***Trying to Understand Faith

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage daughter! Your faith has saved you." And from that hour the woman was cured.

         I am still trying to understand faith more. If I cut my finger, it would be nice that I pray to the Lord for healing and it's healed instantly. In reality, it doesn't happen like that. First of all, I know that the finger will heal in a few days and the pain I feel is not bad at all, and I really don't want to bother the Lord for that. In other words, my strong desire to be healed is absent. Should I be suffering as much as the woman with hemorrhages, I probably would strongly desire that the Lord heal me and he very likely will do just that. So faith comes forth from our heart's desire in a natural way. I'd like to mention again the time my son could have died from a virus attack. While he was in critical condition in ICU, I walked up to him and said without hesitation "Be healed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," while making the sign of the cross on his forehead. Three days later, he recovered and was sent home. So I think the secret is to trust in the Lord with all your heart and pray when you are called to pray. You cannot force yourself nor the Lord.

***The Father We Need

        Without a father, none of us would be here. A father can guard us, guide us, support us, and inspire us. Unfortunately, not all of us have a good earthly father. As a result, their children go astray and become lost souls. But the great news is that we have a Father in heaven who is perfect and most loving, someone in whom you can totally abandon yourself. Obey him and you'll go to him to enjoy eternal bliss when you leave this world! This has to be the best news ever! So follow Christ to know the Father who knows and will always give you what's best for you. The riddle of life is no more!

***Hatred of God the Father

        You need to know this today!

*What Makes You Wise and Learned

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus blessed the Father for having revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to the littles ons, but not to the wise and the learned. Of course, the wise and the learned of the world are not not truly wise and learned if they do not know or understand the kingdom of God. It is believing in the Lord that makes you truly wise and learned, for you now know the truth.

**Letting the Spirit Give Us Life

        From today's reading 2 from Romans 8, "If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you." If we belong to Christ, his Spirit dwells in us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, this Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is capable of making us holy and perfect. Remain in this Spirit to let him transform you anew. Then you can be whatever you want to be and be most pleasing to the Lord at the same time. This is exciting news for all of us!

**Father Rothrock Removed!

        It came as no surprise that Father Rothrock was removed by his bishop. Don't feel sorry for Fr. Rothrock whom the good Lord will surely reward, but feel sorry for Bishop Timothy Doherty who has cowardly caved in to the mob and betrayed all of us. He's the one who needs our prayer.

***Do More for Christ!

        What are we doing in this life? The worst way of living is trying to succeed in this secular world without regard to others. God wants all of us to go to heaven, so it'd be sensible and logical for us to do our best to fulfill this desire of his. If we do our best to obey him, then after our short life expires on this earth, we will be with him forever. It's that simple. Let every moment be your moment of glorifying him, not matter what you are going through, and you are free. The more you surrender yourself to him, the more you are liberated by him and the more he makes everything easy for you to accomplish for his sake. And your reward will be great in heaven! Start living right right now.

Praying for Evildoers

        The evildoers are afraid to get themselves exposed. They scheme, plot, do their evil deeds, and then run or hide. They are blind or dumb because they think that God does not exist or they can get away from him. So they are to be pitied. God exists and is always merciful—this is the truth we must pray that they will see. 

**God Raising His Good People

        On July 1, I posted Amazing Video. It seems that the Lord has chosen Donald Trump to lead America back to God. As evil has infiltrated and weakened the Church, I see the Lord raising good non-Catholic people to fight for him. I never knew Nick Vujicic until I heard him speaking at a prison in Texas online a few days ago. He was born with no arms and no legs, but his faith in Christ in astounding. You can easily listen to any of his numerous speeches on YouTube to be inspired. I am posting a short video below for you to see and hear what he sounds like.

*****Attention All Catholics*****

             All Catholics must watch his video. We are being tested by God to see if we are hot, lukewarm, or cold right now. Last month, Tim Gordon, a theology teacher at a Catholic high school in Bakersfield, CA, got fired from his job after he referred to Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization on his Twitter account. The diocese did not back him. Recently, when Bishop Barron was asked what he would do to stop the toppling of valuable statues of saints and others, I didn't quite expect him to say that it's the laity's job. We need to place our trust completely in the Lord more than ever! All souls are at stake! (Today, July 7, I learned out that Bishop Barron did stand up to Black Lives Matter. You can see this photo on Twitter. God bless him for humbling himself.)

     
        To show your support for Fr. Theodore Rothrock, email Bishop Timothy Doherty of the Diocese of Lafayette, IN, at bishop@dol-in.org and email Fr. Rothrock directly at parish@setoncarmel.org.

**Irreconcilable Opposites

        God and Satan; good and evil; heaven and hell; being saved and being lost—we can have only one or the other. If you are somewhere in the middle and you don't care, you don't need do a thing. But if you want to be sure that you'll be happy forever later, you'd better start moving toward the good end fast.

***Only Way to Save Ourselves

        Today is Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle. In reading 1 from Ephesians 2, Paul addresses his brothers and sisters: "You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord, in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." So Christ is the one who holds the Church together and makes each one of us a dwelling place of God. At this critical time when Evil has infiltrated much of the world, we must be united to the Lord more than ever to remain holy and strong in order to save mankind from being lost forever!

***Wake-Up Time

        Another message from Fr. Goring for us. All Catholics must wake up now!

*Garabandal, Unstoppable Waterfall

        On June 20, I posted the video Our Lady of Garabandal. Today the brand new film Garabandal, Unstoppable Waterfall premiered. It's 1-hour-24-minute long. If you are interested in the story of Garabandal, you may want to watch this one, for it's more complete.

**Padre Pio, God's Amazing Servant

       Padre Pio, now Saint Pio, was well known for his amazing life as a holy priest. He passed away in 1968, so many of you today probably have not even heard of him. Here is a short documentary on him. If you find it interesting, you can find many more videos and also books out there telling you about him. 

**Living the Christian Life

        How to live the Christian life? There can be many answers. To love God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your soul, of course. To be a little more specific, I would say that we be completely truthful to God and to ourselves. Satan is all lies and deception, so we want to be the very opposite. Only truth will last forever. Therefore, never hide anything from God. Let him see everything in us. Be one with the Lord, the eternal truth, and you will be so strong that you'll never fall again!

***Encounter with God*

        You may have believed in Christ for some time, but not yet encountered him in a personal way. Encountering the Lord can be a breakthrough in your awareness of God, an illumination of the truth, or a sudden realization of God's existence. It is a special grace that draws you closer to him. It could happen when you are praying, reading a book, taking a walk, or experiencing suffering. As Catholics, if you truly believe in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, you should know that you encounter God every time you receive this Most Blessed Sacrament. I advocate opening up yourself completely and receiving the Holy Eucharist as often as possible, then you'll become one with the Lord and don't ever need to think about encountering him anymore. 

**Doomed or Saved, Your Choice

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 8, even though Jesus healed the two demoniacs by driving the demons out of them, the townspeople became afraid and wanted Jesus to leave their district. This is happening today too. No matter how much good the Lord does, people just do not wish to see the truth and reject him outright. Of course, if you reject God, you are doomed. But the merciful Lord is waiting for that one nanosecond of awakening from you. If you'd just repent and return to him, you are saved! To be doomed is easy, but to be saved can be super easy.