*Letting God Search Us*

        Today's response from Psalm 139: You have searched me and you know me, Lord. It strikes me that it's absolutely necessary that we open ourselves to let the Lord enter to search us, our hearts. This shows our willingness to know him, absolutely necessary for our salvation. 

Remembering Saint Augustine

        Today is the memorial of St. Augustine, bishop and doctor of the Church. When I first entered the Church many decades ago, I had to pick a patron saint or something and I chose St. Augustine. Not because I knew much about him, but because I was unfamiliar with all the saints and Augustine was the name I had heard of before. Subsequently, I read some of his books, including the best known Confessions. His most famous saying which I have quoted a number of time in the past on this blog is, of course, this one: "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee." During Communion, I really felt this to be true, as my heart rested peacefully in Christ. May this great saint continue to watch over and bless me.

***God and I (Ecstatic Feeling)***

        I have recommended the Book He and I a number of times because you can read all the beautiful messages Christ gave to Gabrielle Bossis the author, expressing his desire to be one with us. So the title makes sense. Today I feel that there's only God and I as one – I am alone in him but never lonely. It is most amazing that nothing in this world I can claim to be mine, yet I possess the Lord! By the way, I am also enjoying him every moment.

**I Became the Fruit*

        Communion experience. I wanted the Lord to completely slay my old self to make me new. He made me see that this was also bearing fruit for him, for I was that fruit. 

**Feeling Good About Yourself

        Make sure that God feels good about you, then you'll feel good about yourself too!

***Prayer Distilled*

        We can pray that God will strengthen us, that God will increase our faith, that God will make us more loving, that God will do this or do that. Wouldn't it be better to pray that we will let God strengthen us, that we will let God increase our faith, that we will let God make us more loving, that we will let God do this or do that? Best yet, we can pray that we will be open to God to let him do whatever he wishes with us? This covers everything we can think of and simplifies our prayer. And besides, it puts you on the road to union with God.

Stepping Out of Comfort Zone

        I caught Steve Harvey, the comedian, giving a short motivational speech on TV. He said that we must be willing to step out of our comfort zone if we need to. This resonates with me, for we should do that in following God's call. Knowing that you are doing God's will can actually make you feel comfortable.

Laughable Proclamation

        This morning I heard on TV one presidential candidate for 2020, who is 100% pro-abortion, proclaim that he was going to fight for the soul of this nation. That surely sounded like a joke. How can you trust anyone who doesn't know how to save his own soul to save others? 

*Grateful for God's Mercy*

        I would like to thank both the Lord, and the Blessed Mother for her intercession. As you know, I had to rush Maria my wife to emergency room just a few days after she had her kidney stone surgery (see my post "God's Surprise Response" of August 20). It turned out that she suffered severe sepsis due to kidney infection. This is a serious disease that can often be fatal or damage other organs. The medical personnel did their best and the final urine analysis miraculously showed that she was free of infection. The Lord surely heard my prayers! Today she is home finishing up her antibiotic and is pretty much back to normal.

*Keeping Our Thorns

        Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 mentions his thorn in the flesh. He begged the Lord to take it away from him, but the Lord left it alone so that power might be made perfect through his weakness. We don't know what Paul's thorn was, but we all have our own thorns which weaken us in one way or another. Why don't we also take advantage of it by letting God make us strong too?

**Honest Truth*

        Once you hear the Lord speaking to your heart directly, everything else you hear, whatever it might be, becomes downright tiresome and boring! For God alone liberates and refreshes our soul.

"Woe to you Hypocrites"

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus denounced the scribes and Pharisees as hypocrites. Were they self-serving? Yes. Were they misguided. Perhaps. Were they evil? They might not deliberately want to hurt others, but they definitely wanted to make themselves look and feel good. It seems that not doing much good is as sinful as doing evil. You could argue that the evildoers are at least genuine, not phony like the scribes and Pharisees. While the former follow Satan, the hypocrites are deceived by Satan to follow their own ego. Be genuine in the Lord always and you'll never hear the Lord say "Woe to you" to you.   

**Key Realization

        God is not only our creator, but also our loving Father. This realization can totally change your relationship with God.

**Being Bonded to God!

        Communion experience. The Communion antiphon, John 6.54: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. Interestingly, Jesus did not say "Whoever eats this bread and drinks this wine has eternal life." It is clear that if the bread and wine had remained ordinary, Jesus would not have used the words "my flesh" and "my blood." Also, it wouldn't have made sense that consuming ordinary bread and wine could give you eternal life. Anyway, I felt true bonding with the Lord when I received the Holy Eucharist.

***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.