Today's first reading at Mass was taken from Genesis 46. Joseph hitched the horses to his chariot and rode to meet his father Israel in Goshen. As soon as Joseph saw him, he flung himself on his neck and wept a long time in his arms. And Israel said to Joseph, "At last I can die, now that I have seen for myself that Joseph is still alive." I recall that when Simeon saw the child Jesus brought in to the temple for presentation, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: "Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation." So when will you be ready to leave this world? For those who have abandoned themselves to Christ, the Lord already knows that they are ready to go to him anytime.
Friday, July 12, 2019
Thursday, July 11, 2019
A Prayer Experience
Very early this morning when it was still quite dark outside, I was half awake, but felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to pray. So I prayed to Jesus still with eyes closed, pouring out all my wishes and desires from my heart. I knew that he heard me because he was right there. I felt extra good because of this closeness. Then I went to sleep again, but the experience remains vividly with me.
**Fighting for Christ Within the Church
Here is a more recent video by Doug Barry. I am posting it because it tells what every Catholic needs to understand. We need to remain within the Church to help purify her.
**Lack of Leadership Within the Church
Here's a vlog by Doug Barry that came out two years ago. You might have seen him on EWTN. He talks about the lack of leadership in the Church, which I concur with. If the Church does not teach her people loud and clear about how to live as faithful Catholics, evil would gradually take over and infiltrate all levels of our society, including the Church, resulting in the loss of many souls. This had actually happened and gotten especially worse in the last few decades.
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
What Sin Does
Evert time we sin, we sadden the Father and our soul gets stained. We must repent to get our sins forgiven and our soul wiped clean, and then do extra good to soothe the wounds we inflicted upon the Father.
Letting God Make Us Amazing
As you know I enjoy listening to piano music. Nowadays you can watch so many superb pianists performing online. Some of the talents are truly amazing. For us who follow the Lord, there is no question that we can let the Lord transform us into amazing holy saints, beautiful for him to behold. Then we shall have fulfilled our potential and duty in serving and glorifying God.
Most Private Moment
Communion experience. Every time I receive the Lord, it is a most special, private intimate moment of my life.
**Believe in Jesus Now!
If you think that if you had lived at the time of Jesus, watched him speak with authority and perform all the miracles, and witnessed the resurrected Lord, you would have believed in him, then you should believe in him right now. God is forever! If he was good enough to believe in 2,000 years ago, he's good enough to believe in now and anytime.
Fundamental Realization
It is the realization that God exists and so we were created by him. The alternative (not logical to me at all) is that we are simply here, not knowing anything about ourselves and much else.
Only God and Heaven Matter
Imagine that you are already in heaven. You feel so joyful and content, knowing that this will go on forever. For sure you wouldn't care about all the good and bad times you had during your extremely short stay on earth anymore. It comes down to the fact that when you have God, nothing else matters anymore.
Tuesday, July 9, 2019
**Good to Keep in Mind
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.
***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.
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