tell him that you are ready to become a saint. (I am serious.)

Duality of Being Christian (reposted from 3/9/2013)

       A Christian is both timid and bold – timid because he realizes that he is finite before God; bold because God empowers him. A Christian is both humble and proud – humble because God is awesome to him; proud because he has God. A Christian is both invisible and visible –invisible because he hides himself in God; visible because God dwells in him.