You may take a chance on doing something that could affect your health, your wealth, or your reputation; but never, never risk doing anything that can make you lose your soul! With God, you always play it safe.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
***Living the Exhilarating Spiritual Life
Most people believe that following God is hard and trying to be holy is a big struggle. They are only right if they don't let God help them. As a matter of fact, if you submit yourself to God totally to put yourself entirely at his disposal, he shall carry you along, guiding and sanctifying you – eliminating all your struggles. That is, God makes everything easy for you when you let him. This is the fast track, the secret, the brave way, the breakthrough . . . this is going all out for God. God being infinite and all love, the proper and smart approach is to abandon all of yourself to him with all your heart and with all your soul! And you get to live the exciting, exhilarating spiritual life to boot!
To Be Fair to Yourself
As I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary today, I saw how Jesus didn't just die easily. Rather, he underwent so much excruciating suffering to save us from perdition. It's only being fair to yourself to look into it to see if he is truly real or trustworthy, for dismissing him outright could result in losing your eternal life altogether!
Monday, July 8, 2019
*God Knows It All!
Sometime I pray the Rosary while driving to save time or rush somewhat through a prayer just to get it over with. Then I realize that God knows all my intentions and motives! In fact, he knows me much better than I know myself. But I am actually happy that God knows everything! For, without an all-knowing God, we would simply do whatever we wish with no concern about consequences. Imagine what kind of chaotic world we'd be in!
***What Having Faith Involves
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." For her faith, Jesus cured her. Let's see how we can have our prayers answered. First of all, the woman really wanted to be healed by Jesus. Next, she firmly believed that Jesus could cure her. So we have a combination of desiring something strongly and believing that God can accomplish it for you. It would be nice to have God do everything we want him to do, but most of the time the strong desire is not there. For example, I accidentally cut my finger a little bit, and I could ask the Lord to heal me instantly. But as I am aware that the finger will heal itself in a few days, I just lack the strong desire to be healed instantly. It's a different case over two decades ago, when my oldest son was attacked by a virus and lay practically dying in emergency care, I went to him, made the cross on his forehead with my thumb and at the same time saying without hesitation (like giving a command), "Be healed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." He got well enough on the 4th day to be sent home. I met the requirement of having a strong desire plus faith. I see that it was the Holy Spirit who prompted me to pray boldly. The same goes for wanting to be holy: we need to have the desire and believe, and let the Holy Spirit guide us.
Sunday, July 7, 2019
***How to Stop Sinning
Let Jesus completely occupy you and there will be no room left for you to sin.
***Joy of Being Holy
A holy person is happy because he knows that the Lord has chosen him, called him, and blessed him. Besides, when God sets you free and fills you with peace sprinkled with great joy, how can you not be elated?
Missing Crowds
Communion time thought. The Lord is ready to be worshipped, adored, and praised, but where are the crowds?
*How Not to Judge
Judging needn't be verbal. If you think of someone without love, you are judging already. Only one who is at complete peace with God does not judge others.
Proper Rejoicing
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 10, Jesus sent seventy-two of his followers as laborers to reap the harvest. They returned rejoicing, for even the demons were subject to them because of Jesus' name. Jesus said to them, "Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." It is proper that we do not rejoice over anything of the world, but rejoice in the Lord alone.
Beautiful State of Existence
Today's Gospel acclamation drawn from Colossians 3: Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. This describes a most beautiful state of existence which we can attain by seeking union with God.
*Changing Ourselves First
We cannot always change others, but we can certainly let God change us. If we all do this, there will be peace in the whole world.
Saturday, July 6, 2019
God Makes All Meaningful
Attended a friend's funeral earlier today. Saw this sign at the funeral parlor with this quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Live a good life and in the end, it's not the years in a life, it's the life in the years." It sounded good, but somewhat vague, depending on what "life" means to you. Anyway, everything becomes meaningless when God is excluded.
Have Pity on Us, Lord!
Communion time thoughts. Our God can take away all our sins and crush all evil, yet we put so little trust in him!
**Sluggish Christians
Today's Catholics in general lack optimism. They focus upon their own sins, but do not place great hope in the Lord. They acknowledge their sinfulness and thank God for his mercy, but do not press forward to ask him to transform them in order to transform the whole world! In other words, they are not confident that God can solve all our problems and lack the fighting spirit needed to conquer evil. In this godless world, we need to recognize that not fighting hard is giving in to the enemy. Offense should be our best defense.
Rejoice in the Lord Always
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." I thought about now that Jesus is always with us, we can certainly rejoice always.
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