***Single Step to Capturing God

        With a beautiful, perfect, and holy Lord like Jesus, it is not good enough to take a thousand little steps trying to get closer to him. Instead, we need to go all out to achieve union with him by letting him do whatever he wishes with us. This is total obedience, the single giant step we need to take to "capture" our beautiful, perfect, and holy Lord.

**Faith Most Beautiful

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 9, a man whose son was possessed by a mute spirit pleaded with Jesus, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, "'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith." It is so good to hear the Lord say this. Faith in God is such a beautiful thing! Achieve union with the Lord and you'll be able to trust in him completely. 

***Believe in the Holy Eucharist!

        Most timely video to watch. If you still have doubts about the real presence of Christ in this sacrament, check out the three videos listed under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos . . . in the right column.         

***Squaring with Jesus' Teachings*

       In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus continued to teach his disciples. Here are some of the things he said I am grouping together. "Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn back on one who wants to borrow. You have heard said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies that you may be children of your heavenly Father. So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." 

        Jesus indeed practiced what he taught here to the letter when he was on earth. But how can we possibly be so perfect as he is? I do have many questions, for today's evils are quite more sophisticated. There are so many scams out there: are we supposed to let them scam us? People who beg money from you cannot always be trusted, for they fake poverty or work for some crime boss: should we always give or even give more than what they ask for? What if the beggar is actually a drug addict who needs the money to buy his substance? Should we donate to charities that pay their CEOs lavishly? If people want to abort all the babies, should we not resist them? Today, many Catholics have stopped giving money to the Church because they found out how millions and millions of dollars have been paid out to abused victims and for legal defense fees: are they all wrong? Last, if some country decides to take over our country, do we just surrender? The big question: how do we square these teachings of Jesus with the fact that we need to stop and defeat evil? Of course, we need to love everyone and help those who truly need help. At the same time, we don't want to be deceived by evil. I do not have the answer; I only know that the Lord is right. Let's just trust in his mercy and pray that he will not put us to the test.  

***Our Worst Enemy

        The worst enemy is one who can endanger your soul. So who is he? Satan? No, because he is powerless if you remain humble in God. Someone in the world? Well, you may have many of them all fighting you in various ways, but they cannot harm your soul if you don't do anything wrong or bad. In reality, your worst enemy is yourself, since only you can choose to stay away from God or to obey or follow him. It's also your choice to let Satan or others influence you or not. Conquer yourself and you'll have conquered all your enemies with God becoming your friend. 

*Extreme Feelings

        There is no feeling more torturous than realizing that Satan has ensnared you and you feel powerless to escape. And there is no feeling more consoling than realizing that God is in union with you and your soul now rests securely in him.

**Mary and the Miraculous Medal*

        We all feel a special love for our own mother. But our mothers are not perfect. I believe that God has made us so that we yearn for a perfect mother to love. And that mother is Mary, the Mother of Christ our Lord. She has revealed to us that her favorite prayer is the one she instructed St. Catherine Labouré to inscribe on the front of the Miraculous Medal. It reads: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The Holy Mother promised to obtain many graces for those who wear the medal and request them. You can search for "Miraculous Medal" online and read all about it. How Mary appeared to St. Catherine to ask her to get the medal struck is a beautiful story in itself. 

*All Fair and Square

        If you judge others, God will judge you. If you forgive others, he will forgive you. If you do not acknowledge the Lord, he will not acknowledge you either. If you believe in him, he hears you. If you have no faith, he does not hear you. 

One More Big Deal

        Communion experience. The Lord can actually remove my sins from my soul! Another big deal.

***God's Awesome Holiness*

        You become aware of God's holy presence, once you attain union with him. So do not ever claim that he is not present. It's not just his presence, it's his holiness that impresses. Being aware of this holiness is sufficient to keep you from sinning, for it is the Lord.

**Undeserving Fools

        God has made simple and clear the way for us to get to heaven, but we pretend that we don't even hear or understand it. Who are the fools? How undeserving we can be!

***To Know Jesus Thoroughly

        How well do you know Jesus? How personal is your relationship with him? Do you only know him at the intellectual level? To know the Lord well, we need to know him at all levels. We need to understand him, to feel him, and to experience him. Then we'll have a warm, comfortable, and intimate relationship with him. Believe that he is present, body and soul, in the Holy Eucharist, open up and receive him to become one with him. Now you should know the Lord.

*Big Deals All Around

        Today is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. In the first reading from 1 Peter 5, Peter gave good advice to the presbyters. He then told them, "When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory." It made me see that when God rewards us, it is a big deal! Now, the Lord also loves us, appreciates us when we are faithful to him, and gives what's best for us and promises us life eternal when we love him . . . these are all big deals. It's also a big deal to see that he treats us as VIPs. 

***Most Violated Commandment

        The 8th of the Ten Commandments: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Very sadly, this is the commandment the mainstream media have been violating for many years, much more so since Trump got elected. As the MSM pretty much align themselves with the liberals on the left, they shamelessly make up stories, spread lies, show false pictures, ignore all the news that would make Trump look good and report anything that could make him look bad, aiming to spin their viewers and audiences. Unfortunately, there are always those who watch and listen exclusively to the fake news, and they get "brainwashed" and become intolerant of anyone who might disagree with them. The leftists even hope that the country will have a recession to make Trump look bad! This is wishing ill of all others for the sake of regaining control and power! Such continuing bearing false witness has succeeded in polarizing our entire country. I truly pity the people of MSM for spewing falsehoods and hate, not realizing that they are playing with fire, for by knowingly violating any of God's commandments you can lose your soul.

**Our First Order of Business

        Communion thoughts. If our relationship with the Lord is perfect, we shouldn't let how all other things turn out bother us anymore. This is not being cold or selfish; this is what the Lord desires from us. He always wants us to have faith in him and not be anxious about or afraid of anything. Our first order of business is to obey him.

**Doing the Opposite to Succeed

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, Jesus said to the crowd, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." Jesus had also said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." It seems that we need to do the exact opposite to achieve what we want. It's the same with making spiritual progress. Instead of struggling hard, we simply abandon ourselves to God. It all comes down to letting God be God.

***Liberation in Two Parts***

        Communion experience. The Lord liberated me! This is how it came about. (1) It's all up to me—I let the Lord do whatever he wanted with me. (2) It's all up to God—he liberated me. That is, I gave him the OK and he finished the job. Simple and cool! 

••Lessons from Gospel Reading

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" Peter got it right, for he replied, "You are the Christ." Our duty and goal is precisely to make this truth known to all!

        Right after Peter said the right thing, he blundered. Jesus told the disciples that he must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this Jesus turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." We are very much like Peter, following our emotion and not discerning the will of God. So, be aware that Satan is always there, prompting us to go against the Lord. And to know God's thoughts, seek to attain union with him.