No Less than the Apostles

        Communion experience. What I received was exactly what the Apostles received at the Last Supper from the Lord: the Lord himself. 

***My God Forever and Ever

        Today's entrance antiphon came from Revelation 1: Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. What attracts me to the Lord is his forever-and-ever-ness. When he settles your problem, it is settled once and for all. When he forgives you, you are forgiven totally. When he promises you eternal life, you can always depend upon him. When you are saved, you are going to live with him in heaven forever and ever! It is the certainty and trustworthiness that draws me to him. How good it is to know that he is and will be my God forever and ever!

**Recipe for Peace

        If you live a self-centered life, that is, you always follow your own wishes, I can guarantee that you'll never have peace. Wanting to have everything your way is to shackle yourself to everything. To follow Christ is to live a God-centered life. Now you are free because you no longer need to play God who is now taking care of you. I am telling you because I've gone through all this and know what I am saying. The peace you receive is worth giving up everything in the world for. Basically, it comes down to the truth that God is worth giving up yourself for.

**Love at Any Cost*

        In meditating upon the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary today, I realized that the Lord had gone through his Passion – so much suffering! – just to make it easy for us to be saved. Love does not count the cost. I pray that we all will realize and appreciate this.

The Healing Lord

        Communion experience. I developed a big cyst on my cheek, probably caused by exposure to sunlight over the years. The doctor operated on it and prescribed an antibiotic for me to take, and healing has taken place. As I received the Holy Eucharist, I knew that Jesus entered me physically and healing was going to take place spiritually.

**Our Greatest Achievement*

        Seeking union with God is the way to know and understand God fully. We become one with the one who made us and knows everything! This has to be our greatest achievement, for we actually cease rebelling against God and let him do what he wishes. It is most satisfying because our deepest desire is also fulfilled. It is beautiful because we are helping restoring order and harmony to the world.     

***Experiencing the Holy Spirit

        In today's reading 1 from Acts 19, Paul found some disciples in Ephesus. He baptized them in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. The Holy Spirit is to be experienced. If you do not feel anything, how can you be sure that it is the Holy Spirit, not yourself, who prompts you to do something. There has to be come kind of personal connection between the Spirit and you, for the Lord Spirit is the living God. Again, to know that it's always the Spirit motivating you, seek to attain union with God and you'll experience the presence of the indwelling Holy spirit within.

**Lazy Nonbelievers

        People do not bother to believe in Christ, not necessarily because it's hard to believe that he is our Savior, but because it's just so easy to live without any faith. These are the ones who have fallen into the trap of living from day to day, being too lazy to think seriously about life eternal. 

*One Union Benefit

        In union with God, you are always acutely aware of God's presence. Therefore, it's possible to live every moment of your life for the Lord. A great blessing.

***Know Only Jesus

        Today's Communion acclamation, 1 Corinthians 2.2: I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Jesus is truly the only one we need to know well to give our existence meaning and purpose and hope; everything else relative to him is merely peripheral. My view may be extreme, but I am being completely rational.

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.