***Another Wakeup Call to Battle

        There are more things that distract us from God than ever. Traveling in some countries abroad, whether you are riding in a subway car or on a street bus, you see most passengers playing a game, watching a show, or communicating with someone on their mobile phone. Back home, people eagerly check out new car models packed with tech features and speculate what the next generation of iPhones will be like. Who would have thought not too long ago that today you can order just about anything (even coffins) from Amazon online and get it delivered to your front door in one or two days? Science and technology have made this world more exciting, but all these material accomplishments have taken our attention away from God, turning God almost into an afterthought. The spiritual warfare continues on and the casualties will be high. To turn the tide, we need to wake up, join the Lord, and fight hard for him. For Christians, it's do-or-die time.

*Belonging to God's Family

        Today is the Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas. In the Gospel reading from Mark 3, Jesus said to the people, "Whoever does the will of my God is my brother and sister and mother." It tells me that doing the will of God supersedes all earthly family relationships and makes us members of his heavenly family. I also see that in God's family, we all become equally God's children. 

**To Receive All God's Gifts for Us

        Before Mass began this morning, I felt great peace in the Lord—such a wonderful way to start the day. Peace is God's precious gift to us. Two others came to my mind—they are wisdom and understanding. Wisdom is knowing what is true and what is false, and understanding is knowing the Lord's will. Of course, there are many other beautiful gifts to us. Naturally, the greatest of all of them is the Lord himself. If we possess him, we possess all his gifts for us as well. All the more we need to seek to attain union with him!

**Most Patient Lord

        Yesterday I blogged about the unforgivable sin. Jesus said all sins and all blasphemies that people utter would be forgiven them—this is pretty amazing that these sins will be forgiven if you repent of them. I see the Lord being forever patient: he is always there, waiting for us to turn to him to say "I am sorry for having offended you" and ready to forgive us and take us back. It's us paying the Lord hardly any attention most of the time vs. him waiting for us to acknowledge his existence all of the time.

***How To Stand Forever

        In today's reading from Mark 3, Jesus also said to the scribes, "How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And it a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand; that is the end of him." Today we have the motto: "United we stand, divided we fall." My thoughts are if we unite ourselves with God by attaining union with him, then we'll gain maximum strength and be able to stand with the Lord forever!

**The Unforgivable Sin*

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 3, the scribes spoke of Jesus as being possessed by Beelzebul and believed that it's by the prince of demons that he drove out demons. Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin." Jesus said this, for the scribes had said that he had an unclean spirit. Not to believe in the Lord is one thing; but apparently, to accuse the Holy Lord of being in cahoots with the Evil One is going too far. This is something we should never ever allow to cross our mind. 

*Another Reason to Go to God

        From today's entrance antiphon taken from Psalm 96: In the presence of the LORD are majesty and splendor, strength and honor in his holy place. God's majesty, splendor, power, and grandeur absolutely surpass what we can possibly imagine. We'll have to wait until we see him face to face to get the full impact. Here is one more exciting reason for us to go to him: to see how he truly exceeds all our expectations.

*Beyond Knowing Jesus

        Communion experience. I know that Jesus is exactly the one I need to complete my existence.

One Thing I Am Sure Of

        I am not sure about an infinite number of things, but I am absolutely sure that Christ can save me and take me to heaven. And this is plenty good enough for me.

*Following Your Heart

        We can participate in all kinds of activities to get to know God, but if our heart is not in them, we simply go through the motion and fail to get any closer to God. Again, the fast track to go to the Lord directly to give him your heart. From then on, you'll be with God and only need to follow your heart that belongs to him. 

*Leaving this World Joyfully

        I dreamed early this morning that I lost something very important and panicked. Since dreams reflect our life experiences, the fact that we all have nightmares is proof that our life experiences are not always that good. PersonalIy, I am looking forward to going to heaven to be with God forever. To not want to leave this world is pitiful. To leave with great sadness is not good enough either. If you know that your Father is waiting for you to return to him like the father in the parable of the lost son, then you would want to leave this world in great joy and triumphantly as you return to him! 

***Amazing Pro-Life Rally*

        For the first time, a sitting president spoke at a pro-life rally and that was President Trump speaking at March for Life in DC yesterday. The crowds were bigger than ever and the presence of the younger generation was noticeable. (At my church, usually one bus was enough to take all members to the Walk for Life in San Francisco. Today, two full buses took off this morning.) The cheering and exuberance during Trump's speech were awesome. In case you missed the talk, catch the highlights in this eight-minute video provided by Life Site News.

**Abortion, Work of the Devil

        Yesterday the March for Life took place in Washington D.C. Today it's the Walk for life on the West Coast in San Francisco. These are the world's two largest pro-life events. I'll always remember this quote I came across: "Everyone who supported slavery was free. Everyone who supports abortion was born. And that, my friends, is how oppression works." If God had made us so that aborting a child would also kill the mother, I am sure no one would talk about abortion anymore. Since the unborn are totally defenseless on their own, they become the targets of oppression.

       Another thought. You can say that the pro-abortionists play God by taking the lives of the unborn into their hands. Of course, God would never do what they do. So more accurately, they play the Devil, for they do exactly his work.

*Avoiding Promised Condemnation

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 16, the Resurrected Lord appeared to the eleven and commissioned them to go into the world to proclaim the gospel to every creature. He said to them, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned." I am struck by the severity of the second half of this saying. It it is true, the majority of us today will be condemned. Perhaps this is justified because God's mercy is so great. But as long as we do believe, we won't have an issue. This is good enough for me.

*Conversion Needed for All

        Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, Apostle. As you know, Paul started out as a leading persecutor of those who followed Jesus. And he was converted by tho Lord in a most dramatic way. What a blessing! Our conversions may not be so dramatic, but every conversion is a great blessing. How you are converted matters less; it's whether you are converted or not. Cradle Catholics need to experience an interior conversion too if they are to serve the Lord effectively. Our highest goal should be to attain union with God to complete the ultimate conversion. 

*God Needs Our Response

        Paul writes in Galatians 2.20, "I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me." We must all be aware that the Lord loves us and has given up his own life on earth for us! We are very special and must respond to him in some way if we are humane at all.

**Smart Realization

        Do whatever you want to do, but just do not offend our Lord God. For if you do, you just condemn yourself.

Allegiance-Switching Time

        Communion experience. It's time to let the world go and focus upon storing up treasures in heaven in whatever remaining time left in this life. The sooner the better for all of us to realize this.