***Something Beautiful & Wonderful

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 86: Turn your ear, O Lord, and answer me; save the servant who trusts in you, my God. Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. Today's response, Mark 16.15: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. If we love the Lord, we must go all out to serve him. He loves us so much that he wants to possess all of us. When we go all out for him, we get to possess him in the process as well. Then something most beautiful and wonderful happens – God and man becoming one! My friend, make this the goal of your life. As always, let God do the work and I promise you that it will be the most exciting adventure of your life.

**Your Doing or God's Doing?

        If you make yourself god in charge of yourself, then everything you do will be your doing. Can you save yourself from sin? I doubt it. Now, you let the God of Christ be your God. Then whatever you do will be his doing, and, of course, he will know exactly how to lead you to eternal life. This is the big difference, my friend.

*To Remain Free Forever

        People in the world get so involved with the world that they are no longer free. They are in the world, belong to it, and are enslaved by it. Therefore, be in Christ to belong to God to remain free forever. 

*How to Remain Incorrupt

        The world is a corrupt world. All the more we need to be one with God to remain pure now and be incorrupt forever.

***Real Presence in the Eucharist*

       As I have reported, surveys have shown that the majority of Catholics no longer believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This has to be a major crisis within the Church, and the outburst of all other scandals are no longer shocking. 

         Let's take a look at the Holy Eucharist. If the bread and wine only represent the body and blood of Jesus symbolically, then the Apostles, the early church fathers, the great saints throughout history, and all the faithful to this day have committed the sin of idolatry, and none of them should be in heaven now, right? If Jesus is truly present in the Holy Eucharist, then those Catholics who do not believe would equally not be able to get into heaven. Who do you think are right? (If you have doubts, read John 6 with an open mind to let the Lord reveal the truth to you.)

***The Missing Prayer***

        I do not recall ever hearing this critically important prayer said in public: "Lord, may we surrender ourselves completely to you so that we might become holy and perfect." It says a lot about us. I see it as our lack of faith in God.     

**The "Chosen" Test

        If the Lord has chosen you, you would definitely know. If you are not sure about it, then you really don't know him well yet.

*Pathway to Freedom and Peace

        You care only about what God thinks about you and nothing else; you are ego free. 

My Favorite Apostles

        Today is the Feast of St. Bartholomew, Apostle. He is also known as Nathanael. We do not know him as much as some of the other Apostles; nevertheless, I feel close to him, as Jesus saw him as a true child of Israel with no duplicity in him. I love anyone without duplicity, a quality you don't see much today. So he is also my favorite Apostle next to John, the one who called himself the disciple Jesus loved.

***Pathway to Holiness

       I have posted in the past that we should pray for ourselves foremost to become holy and perfect, for holiness must start with us, not with someone else. Remember that Christ asks his followers to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? Once you know that you should become holy and perfect, you shift your focus away from yourself to the Lord – you now want to listen to and obey him always. Yes, that's all you need to do and he will fulfill your heart's desire. As always, God makes things easy for us when we let him.

Lesson on Tolerance

        This is the lesson the Lord has taught me today. There are times I get bothered by seeing someone doing something not in the most efficient or effective manner. I know that we are all different and have our own ways, so it comes down to how tolerant we are. The rule should be "never look down on anyone in any way." Perhaps it's good to remember that we are not holier than anyone else, for God is the only one who is truly holy. Tolerance and patience are called for. 

We Belong to God

        Communion thoughts. The Lord God is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is also our Alpha and our Omega, our first and our last, our beginning and our end. Without him, we would not have come into being. Since we came from him; it'll be out of order if we do not return to him. 

**We Can Be Saints!

        If Jesus could make the blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead – not even mentioning his own Resurrection – and convert Paul from an enemy into an apostle, he surely can make each one of us into a saint. With us giving him the OK, our success is guaranteed.

*Our Choice to Be Chosen or Not

        Today is Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Gospel reading from Matthew 22 gave us the parable of the wedding feast. A king invited many guests to come to the wedding feast he had prepared for his son, but many did not appreciate the invitation and ignored it, and one who showed up not dressed properly got cast outside. The result was "many are invited, but few are chosen." The smart move for us is to be ready to go to the Lord the moment he invites or calls us.

***The Path to Life*

        Matthew 7.14: How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, says the Lord. We can totally broaden that road and widen that gate by opening our hearts to let the Lord in. As we open ourselves up, the road broadens and the gate widens. When we surrender ourselves completely to the Lord, they disappear altogether and voilà, we are one with God! 

Christ the Transformer

        Communion experience. I died in Christ and he renewed me – how fitting and perfect.

*Learning All Things from the Lord

        As I was growing up, I heard all those popular songs singing about love and saw how people fall in love in all those Hollywood movies. Then Jesus came along and I finally understood the true meaning of love. Learn from Christ to understand all things correctly, and you'll experience freedom and joy.

**Afraid of Looking at Ourselves?

        It's always easy to criticize others, but not ourselves. It's easy to expect others to be perfect, but not so easy to look at our own imperfections. It's also easy to help others, not realizing that we need help too. Praying for others is commonly heard, but we neglect to pray for ourselves. Perhaps we are afraid of looking at ourselves. The fact is that we should pray for ourselves first, for if we all become holy, we'll have peace and heaven on earth. So take care of ourselves before trying to take care of the world. Going the other way is going the wrong way!