*To Be Alert Always

        Jesus said to his disciples, "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the Lord will come." (Mark 13.33.) While waiting for his coming, we must also be watchful and alert to discern and do his will at all times.

*More Important Concern than Money

        Under the current threat that the coronavirus might become pandemic, stock prices have plunged daily. Many investors are worried or even panic. So they are all getting out of the market. This is understandable. But more difficult for me to understand is why so few are concerned about where their souls are heading right now. This is so much more important than whether you make or loose money in this life—there is no comparison! As Jesus asked in yesterday's Gospel reading from Luke 9: "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"

*Denying God?

        If you haven't surrendered yourself to the Lord God yet, then you are still denying him. God is our most fundamental reality and facing up to reality is always the best policy.

*Letting God Be Our Lord

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 9, Jesus said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." If you believe that Jesus was of sound mind, then he must have spoken as the Lord God. Essentially, he's saying that he should be the Lord of our life. I'd like to add that the more we let him be our Lord and God, the easier it becomes to take up our cross. When we are able to completely submit ourselves to him, he becomes the one to bear all our crosses. Following Christ is the only way to true freedom. 

*Clear- or Muddy-Headed

        To me, a clear-headed person is one who knows that he is a sinner, that he needs to have his sins removed in order in be saved, and that Jesus Christ is exactly the Savior he needs to believe in and follow. Otherwise, he is muddy-headed.  

***Ash-Wednesday Wake-Up Reminder

        We shall all die; but we don't really die, since our soul lives on forever. And how we live on earth will determine how our soul shall live for all eternity. 

**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.