**What Others Think About You

        Yesterday I posted about not to pay attention to what anyone thinks about you. I'd like to elaborate on that a little bit. This advice basically tells you that you should care only about what God thinks about you. For what God thinks is always true, whereas what anyone else thinks about you may be false and you shouldn't let a lie rob you of your inner peace. The only exception is when you are bad and someone points that out. Then you can consider that to be a blessing and go before the Lord to ask him to correct you. We are to respond to God alone always. 

**Be as Clear as Crystal

        I went on the Divine Mercy website (thedivinemercy.org) and came across this post of March 17, just two days ago. It's titled "Make Your Life as Clear as Crystal." These words came from a Sr. Faustina's confessor who spoke to her. I'll just quote directly from Sr. Faustina's Diary to show you what he said.

        

        Sister, God is preparing many special graces for you, but try to make your life as clear as crystal before the Lord, paying no attention to what anyone else thinks about you. Let God suffice you; He alone.

        

        Good for us to meditate upon these words: "Make your life as clear as crystal." "Pay no attention to what anyone else thinks about you." "Let God suffice you; He alone." [I highly recommend that you read St. Faustina's Diary on the Divine Mercy of Christ.]

***What the World Doesn't Get*

        Repentance is the key to salvation. If we do not ever wish to repent, we are on the path to committing suicide, to be blunt but realistic about it. Suicide is a one-way journey, irreversible. I suggest that you latch onto our only Savior and Hope, Christ the Lord, and you'll never have to worry about anything that matters anymore. Honest truth!

***No Repentance, No Redemption

        In both Mark 8 and Matthew 16, Jesus asked, "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?" At this time, it is appropriate to ask "What profit is there for us to conquer the coronavirus but still not repent of our sins?" 

***Is Your Soul Clean Enough?

        We shall all die and now many of us could catch the coronavirus and die. We are truly in God's hands. The question is if your are ready to die right now. Is your soul clean enough? This is the key question. All the governments are doing all they can to protect their people, but if we remain unrepentant and continue our ways, worse calamities surely will follow! I see countries suppressing Christians and other minorities, our own Church in confusion and division, and abortion legalized in this country since 1972! God has been extremely patient with us. Are we so stupid as to continue pushing our luck? Christ has warned us to remain awake and be alert always, and we've had the chance to learn to do that for 2,000 years. Shame on us! It only takes a change of heart to turn things around. Be cleansed of your sins and ready for dying with joy, for our Lord awaits those who repent and follow him.

**Dependence on God Necessary

        We love to think independently in all areas of our lives. Even now, there are those who ignore the official coronavirus warnings, doing what they want to do and putting others at risk. It's all about "me." But we'll never be free if we do not follow God. The first thing we need to do is to submit ourselves to God totally, then we'll be free to do whatever we want to do and still do the right thing. It's plain common sense that we need God's guidance. You cannot set yourself free, period.

**How Godless Can You Be?

        I am posting this CBN video to show you why God has allowed such things as the current coronavirus to happen. I know I'll be mocked by the atheists too. No matter, I pity them who have no faith in God. They can laugh all they want now, but if they don't change, they'll be crying and wailing later. 

**Repentance Urgently in Order

        This is my most urgent plea. We do not know when Jesus will come again. Nor do we always know when God is going to chastise us for straying away from him. The threat of the coronavirus is real, but hell is infinitely worse and I pray that no one will ever go there. Since God is infinitely merciful, it is never too late to repent of your sins as long as you are still alive and capable of thinking clearly. Chastisement or no chastisement, repentance is in order to keep the soul safe to show how grateful we are for the love and mercy of our Father. May we all return to him to live forever with him!

**Getting Ready to Meet the Lord

        To be ready to meet the Lord, we must not attach ourselves to the world so that when the time comes to have to give all things up, we'll be happy to let them go. Let us train ourselves for that day. Time can run out quickly. While you may still have a lot of unfinished businesses to deal with, don't ever let them tie you down. If you still drag your feet about detaching yourself from this world, you are not ready to meet the Lord yet.

***Wake-Up Time!

        Fifty teams of epidemic experts including those from universities across the world have predicted that in the worst-case scenario, the coronavirus death toll in the US could hit 1.7 million. The Lord God definitely wants us to wake up from our sinful state. We must ask ourselves if we are ready to die. If not, then why? I heard that some elderly people still go out everyday to have a good time, figuring that they are going to die anyway. Such foolish thinking! If you are attached to Christ only, you should be ready to die. Clinging to the world is like staying with a sinking ship. In this case, you are most likely to sink before the ship completely sinks. 

**Learning from Coronavirus

        So far, thousands of people around the world, including less than 100 in the US, have died from the coronavirus virus, and people are scared and starting to predict the worst that might happen. They are oblivious of the fact that worldwide, about 154,000 unborn children loose their lives daily each day! Might the coronavirus be God's warning to us for our committing this horrendous sin? Now my country is doing its best to stop this virus and protect the economy. I feel it's more important to stop the virus and protect the life of the unborn and raise all moral standards. Otherwise, something worse than the coronavirus will surely happen to mankind again.

*Purgatory Not Good Enough

        I heard someone say that he just couldn't be holier and wouldn't mind going through purgatory first. This attitude is worrisome to me, for it amounts to saying that God cannot make one holy. If you don't aim high, you may not even make purgatory! So, believe that God can make you holy with your permission. Aim high and you'll be assured of getting into purgatory or even getting into heaven without going through purgatory altogether!

*** Messages Coronavirus Brings

        As this virus is now pandemic, the message from God is loud and clear. It is that we need to turn to him to repent of our sins. It just seems most difficult for most people to deal with their own sins. In the worst cases, they are not even aware that they are offending the Lord. As the Second Coming of Christ approaches, we seem to be falling away from God even further. Here is a calling for those who do believe in the Lord to double or triple their effort in praying for all falling sinners.

*How to Fight Evil

        To fight evil, we normally go after and actively attack it in whatever ways we can. But there is the superior way. It is that we go before God, confess our sins, ask him to make us clean, and then beg him to crush the evil. If every one of us does this, there won't be any evil around. To be realistic, we still need to actively fight evil at this point in time, but we must let the Lord make us holy first so that we may rely upon him to crush all evil. 

***Pure Love from Us

        We can love many things or persons in the world. We may love music, stamp collecting, traveling, fine food, our pets, or someone who attracts us. Such love are in general self-centered and can enslave us, so they are really not pure. Then we can love God. Is this love different? I believe so. You see, God is already unconditionally loving us. When we love (or more correctly, fall in love with) him, we are set free by his love. We are not self-centered because we can't help wanting to please him only. Love for God is the purest love we may possess, for it is in fact his pure love that makes us love him.  

**Source of Our Living Water

        Since I did not go to Mass, I read today's Gospel reading John 4.5-42 at home. It's all about Jesus asking a Samaritan woman to give him a drink at Jacob's well. I have heard this reading many times before. Today, as I read it myself, I was astounded by the many things Jesus said. Now, if you do not see him as the Messiah, you would be confused like the Samaritan woman was at first. Today I saw him as the Lord and was amazed by the amount of truth he reveals to us. I do encourage you to read these 38 verses yourself to let him speak to your heart. 

**Is Life Meaningful?

        Suppose you live in a beautiful place in a most comfortable house with a most beautiful view. Let's even say that the weather is always perfect. And you have no problem whatsoever financially and can enjoy anything you wish. And you have perfect health always as well. Everyone loves you and thinks highly of you with no one ever giving you any trouble. Then you die and become nothing. Would you say that you have lived a meaningful life? If yes, where's the meaning? Let's now look at a case at the other extreme. You born poor and lived all you life in a miserable condition. People look down on you and treat you badly. And you are always sick and suffer pains all your life and you wish to die. You do die and become nothing. All that suffering for what? Is your life now meaningful? For most of us, we lead a life between these two extremes. So what is a meaningful life we can realistically live? 

       For us, life becomes meaningful only if we see a higher purpose and know that we'll have a better life after death. The reality is that all things beautiful on earth are earthbound, evil is real, and suffering unavoidable. God is the eternal reality and wants in fact to deliver us from this world that imprisons us. Life on earth is a test. If we believe in Christ, we shall pass this test and head toward eternal life. So we can live right and make our life completely meaningful, as we enter the most beautiful final part of our existence.

*Missing Sunday Mass

        Two days ago Friday, the bishop of my diocese finally granted a dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass on Sunday for all members of the Catholic Faithful. It's sad not to go to Mass. Although I could still go, but being in the high risk group, I didn't want to take the risk and end up affecting all my family members. I just watched a video on the city of Nanjing in China which claims that the number of cases of coronavirus infection there has dropped to zero. The control is strict and thorough alright, but it seems to me that what has helped the most is not letting people get close to each other. So, what can we do if we stay home on Sunday? I urge you to listen to Fr. Mark Goring on this video which came out yesterday.

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