**Only One Way to Go*

         In Luke 9.62, Jesus said to anyone who wishes to follow him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." Here is the perfect rule to follow to make getting to heaven easier. We must attach ourselves to the Lord alone and nothing else. The past is gone forever. Wanting to get to heaven is precisely the ardent wish of our heavenly Father. If you know in your heart that you are going there, you will live a life in freedom. 

        I am posting Fr. Mark Goring's video of yesterday to reinforce what I have said:

***Where Is God?

        What? You do not know where God is? He is in heaven alright, but he is also everywhere and can even dwell within us when we attain union with him. No matter where he is, he is instantly accessible. Speak to him from your heart and he hears you. Open up your heart wide and you'll hear him. So start right now telling him that you love him!

***What We Can Have***

        At this time when so many in the world are suffering losses of various kinds, we need to be thankful for what we still have and not focus upon what we've lost. We shall all die and should never regard anything to be ours, including ourselves. If you already have Christ, you have everything! If you want even more, you don't have the Lord completely yet and you remain unhappy. Think about it, nothing can be yours except Christ. Rejoice! Rejoice!

**Hearing God's Call

        God is always calling us. It's easier to hear and turn to him when times are bad. If you don't even hear him then, you probably won't ever turn to him. Those who hear and believe in him when times are good are the wise ones who are ready for whatever times coming they way.

**The World Without Truth

        We are influenced by the world so much, as it's headed in the wrong direction. We think we can take care of ourselves and don't even think about God anymore. What I love about believing in Christ is that I know that he is the truth and as truth, he is absolutely trustworthy. So I know where I am headed. The majority of the people in the world may live perhaps a seemingly interesting life, but ultimately it's an empty one—much like many of the movies produced nowadays for our entertainment, which may be superficially interesting but ultimately aimless. Without knowing the truth, we know not what we do.

*The Good Yes-Person

        We all look down on any yes-yes-person. But when the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary to tell her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would conceive in her womb and bear a son who would be great and called the Son of the Most High, Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." In any case, if you always say yes to the Lord God, you'll be exalted by him and be great in his eye. 

**The Wise and Prudent Man

        Today is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. I just followed Fr. Mark Goring celebrating Mass on YouTube and received spiritual Communion. His new video A Real Man today is good for all to watch. I am sharing it with you here.

**On Learning About God

        In the documentary on Issac Stern I've been watching, I caught him saying "If you know music, you learn how much you don't know and how much there's always to learn. Then you learn you can spend a whole life and not know everything." Let me contrast that to learning about God. With God, it's impossible to know everything about him, since he is infinite. But there is no need for us to know all about him. All we need is to believe that he is trustworthy and follow him, and we are saved and can get to heaven. If you really want to learn all about him, wait until after you get to heaven. Perhaps he will then tell you everything. But I bet you'll be so happy up there that you don't care about asking any questions anymore.

***Sensible Way of Knowing the Lord

        Issac Stern the famous violinist told young performers never to think about going out to the audience and reaching up to them, but to be yourself and bring the audience to you and encompass them with your playing with your arms. It got me thinking if Stern's advice is helpful to those of us who wish to know the Lord. I think so. We normally think that the Lord is way up there and struggle hard to reach him. But the right and sensible approach is to just be yourself and open, then the Lord will come to you for you to embrace him.

**Handling Our Conscience

        In today's Gospel reading from John 5, Jesus healed a man who had been ill for 38 years. He said to him, "Look, you are well; do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you." Jesus knew that the man knew what sin was. In fact, we all have a conscience and know what sin is, except for anyone who has sinned so much that his conscience has become muddy. We battle our conscience all our lives, that's why we do not have inner peace. Here is the real game-hanger for you. Seek union with the Lord. Once you attain union, you no longer need to struggle with your conscience any more, for you are now in complete alignment with the Lord and enjoying inner peace. 

*The Joy of Salvation

        Today's verse before the Gospel from Psalm 51: A clean heart create for me, O God; give me back the joy of your salvation. If you want to experience true joy in life, just let the Lord make your heart clean so that you'll know that you are saved. This is a unique joy that is sweet yet powerful and deeply touches the soul. It's a joy a worldly person cannot know. 

**Have Faith!

        Today's responsorial psalm consists of 6 verses from Psalm 46. Verses 2-3 read as follows: God is our refuge and our strength, an ever-present help in distress. Therefore we fear not, though the earth be shaken and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea. This is the kind of faith we should have, no matter what hardship we go through. For we know that our God will be victorious in the end. He will come to judge all of us and straighten out everything and order will be restored. Sins will be wiped out and salvation of the righteous complete. That we experience all the horrible things now is just part of the process. Have faith always! 

*Rejoicing in Our Lord

        Today's Psalm reading comes from Psalm 30, a psalm of David. Verse 6 reads as follows: The LORD's anger lasts but a moment; a lifetime, his good will. At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing. This is how the Lord deals with us sinners. There is great mercy and compassion, and we should rejoice that we have such a loving, tolerant Lord. He is the one who can and wants to rescue us.

*Becoming Delightful and Joyful!

        The Lord God loves us. He delights in us and wants us to be a joy to him. Can we live up to his expectations? Amazingly, we can, as nothing is impossible for the Lord. We only need to let him make us into what he wishes us to be and he will become our joy and we'll be delighted with ourselves as well. 

***Knowing Is Not Believing

        If you do not know the Liord well and believe that something is true, you are never sure that you are right. But if you know the Lord so well that you become one with him, you'll know what is true without a doubt, for you already know the Lord who is the truth.

**Hypocrites vs. Atheists

        Atheists can be genuine, but hypocrites are always phony. If I must choose one to respect, it will have to be the atheists. But I pity them both.       

**Coronavirus as Our Teacher

        The coronavirus can teach us many things. It tests us to see if we are spiritually fit. It compels us to think about life. It asks us if we are ready to die. It gives us a break time to gain wisdom. As a wake-up call from the Lord, it is a blessing. Unfortunately, there are always those who go on partying as usual. Fortunately for them, it's not the Second Coming of the Lord yet. For at that time, when you hear about it, wake-up time will be no more. So I also see the coronavirus giving us an opportunity to rehearse what we should do in preparation for the Second-Coming.

***No Bad Dreams About Jesus

        My recurring bad dreams are always about losing my way on going somewhere to meet someone, forgetting to have carried something with me that's needed, or missing an appointment or some scheduled event. This morning I dreamed that my car was somewhere and I didn't know how to get it back. I believe that these dreams show that I was affected by losing, forgetting, or missing certain things in the past that were important to me. Then I thought of Jesus who is absolutely the most important person to me. That I never have any bad dreams about him is because I know both consciously and subconsciously that he and I will always be one so that it'd be impossible for me to lose, forget, or miss him! (By the way, all my past dreams about Jesus have been fantastically good.)