*The Guide We Need*

         In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father." Don't you see that we have all sinned and gone astray, and Jesus is exactly the one who can lead us back to the Father?

***All About Love (God)

         I was going to post the message that I love God because he first loved me and that I serve him because he has first called me. God's love is so great that all we need to do is to remain open to him. John who considered himself to be the disciple whom Jesus loved writes beautifully about love in 1 John, his first epistle. I am going to reproduce all the relevant verses below.

           God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," but hates his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.   

          We have Christians today who rightly hate evil but wish that the evildoers go to hell. That clearly cannot have come from God who is love.

****Don't Live in Sin

            Just thought I had posted my last message for the day, I saw this short YouTube video by Fr. Corapi. It came out today, but it does seem to be an old talk. Never mind, the message is clear and good that I wish more priests would teach like that. So I am making this one my last post.

*****Alone with God*****

         Do you realize that we live among billions of people on earth, but only how each of us relates to God matters? Forget about all the other people, for basically you and God are alone. That's because he knows all about you, more than you want to know. And he'll be your judge at the end of your journey through this planet and has the power to save you for all eternity. So he's the only one relevant to our existence and the only one we need to live for. Love him and we are fulfilled in every way. 

*Fulfillment of Prophecies

         Today is the Feast of St. Matthias, who was chosen to take Judas' place in the apostolic ministry. In the first reading from Acts 1, Peter stood up in the midst of the brothers and sisters and said that the Scripture had to be fulfilled concerning Judas and quoted verses from the Psalms as proof. Since the coming of Jesus as the Messiah had already been fulfilled, you can be sure that the Second Coming and final judgment will happen too. 

**Two Rules to Remember**

         A  good rule to follow is never do anything that you know would make you regret or lose your peace if you did it. In addition, never forget to do anything that would make you regret or lose you peace if you didn't do it. A case in point: a parent dies suddenly and the children finally realize that they should have looked after their parent a lot more when he or she's still alive, but now it's too late.

***Humility Urgently Needed**

         In whatever we do, God looks at our heart, our motivation. Know that anything we do to boost our ego or appeal to our vanity does not come from the Lord. Humility is what he wants to see in us, for he is most humble himself. Without humility, we'll never know how great God is!

*****Praying in Peace

         We must never stop praying. The Lord hears every prayer from us. We may not know when and how he's going to respond to us, but respond he will. Our role is to trust in him and not be concerned about what's going to happen next. Pray hard, but remain in peace. To live by faith is most beautiful, for it shows that you are with the Lord.

**Praying for Souls in Purgatory

         Purgatory has changed my perspective. I now see us who follow the Lord on earth, the souls in purgatory who are heaven bound, and those who are already in heaven all belonging to the same Lord. We are one big family, loving God, supporting each together, and united as one. To learn more about souls in purgatory, read about Padre Pio. I'll always remember this incident. One night in 1944 the friars heard loud voices coming from downstairs saying "Viva Padre Pio." The superior told the doorkeeper to let those people out and lock the door properly. The doorkeeper went downstairs, didn't find anybody, and the door was double-locked as it was supposed to. He went back to report. The superior was puzzled and went straight to Padre Pio asking if he knew something. "Oh! Those were  soldiers who had died on the battleground, and came to thank me for their salvation."
       The best known prayer for souls in purgatory I know of is the one by St. Gertrude. According to tradition, She was told by Our Lord that each time she piously recites it, 1,000 (or a vast number of) souls would be released from their suffering in purgatory. Of course, you can always pray from the heart in your words. Here's St, Gertrude's prayer for the souls in purgatory.  

        Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home, and in my family. Amen. 

***Our Time on Earth

        It is the time we have to reconcile ourselves to God, that is, to prepare ourselves for entering heaven. So do not squander it away.

**More About Purgtory

         I watched a couple more episodes of Purgatory 101 and found that the existence of purgatory really makes a lot of sense. There are all kinds of sinners. One might be an evildoer all his life and finally abandoned himself to God; one might be a Christian, barely making it to heaven; one might not know Christ at all but had been a good loving person, etc. Purgatory is the right place for all of them to pay the dues before entering heaven. It also shows that God's mercy is great. I have always believed that any good person who does not get a chance to know Christ can be saved too. This is confirmed by Maria Simma when she was asked about it. Then you may ask why we need to know Christ. The answer is that only he offers the sure way—you follow him and you are saved. Other ways do not provide such assurance. Anyone saved is still saved through Christ. According to Maria Simma, many souls spend 30 to 40 years in purgatory. Even though it seems like a long time, compared to eternity it's practically zero. It you have time, you might like to read this interview with Maria Simma.

***Where Is the Lord?

         I went to see my dentist this morning. Whiling sitting in the waiting room waiting to be called, the TV was on, showing a long slick commercial. The show was about building a new house with the builder helping the owner pick out a granite slab to be made into various kitchen countertops. The show had captions turned on but not the sound. Over the sound system, I could hear some singer singing some pop song. My thought was "Where is my Lord Jesus?" In this and all other supposedly Christian countries, people in general are self-seeking and deeply immersed in modern materialism. You rarely hear the Lord mentioned in ordinary conversation with anyone. If you knew the Lord, you would want to talk about him all the time, realizing that he's the one you just can't live without. Sadly, very few people know his well enough to even want to mention him! The most beautiful is being ignored the most. Why, Lord? 

**Leaving Unfinished Business Unfinished

         We all have things or projects to work on. Many are small tasks, but others might take more time to finish. Today I was somewhat "training" myself to be detached from them. Right now the biggest project around home is to put some of my things in order and store them in the right place.  I'd feel better if I get that done. Then I don't want to feel bad either if I can't get it done. Suppose I die now. I would lose control of everything and all unfinished work would just remain unfinished. So there is no point in getting myself attached to any unfinished business. Christ is all I need to hold onto. Let us be his unfinished business so that he may perfect us. 

*Knowing the Truth

        In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth." When you know that the Lord is real and that he dwells in you, the Spirit has come to you. The Lord is always direct with us. The Spirit of truth will not enter anyone who is circuitous. 

***How Best to Serve God*****

         Here is the best way to serve the Lord and give him the greatest joy—embrace his love for you with all your heart and obey his every command with joy.

****Purgatory & God's Mercy

        Purgatory is a controversial subject as most Protestants don't believe in it, the reason being that it's not clearly mentioned in the Bible. The Bible reveals only truths, but it does not mean that what it doesn't reveal has to be false. By the way, after Jesus ascended to heaven, the Gospels were not written right away and the Bible as we know it now did not exist for about half a millennium until the Catholic Church selected the books of writings that were judged to be inspired by God and put them together as one book. The Church relied mainly upon tradition in spreading the gospel. Jesus never told us to rely solely upon any forthcoming book. There were no Bible Christians for another millennium until Protestants broke away from the Church. My personal belief is that purgatory does exist. It is logical that there is a place for sinners to be purified before entering heaven. God's mercy is so great that if we succumb to his mercy, we are instantly saved. We are forgiven, but we still need to pay the price for having offended him. I came across this video on purgatory today. I had heard about Maria Simma, but didn't know much about her. The video gives you a good start on learning about purgatory. I have a feeling that you would want to watch the other videos in the series after seeing this one. I am thinking of getting the book Get Us Out of Here mentioned in the video myself.
       I believe that being detached from the world and longing to see the Lord can contribute to shortening our time in purgatory or help us skip it altogether. Remember the criminal crucified next to Christ who abandoned himself to him, saying "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom"? The Lord replied, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." 
        My three categories. (1) You put yourself completely in God's hands and are ready to go to him at any time; you have a good chance of going straight to heaven. (2) You are reluctant to abandon yourself to him, but get to do it before you die; you are saved, but you'll have to go through purgatory. (3) You choose not to yield to your Savior; you remain separated from him for all eternity. Our best policy is of course to abandon ourselves to him as soon as we can.

***So Simple to Be Saved!

        In today's first reading from Acts 16, God delivered Paul and Silas from the prison. There was suddenly a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up, he, thinking that the prisoners had escaped, drew his sword and was about to kill himself. But Paul shouted out, "Do no harm to yourself; we are all here." He rushed in and, trembling with fear, fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved." We all know that, right? God has made it so simple! You just can't make it more complicated in any way unless you just don't care.

**Our Most Important Growth

       As we grow older, depending upon our age, we grow stronger or weaker physically, but we can always grow stronger spiritually, the sky is the limit. As our time on earth is running out, we should see that growing holier is so much more important than maintaining our health or growing richer materially. That's all I have to say here.