***Going Directly for the Lord*****

        As an aficionado of piano music, I used to attend various piano festivals and events. Once, I attended a weekend workshop in Portland, Oregon, not too far from my home here in California. I was going to learn about a method of playing the piano that would minimize the risk of injuring your hands. To buy the whole set of videotapes, it would cost around $800, as I recall. After watching many sample videos and listening to a number of lectures, I pretty much learned what the technique is all about. There were basically three principles you need to know, which I could explain and demonstrate easily in a few minutes. We often spend way too much time and effort trying to reach a certain goal, not realizing that we can get there faster and more surely another way. For example,
        We all wish to grow closer to the Lord, but many people are not going about doing it the right way. They attend many conferences. workshops, Bible studies, and retreats, listen to many speakers, and read a lot of books. Why not go directly to the Lord to get to know him? The Lord is instantly accessible to you at any time, no matter where you are. Communicating with him is easier and faster than any modern mode of communication. When you open yourself up to him, he's ready to reveal himself to you. Then you start learning everything from him directly. To strengthen your personal relationship with him, you don't need to go through other fellow humans anymore. They can only help you know more about the Lord. Only the Lord himself can draw you to make you know him. Seeking him without focusing mainly upon him is a waste of time. Head straight for the Lord who wishes to be one with you!

**When To Receive What's Good

        Today's Gospel reading from Luke 16 tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. After both the rich man and the poor Lazarus died, Lazarus was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man landed in the netherworld and suffered torment in flames. The rich man saw Abraham with Lazarus at this side. He cried out to Abraham for help. Abraham replied, "My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established to prevent anyone from going from our side to yours or from your side to ours." So what we think is good during our lifetime may actually be bad if that's all the comfort we are going to get. Aim for receiving what's truly good all in your next life. No instant gratification! It comes down to choosing what's only good for now or what'll be good forever later. It should be a no-brainer. 

**God's Omnipotence, a Joy or Terror?

        In today's first reading from Jeremiah 17, The LORD says, "I, the LORD, alone probe the mind and test the heart, to reward everyone according to his ways, according to the merit of his deeds." God knows our mind and heart and our ways and deeds thoroughly. We are completely transparent to him! Don't ever think for a moment that you can hide or escape from him. He knows exactly what your are thinking and what's in your heart at any time. Your ways and your deeds are shaping your own destiny every moment of your life. Knowing this could be a joy to some or a terror to others. Hopefully, once you realize how omnipotent God truly is, you would rejoice!

**Happy with God

        Today I feel happy that God not only knows but also understands all my needs and good desires. This is a joy, for I need not be anxious about anything anymore. The Lord shall meet all my needs and fulfill all my desires as he sees fit. We are to follow him always, not the other way around. Ask and still follow is OK, but know the Lord first so that you'll know what to ask is best.

**Our Great Responsibility

        Our own soul and all others' souls.

***God Our Ultimate Quest

          I have quoted this saying of St. Augustine many times: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." This is so very true. I'd like to go beyond a bit and say "The more we surrender ourselves to God, the more we become like him." God is meant to be our refuge and perfector!

***How to Deal with Evil

         We get discouraged when we see that evil has taken over the world; you can feel the oppression. Now, God deals with every single soul. If you rebel against him, you'll get separated from him for eternity. Whether we have one evildoer or a billion of them, they will all be "taken care of" in the end. That sounds good, but it's most tragic. For God the Father loves all of them and the loss of one soul to him is as sad as losing all of them. For the sake of loving our Father, we must do our utmost to save as many souls as possible. That's why judging others is wrong, for it stops the flow of mercy from us. So hate the sin and not the sinner. Our sole business is to live for and to please God the Father alone, not to play God for an instant.

**To Be Ready to Meet God

         Americans are not good at saving money. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck. They make money and spend it fast for instant gratification. When a spouse, usually the husband, dies, often nothing's left for the wife to live on. I have witnessed so many cases like that. All this makes me wonder—if you don't know how to prepare yourself well to live a life on earth, how are you going to prepare yourself to live a life in heaven? It's a great feeling to know that you are ready to meet God your Father anytime without fear. In fact, you should yearn for that day. To prepare for that day, you need to know the Lord intimately to the point that you are one with him on earth. When you become inseparable from him, you are ready. 

***Obedience to God, Most Beautiful!

        Do God's will first. Everything else can wait. People often rationalize what they're doing by saying that God has given them this talent, so they must keep on doing it. It sounds right on the surface. They also want to justify making a lot of money by saying that with more money, they can help others more. There is truth here too, but it might not be their prime motivation. Anyway, to do God's will is to do his will without any interference on our part. If he tells you to go ahead to make more money or do whatever else specifically, you go ahead. It's listening to him only and not at all to yourself. You must be totally in tune with him to remain in obedience. This is the challenge and a joy. Let the Lord truly be your Lord and you'll have peace and be amply rewarded in the end.

**God's Infinite Patience

        Not only God's love and mercy are infinite, so is his patience. Most of us live for years. If you live till 80, you'll have 29.200 days. Assuming that you sleep 8 hours each day, the number of your waking hours comes to 467,200. Assuming that you won't fully understand and know how to make a decision to accept Christ the first ten years of your life, you'll still have 408,800 hours left for you to turn to Christ. Are you going to waste all those hours not even considering him? The Lord has done his part and now simply awaits in patience. You may still get that last dying moment to repent and save yourself, but that's taking an awfully big risk.

**Be like the Father

       In today's Gospel reading from Luke 6, Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Then "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you." Last, "The measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." 

           Let me try to summarize all this.  (1) We must be as merciful as our Father. (2) The standard we set in dealing with others will be used by the Father in dealing with us. If we make it hard (easy) for others, God will make it hard (easy) for us.

***Why Go to Jesus

         John 6.68: Simon Peter said to Jesus, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." Peter is right. Jesus is the only one who has the words of eternal life. Therefore, he is the one and only one we need to go to!

Human History Is All About . . .

man rebelling against God who created it out of love and whether it will turn to God to repent of its sins and start obeying him again. 

**Feeling Good About Yourself

        It's easy to admire or envy others who seem to be more fortunate and have a lot more than you in so many ways. And you start to feel sorry yourself and become unhappy. This shows that you do not know the true God of Christ yet. Christ himself was despised, looked down, ridiculed, laughed at, insulted, stripped of his garments, scourged, and even put to death, yet he never complained. If you have him, everything the heavenly Father has is now yours. You'll feel so content and thankful, realizing that you are the luckiest and most loved creature in the universe, just now awaiting your return to your Father. Those who have the world are to be pitied, not admired or envied. Know Christ and you'll know the truth and be set free! Good thoughts to start off this new month of March, 2021.

*Feeling Good About Life

         February ends today. I am so blessed to have known Christ because when my life ends on earth, it shall continue on forever. The part of my life on earth is only the extremely short beginning. I'll be spending the rest of it with my Lord in paradise. Had I not known him at all, I would have no idea what will happen to me after I die, and that's not a good feeling.

Spiritual Levitation

         Communion experience. You've heard about levitation. Some saints are known to have levitated physically in ecstasy. After I received the body of the Lord, I felt I had a spiritual levitation, with the Lord lifting my spirit all the way up to him. 

***Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!

       In today's reading II from Romans 8, Paul wrote, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" People are against us precisely because we are for God. Jesus said that he had come to bring not peace but the sword. (Matthew 10:34) Precisely because he is our God and our judge, we end up being for him or against him. Rejoice that we and God are for each other.
       Paul wrote more, "He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?" We gain Jesus and everything the Father has is ours! Rejoice again.
        Last, Paul said, "Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?" No one will be able to condemn us, since we are already God's! Nothing can possibly separate us from the love of God. Rejoice one more time.

*****Reverence the Holy Eucharist Please!*****

        A recent survey showed that the majority of Catholics no longer believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This Most Blessed Sacrament is at the center of the Catholic worship. If you no longer belief in it, you are no longer a true Catholic. It is unbelievable that the churches are still pretty much letting everyone receive it rather casually. It's time to reeducate all the Catholics. Here is the official Catholic Church teaching on Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. 

• The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, "the mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as 'the perfection of the spiritual life and the the end to which all the sacraments tend.'"
• "In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist, 'the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.'
• "This presence is called 'real'—by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as of they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, make himself wholly and entirely present." (CCC 1374)
• "The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist." (CCC  1377)
• "To respond to this invitation, we must prepare ourselves for so great and so holy a moment.
• "St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: 'Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.'
• "Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation upon coming to communion." (CCC 1385)

         I urge you to check out the videos on Eucharistic miracles I listed under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos . . .  in the right margin of the blog page. I am posting one of them here below again.