*Keeping Our Conscience Clean

        We are given a conscience by God, but that conscience gets muddy as we continue sinning, "trapped" in this secular world in which evil is real! To get our conscience cleansed and restored so that we can see clearly what's good and what's evil, we need to go to God from whom we received our conscience. A super sharp, clean conscience protects us from sinning, thus preserving our inner peace. The worst feeling is knowing that we have offended the One who loves us the most. Remain in union with the Lord is the best way to keep our conscience pristine. 

*What True Love Demands

        Do you really love someone (yourself)? If you think only about getting a good education, finding a good job, having good health, making money, seeking material comfort . . . do you think you can make your loved one truly happy? I think you know the answer, but you still hope that you can, as you do not know anything better. This is the common situation I see. If you truly love someone, whether it be your father or mother, your brother or sister, your own son or daughter, your good friend or yourself, you would want that person to be truly happy forever! Eternity is real and earthly existence only transitory. To truly love someone is to make sure that the person (yourself) will be happy forever, not just to seek only pseudo happiness on this earth. 

***God Calling and Waiting

        If Jesus bugs you in any way, it only shows that you are running away from him, that you need him, and that he is calling you. Solid proof: If you turn to him, go to him, become totally reconciled with him, you experience freedom, peace, and joy you never had before.

God Fills My Cup

        Communion experience. My cup overflows (Psalms 23.5). I love the Lord overwhelming me with his love!

**"Take Our Hearts, O Lord"

        At Mass, after the Eucharist Prayer is said, the priest asks us to lift up our hearts, and we respond by saying "We lift them up to the Lord." It's easy to picture that I take my heart, place it in my hand, and offer it to God. Then I thought it'd be more "appropriate" to just let the Lord take my heart and do whatever he wishes with it. That is, our hearts belong to him now.

**Godly Humility

        Today is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him. Of course, he is all holy and didn't need to be baptized at all, so it impresses me greatly that he should want to be treated as one of us all sinners. (Later, he also washed the feet of his disciples.) He humbles me, making me love him even more.

**Quest for God

        Let's all remember that our goal is know God, to "capture" him, you might say. That is why we study Scriptures, listen to inspiring talks, read about the saints, meditate upon spiritual things, make our churches beautiful, etc. The risk is that we can become habitual in doing all these things and forget that we can go to the Lord directly for best results. Seriously, you can achieve union with God by opening up yourself entirely to him and through receiving the Holy Eucharist. Once you possess him (or is possessed by him), all other things become secondary. Always know that the means are not your end.

**God Bless All Peoples

        I came across this YouTube video on Afghanistan. The country has been at war for many decades, causing so much suffering to its people. Those who have survived are still doing their best to eke out a living. I saw that the people did not even recognize the American flag, which lead me to believe that they did not really understand what's going on in the outside world. Anyhow, I see the Afghans as a beautiful people and am moved with compassion for them. Surely the Lord God loves them even more. They might not know Christ, but he will surely judge them fairly. If you have some 20 minutes, the video is worth watching.

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**Communicating with God in Private*

        I am aware of God's presence at all times, for he dwells within me.  Then I am aware of it most acutely when I am half awake and half asleep in the very early morning hours when it's still all dark outside. I am fortunate to live in an area that's very quiet at night. The half asleep state allows me to tune out any disturbance that can possibly come up and the half awake state still allows me to be aware of God's inner presence in me. In those moments, I could sense the Lord hearing every word I utter from the innermost of my heart—it's so satisfying! It is important that we always find time and place to communicate with our Lord and God in private undisturbed.  

**Ultimate Bonding with God*

        Communion experience. Receiving the Lord: what an opportunity to go deep into the Lord! The deeper you enter, the stronger the bond you form with him. When you become one with him, that bond becomes unbreakable! 

***The Way to Freedom

        Abandonment yourself to God is not easy because you know and trust yourself the best and do not know God well or at all. But once you realize that God is your loving Father who loves you with the greatest possible love, you begin to trust in him more and more. Eventually, you come to know that he understands you more than you understand yourself and that he is totally trustworthy. Finally, you fall deeply in love with him and are able to open yourself up completely to him. Now you are spiritually free, experiencing peace and joy. It proves what Jesus said in John 8.32: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." To summarize, when you abandon yourself to God, you step aside to let God be your God. Now you understand both him and yourself perfectly, and you are free.

*In a Sinking State

        If you are drowning, you would want to grab onto something that does not sink. Yet, as sinners sinking toward hell, we do not readily grab onto Christ, the only one who can save us from sins. It would be tragic not to realize that our sins cause us to sink. 

***Playing Games with God

        Can you imagine that you can play any game with God and win? No way—you'd be so foolish if you even think of trying. Yet this is exactly what many people are doing to God whether they realize it or not. They do not bother to believe in him, and at the same time they do not tell him why they do not believe in him either—they just ignore him as if he does not exist, adding insult to injury.

*Only Fear We Need to Have

        The Gospel reading came from Mark 6. About the fourth watch of the night, the disciples of Jesus far out on the sea saw the Lord walking on the water toward them in the boat. They first thought it was a ghost and were terrified. But Jesus said to them, "Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!" These consoling, encouraging words we must always remember. If we believe that he is always with us, then we should never have to afraid of anything. If we are still afraid, then we are not perfect in love yet, as John the Apostle wrote in his 1st epistle (see my last post). The only fear we need to have is that we are not in the Lord.

***No Fear in God***

        I was struck most by the last verse of today's first reading from 1 John 4. That's verse 18: There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. It's so common sense. To be in love is to be in God, and of course you don't fear anything anymore when you are in God. Now, to be in God perfectly makes him to be one with you, so it is unthinkable that he would want to punish anyone in union with him. Anyway, you can be sure that in God you can achieve anything you want when your aim is to be perfect.

***The Light of Christ

        I see Jesus as our light. This light exposes us as we are. More importantly, it makes us see what is right and what is wrong, what is holy and what is evil, that God is love and that we need salvation and he is our savior. This is the light that illuminates the whole truth to our heart, mind, and soul. We now see the path clearly and are no longer lost.  

**Understanding Mary*

        This beautiful timely message from John-Henry Weston is intended for non-Catholic Christians, but it should benefit many Catholics to hear as well.

**True Wisdom

        Communion experience. The Lord made me see that true wisdom is not knowing how to make a lot of money or figure out some amazing, ingenious design. True wisdom is simply knowing that God has already done the work of saving us from death and we only need to believe and follow Christ to have life eternal.