God Came to Us in Person!

         In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus told his disciples that he came from God the Father. He had also said that he and God the Father are in each other and that to have seen him is to have seen the Father. Therefore, to know him is to know God. That's right, if you know him, you know God! It follows that to love him is to love God too.

**No One But You

         I know someone who complains a lot, often about someone else complaining. You give him some good, sound advice and he responds as if he avoids responding to you directly as if he hasn't heard you at all. This has happened numerous times. I can only conclude that we can tell someone all about how good God is and if that person does not open up, you can not make him believe. That person is the only one who can let God into his heart and his life. We each hold the key to open the door to let God in.

**Freedom Test*

        If you can always control all you actions effortlessly, you are free. And only God can set you free.

**Precious Freedom

        Communion time thoughts. Perfect abandonment to God is letting God have complete freedom to do whatever he wants with you. This is how you become truly free. Try as you may, you cannot achieve this kind of freedom on your own. It can only come from God.

Mastering Our Thoughts

        When we cannot let the past go, we are not free. When we worry about the future, we are not free. In the meantime, we are easily enslaved by thinking all kinds of thoughts that do not draw us any closer to God. These are generally self-centered thoughts that can waste a lot of our precious time. So give your heart and mind to God that he might give you good and right thoughts always. To master your thoughts, let the Lord master you first. 

**Battling Evil

        Two weeks ago on May 18, Italy's conservative and Catholic interior minister, Matteo Salvini, publicly commended his party's work to the six patron saints of Europe and then, holding up a rosary, publicly entrusted his life and work to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the mother of Jesus, for help and protection. On May 21 in Brazil inside the presidential palace, government leaders and two bishops in a ceremony signed off on a consecration of the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Many movements have also sprung up worldwide to fight suppression, corruption, and godlessness in general. In the US, we have the #WalkAway movement, Turning Point USA, Young Americans for Freedom, Blexit for blacks, and Jexit for Jews (the last two names both mimicking Brexit). When the world is in dire need of warding off evil, God does raise leaders and call his people into action.

*Going the Right Way

        I went to FedEx to pick up a parcel. Driving home on a six-lane boulevard, I saw cars all around me with every driver going somewhere. This thought came to me. We are always going somewhere, but will all end up before God. And afterwards some will go one way and others the opposite way – this is where the great split takes place. It made me realize that we'd better negotiate all the right routes on earth so that we'll continue go in the right direction afterwards.

*Reason We're Unhappy*

        We are not happy usually because things do not turn out the way we've wished. We don't always realize that we are unhappy because we are self-centered. In fact, every time we sin, we get bothered and lose peace, albeit to various degrees depending upon the clarity of your conscience. If you stop sinning and maintain a clear conscience, you will enjoy peace and joy. Union with God is what we all need.  

**God Leads Us to Joy

        Consider the Holy Rosary. Those 20 decades of mysteries we meditate upon pretty much cover all the major events in the life of Christ. Every single one of them, including the Sorrowful Mysteries, leads us to final joy. It's inevitable that this should happen to all faithful Christians in the end. So what's living a hundred years of a happy or not so happy life on earth? It's eternal joy alone that counts!
         I blogged the above and went to Mass. It turned out that in the Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." The disciples did not quite understand what Jesus meant. Of course, the Lord was talking about his coming Crucifixion and appearing to them after his Resurrection. And he added, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy." 

**Have No Enemies?

        You can have no enemies – all you have to do to love everyone and treat your enemies not as enemies. If that's hard for you to do, just let God do it for you through you.

*Knowing the Truth

        I was late for Mass this morning and did not hear the entire Gospel from John 16 read. I just looked it up and would totally agree with what Jesus said to his disciples here, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth." When God speaks to you in guiding or teaching you, you just know you are hearing the truth. For when you know this without a doubt, it has to be from the Lord.

Concrete Feeling

        Communion experience. I got the concrete feeling of being one with my Lord.

*Secure Your Eternity First

        If you know that you'll be going to the heavenly Father after you leave this world, your entire outlook will change. Whether you are aware of not, we all want to know where we are going and if our future is secure. This is how God has made us, don't you see? Don't fight it. God wants all of us to be saved, so do not turn him down! Without him, you are doomed to live a miserable life of uncertainty.

*Deliverance by God

        In today's Gospel reading from Acts 16, the Lord delivered Paul and Silas from prison. It happened like this. The two had their feet secured to a stake in an innermost cell. About midnight, there was suddenly a severe earthquake; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. It was a dramatic occurrence. I was lead to ask if we are free. Physically we may be, but are we also mentally and most importantly, spiritually free? If not, the Lord can surely deliver us from the world that holds us as prisoners.

**A Story of Love*

        Watch this 14-minute long video and you can't help feeling sorry for those who choose to abort their own babies.

*What Ultimately Matters

        Today is Memorial Day, a national holiday, and we sang America the Beautiful to conclude the Mass. I felt proud of being patriotic, but I also realized instantly that what ultimately matters the most to us individually or as a nation is our trust in God. It is this faith that can make or break each one of us or the whole nation. 

Law of Reality

        We will worsen spiritually until we open up to God to let him improve us.

**Testifying for God

        We must testify, proclaiming the glory of God. It is the Spirit of God who sets our heart afire to want the whole world to know that God is love and that he wishes to save us. As Jesus said to the Pharisees, "If his disciples keep silent, the stones will cry out!" (Luke 19.40), and we are certainly more sensitive than stones. We must never stifle the Holy Spirit, but respond to his every prompting.