**Extraordinary Union!

        Communion experience. What a momentous, memorable occasion! We have a most wretched sinner uniting with the Most Holy One!

*Humility, Key to Sainthood

        In today's Gospel reading of Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18, Jesus teaches that when we give alms, pray, and fast, we should do it all in secret for only the Father to see. In essence, we must not be egotistic, for to be so is to be hypocritical. It becomes clear to me that if we can completely shed our ego, we are well on the way to becoming saints.

*Thankful for God's Mercy

        Today is Ash Wednesday. I thought about the mercy of God. Psalm 30.3: If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand? Without mercy, we could be struck dead the moment we sin. But God takes our sinful nature into account and is infinitely merciful. Even if we sin all our lives and repent just before we die, we are saved. (Of course, I am not advocating that you go ahead sin and delay repenting until the last moment, for you cannot fool God.) So, on this Ash Wednesday, I thank my God for his great mercy.

**Avoiding the Lord?

        Christ is ever present, waiting to receive us. Yet many who wish to know him better do not readily approach him. Instead, they choose to learn more about him via reading books or listening to others speak about him. Is it because they are not ready to expose themselves to the Lord yet? If you do not go straight to him directly with an open heart, how are you ever going to know him personally?

***Intimacy Most Desired

        Communion experience. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured before their eyes on Mount Tabor. That must have been an awesome experience. Later, the disciples saw Jesus being taken up to heaven—what an inspiring sight it must have been! But I would rather receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist than witness anything as beautiful and amazing as the Transfiguration or the Ascension—that's because in receiving the Holy Eucharist, I get to experience great intimacy with the Lord.

***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.