Fr. Mark mentioned Carlo Acutis in the video I just posted. Carlo was a saintly boy who died at 15 in 2006 and will be beatified this Saturday, Oc. 10. He loved the Lord since he was a little boy. This reminds me of St. Thérèse, The Little Flower. He was known for documenting Eucharistic miracles around the world. I encourage you to watch at least one of the many videos about him on YouTube. I love his saying: "The Eucharist is my highway to heaven." Indeed, if you are a Catholic and don't know and believe in the Eucharist, then you are a Catholic in name only. Carlo Acutis is a shining example for all of us. Praise Jesus!
Thursday, October 8, 2020
Wednesday, October 7, 2020
***Christ Alone Fully Suffices
Once you have Jesus, you never look back anymore. You don't wish that you should have done this or should not have done that. You no longer remember all your sufferings nor ever compare yourself to others. Christ alone now overflows and fulfills you.
**God Anticipates Your Action
I posted about the Holy Rosary without realizing that today is the memorial of Out Lady of the Rosary. I posted about the Lord's prayer and the Gospel reading from Luke 11 turned out to be about how the Lord taught his disciples to pray the Our Father. I picked up my new Testament, intending to look at the reading in Luke 11, and the book opened exactly to the page that showed the reading with the prayer. God is amazing!
On Unfinished Business
There will always be unfinished business for us to finish in this life, so finish what you can and don't let any unfinished business bother you. When you leave the world, you'll have to leave all your unfinished business unfinished. Finish only your business with God on earth.
***The Power of the Lord
God remains all powerful. If we believe in him, we are saved. If we reject him, we are doomed. All that power is useless to us if we don't want it. And it's all ours if we desire it. Jesus came to us so that we may receive his power to save ourselves! So it's all up to us to utilize or waste that power. So very clear.
***Why the Holy Rosary Is Powerful
Early this morning, the Lord also made me see how perfect and powerful the Lord's Prayer he taught us is. If we can have only one prayer, this would be the one to choose, for if you truly mean what you say when you pray it, you can become a saint. I also saw that the Hail Marry is most effective in asking our Blessed Mother to intercede for us. She's the one who can sway our Lord the most. Now, the Glory Be to the Father is the best prayer for praising the God who deserves all our praise. It dawned on me why the Rosary is a most powerful weapon for crushing evil and saving souls: it combines all three of these powerful prayers. We dedicate each decade of the Rosary to a particular mystery and concentrate upon praying the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory.
After I got up, I was overjoyed to find that Fr. Mark Goring talks about why Our Lady asks us to pray the Rosary in today's video of his.
***An Awakening Moment!
Recently, President Trump caught the COVID-19 and was hospitalized. Then nationwide, millions of people prayed for him and he recovered in a few days and is back to work already. Praise our God! Early this morning, the Lord made me see for the first time very clearly that he had chosen Trump to stem the tide of evil. Without him being elected in 2016, we would never know the corruption in our government and the existence of the deep state that is planning to subvert our democracy. Trump has now made the whole world aware of the threat of globalism, socialism, and Communism. Today, we are able to openly invoke the name of Jesus and say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays at Christmas time. This has to be the Lord's doing. I pray that this is not just a temporary turn of events. If we all turn to God and repent, we can overcome evil altogether and win the spiritual battle. Otherwise, there will be more chastisements and persecution of all God-fearing people coming. We are at such a critical point that what happens next will depend entirely upon how much we obey the Lord now. We can no longer lie back, say that we trust in God, and not do anything anymore. Pray hard and unceasingly.
*Beauty of God's Love
There is secular music out there that's beautiful enough to make me think of God. Under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos..., I have already listed two videos featuring Rachmaninov's two preludes written for the piano, to me one expressing our yearning for God and the other, the love of Mary for her son, our Lord. I just watched another video featuring the most talented Japanese pianist Hayato Sumino playing the piano arrangement of Rachmaninov's 3rd movement of his 2nd symphony. Again, the music made me sense God's beautiful love for us. Here's that video.
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
**Listen to the Lord First*
This is today's entire Gospel reading from Luke 10.
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."
We are very much like Martha, but we must listen to the Lord first and always, putting everything aside if necessary. This will be hard for many and they would probably argue that it won't work in real life. All I know is that if we listen to the Lord and do not be anxious or worry about things, everything will work out best. In other words, live your spiritual life right and your earthly life will follow in good order. Place God first and everything else second.
***We Are Before God!
Also, in today's reading from Galatians 1, Paul made this side remark: "As to what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying." It's kinda cute. But seriously, it's good to be beware that whatever we do, we are doing it before God; so we'd better be truthful. (The world has gotten so evil because it's no longer aware that God exists.)
***God's Plan for Us
In today's first reading from Galatians 1, Paul writes "When God, who from my mother's womb had set me apart and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me . . ." We must believe that God has also set each of us apart when we were still in our mother's womb. In Jeremiah 1, we read that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you." The Lord may not have revealed to each of us a specific appointment, but he definitely has a plan for each of us. The call to holiness and obedience should be obvious. If we follow Christ faithfully, our plan evolves simultaneously. I could hear the Lord saying: "Blessed are those who do not know their specific appointments and still follow me faithfully."
****Steps to Knowing Christ
Many Christian spiritual messages are being preached and writings being published, providing reflections, insights, views, etc. How effective they are is to be measured by how well they succeed in drawing you closer to Christ. After all, to know Christ the Lord must be our foremost goal. We cannot be effective if we do not know him well ourselves, even with the best of intentions. The three steps to reach this goal are to accept Christ, to believe in Christ, and to surrender ourselves to Christ so that we may get to know him mostly intimately, as in union with him.
Monday, October 5, 2020
**Whom Do We Seek to Please?
In today's first reading from Galatians 1, Pail writes, Am I now currying favor with human beings or God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ. We try to please others all the time. If we do it for the sake of pleasing God, that's great. But if we do it in order to please ourselves, then our ego is involved and it can be sinful. Worst of all if we do it to please Satan! In any case, whatever we do, we should aim to do the will of the Lord to please him alone, no matter what others think or say.
**My Mission on earth
I want to praise Christ always. I want to extol his glory with all my heart and with all my soul. I don't just believe in him, I know that he is the true God. No one else can ever replace him, for there can be only one Lord. So hear me if you have ears. We are given just one life on earth to realize this truth. To remain lost forever is unthinkable. Try to get to know him; you have nothing to lose and only eternal life to gain. And you can always change your mind at any time, although I know that once you are with Christ, gladly following his will in all things, you'll never ever want to leave him.
Sunday, October 4, 2020
**Unbreakable Union
Communion experience. The Lord entered me to affirm his union with me, a union that nothing in heaven and on earth can break. I am completely secure in the Lord.
***Our Calling and Fulfillment
If Christ is your Lord, you must be in complete union with him. You cannot follow him without all your heart and all your soul. He has given us all of himself and we must reciprocate by giving all of ourselves to him. This is our sole calling and our perfect fulfillment.
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