**To Soar with God*

        If you have to struggle to be holy, you have not given yourself entirely to the Lord God yet. Let him truly be your Lord and he shall make everything easy for you. Be one with him to let him carry you always.

To Be Truly Better Off

         I am back to blogging again. I shall post each message by the date of its reception.

        Last month, I received my flu shot and also accidentally slipped and fell. Physically, we are all vulnerable to getting sick or injured. To stay healthy and sound is only somewhat better off temporarily. Now, having the Lord God is truly much better off for all eternity!

**Unstoppable God*

        Just one more post. It came to me that the power of God is unstoppable. As I was praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, I saw that the Lord wanted to sacrifice his own Son to save us, and that act was unstoppable, so awesome! Let's remember that his final judgment of us will also be unstoppable. Whatever has to be carried out will be carried out. We should also never stop loving a Lord who never stops loving us!

***The Holy Eucharist Is Christ!

        Most likely, I  won't able to blog during the next four weeks or so. I expect to resume blogging fully beginning November 16. While Catholics are losing their belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, I am happy to post Fr. Mark Goring's new video to show that the Most Blessed Sacrament is indeed the bread from heaven. 

**Confusion Is from the Evil One

        Jesus taught his disciples in Matthew 5.37, "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more is from the evil one." The evil one and those who are influenced by him love to sow confusion. Instead of coming straight to the point, they expend a lot of words to deflect the truth—a trick employed by many deceptive politicians. I had watched a the Amazon Synod a few times on YouTube and found that whenever a reporter asked the panel a question, the responding member usually gave some vague, drawn-out response difficult to follow. Alas, when the Holy Father was accused of not believing in the divinity of Christ on earth, we only got a weak explanation via some Vatican spokesperson. Why couldn't the Holy Father settle the issue by openly declaring to all that he either believes or doesn't believe that Christ is divine on earth! By the same token, when we pray to God, we should be clear and specific about what we ask for.

**Catholic Failure in Brazil

       Here is a comment from Teddy on Michael Matt's video I last posted that's worth reading.

         I live in Brazil. The Brazilian Catholic Church is losing their indigenous people to the Evangelicals for the simple reason that the Indians are not stupid, they are fed up of so-called priests who teach them Marxist revolution, hatred against the oppressors, the white oligarchy who is there to submit them and exploit them. That is all they teach them. The Catholic missionaries and priests are totally Marxist and revolutionary in character, ideology and praxis. So here the Evangelicals come, and teach them of a loving Saviour who died to save them from eternal death and hell, and who is there for them, who loves them personally and who has shed His holy blood for them to give them eternal life. Does this sound familiar to any one of you? They also bring practical help, not marxist ideology and preaching upheaval against the oppressors. They teach them skills, jobs, they house them, care for them, bring them doctors, show them love and bind them in closely knit communities based on prayer and communal living where they are taught Christian virtues and holiness. And you know what? Our Indians love that. Because they want God, they want to pray to an Almighty, All-loving Saviour who loves them personally and communally. Shame on Brazilian Catholics for having transformed the Catholic pure teaching into a Third World Revolutionary Manifesto to fight Capitalism. The Indians don't simply care for this. And they do well. So, yes, 80% of Amazon Indians have become Evangelical Christians. And many of them have a daily routine of prayer, holy living and love for neighbour. What about the other 20% remaining in the Catholic Church? They are filled with revolutionary zeal, anger and hatred for those "capitalist pigs" who are there to "destroy" their "perfect Eden-like egalitarian utopia" which has never existed to begin with.

***Sad State of the Church***

        Michael Matt's latest video tells us the reality of the Catholic Church today and I think you should hear him. During the last half a century or so, the Church has been influenced and weakened by the world that the younger Catholics no longer know what the traditional Church was like (very much like the Chinese people under 40 or so who have no idea about the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution that took place in their country.) I cannot recall ever hearing the word "hell" in any homily as if it does not exist. The word "sin" maybe, but not to make us feel how horrible it is to offend God. It's more important for priests not to offend his audience than to defend God. We have lost the glory, the dedication, the spirit, and the courage to tell the truth of our Catholic faith. Evil has so deeply infiltrated the Church and deceived her members that it would take a thorough cleansing to restore it. 

 

**Wakeup Moments

        Looking back, I can't believe I spent so many years collecting records and CDs until I realized I'd be running out of storage space if I continued on. This is a wakeup moment. So many of us are obsessed with various hobbies and material things in this world that we are no longer free, so such wakeup moments are blessings from God. The Lord knocks on our door every chance he gets and we need to let him in every time he knocks. He won't stop knocking until we are fully awake knowing that he only wants us to return to him to enjoy living with him for all eternity.

**Our Fundamental Prayer Goal

        The world, our nation, our society, the Church, our families...all need our prayers. It all comes down to saving souls to glorify God. So make that your primary goal. Let's ask the Lord to crush evil and save souls. But we must become holy first. I believe that Jesus taught us the Lord's Prayer for that reason. Saying that prayer perfectly can make us perfect.

Experiencing Early Peace

        Communion experience. I believe that many people will be able to resign to letting everything go when they know they are about to meet God. After I received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist today, I was at that point, even though I wasn't dying yet. The great thing of knowing God intimately is experiencing that peace early irrespective of when you will depart from this world.

How God Compels Us

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 11, Jesus said, "Whoever is not with me is against me." Later, he also said, "No servant can serve two masters." So, as sinners, we must make a choice, and one choice is good and right and the other, bad and wrong. It's only when we face the true God that we are truly challenged. 

**Stupidest Cold-Hearted Joke

      This morning I thought of how proabortionists tell us that they just don't want any child born into this world to feel unwanted. It sounds as if they are doing the child and the whole world a favor and we should thank them for that! This has to be the stupidest cold-hearted joke ever! Who are making the unborn unwanted? Certainly, not the pro-lifers. God creates life and these hypocrites decide whether it should live or die! The Lord loves the children. In the Gospels he said to the disciples, "Whoever causes one of these littles ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Let me remind the proabortionists that when they make their unborn children unwanted, they themselves become the unwanted children of God!

        After I had these thoughts, I saw Fr. Mark Goring's new pro-life video. It's fitting that I should post it here below.

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***The Church Has Failed

        The Church hierarchy has failed its mission. It has failed to teach the faithful to understand their faith. It has failed to inspire them to be holy. It has failed to retain the youth. It has failed to guard the souls of its followers. It has failed to evangelized the world. It has failed to fight evil. It has failed to respond to the Holy Spirit. It has failed to remain loyal to the Lord. It has forgotten him. It has fallen asleep. It has become corrupt and self-serving. It has become heretical. It has allied with the Devil. It has betrayed the Lord. It's chastisement time.

*Seeing Crises as Blessings

        Today's entrance antiphon from Esther 4: Within your will, O Lord, all things are established, and there is none that can resist your will. For you have made all things, the heaven and the earth, and all that is held within the circle of heaven; you are the Lord of all. Today's response from Psalms 40.5 to Psalm 1: Blessed are they who hope in the Lord. Today's Communion antiphon, Lamentations 3.25: The Lord is good to those who hope in him, to the soul that seeks him.

        All these verses are comforting and reassuring to those of us who are most concerned about the present crisis in the Church. The Lord is infinite and almighty and his will will prevail. By contrast, the fact we can feel so insecure and dread the worst only shows how weak we are and how much we need to hope and trust in the Lord. Let all crises bring the best out of us.

Be Genuinely Catholic

         You can go through the motion as a Catholic without giving your heart to God. Then you are not being genuine. Let God have your heart to be genuinely Catholic. 

The Holy Spirit Is the Lord

        When you completely submit yourself to the Holy Spirit, you are one with the Lord!

**Don't Remain in the Pit*

        Today's Response from Jonah 2: You will rescue my life from the pit, O Lord. We, burdened with sins, are indeed in a pit, but Christ can rescue us from it. This is what we need to recognize and realize. Without God, we just have no assurance that we can be saved. Rejecting Christ is even worse—you may love to gamble, but in this case you'll lose for sure.

**Much Ado About Nothing?*

        I just watched the current EWTN short video Vaticano featuring the International Sacred Music Art Festival. A world-famous Russian Orthodox choral group also participated. And musicians from various orchestras played music by Mahler and Mozart, which I don't consider to be truly sacred. All performances took place in the various magnificent basilicas of Rome. Of course, beautiful music played in magnificent settings can be most impressive, but if no one is drawn any closer to the Lord afterwards, then it's much ado about nothing. In reality, you can open up to the Lord in silence anywhere and be drawn deeply into him. Seeking God through anything external to him only reveals our unreadiness to directly face him.