***Jesus Appeals to Us***

        Here's part 1 of Jesus' appeals to us through Sr. Anna Ali.

***Holy Face of Jesus

        There have been many images drawn of Jesus' face, based upon the image on the Shroud of Turin. Even computer technology had been used to reconstruct the whole head of the Lord. I have seen and am now taking a closer look at the photograph of Jesus given to Sister Anna Ali of Kenya by Jesus around three decades ago. To me, it portrays the one who is both the Lord and love well—I love the image, wondering how I can get a copy of it. You can view the image here. The messages Jesus gave to Sr. Ali were published in the book On the Eucharist: A Divine Appeal. Unfortunately, the paperback is out of print and available copies can cost you over $100. You can find more about the Sr. Ali online.

***God Knows Our Sins

        To be our final judge, the Lord has to know everything about us. When the illumination of conscience comes, he will make us see every sin we have ever committed up to that time. This means that he knows exactly how we feel whenever we commit a sin, perhaps even more than we. It is awesome!  I rejoice that our all-knowing Lord can truly guard us from evil and save us from damnation!

**Going-to-God Hesitation

         Thought I had this morning while walking. If i must go to the Lord now, the only unfinished business that might make me hesitate would be that I still have not finished converting some of the people yet. Then I heard the Lord say to me that if I were to abandon myself to him, I must include all the unfinished businesses too, no matter how important they might seem.

**Anther Sign of God's Existence

         It's another May 23. The earth has been spinning about its own axis, giving us day and night, and at the same time revolving around the sun giving us a May 23 every year. This has been going on for a long time, perhaps several billion years. This in itself is a great miracle, showing the existence of God. I don't believe that all the scientists and engineers of the world put together will be able to built a small working model simulating such an action. (That some us are still trying to control the world is absolutely laughable.)

*****Another Reality to Be Aware Of

         The only time to work out our salvation is now, for right following this life, we either go to heaven or to hell. So get on with it!

Reality Check

         Let's be realistic. Evil is real and there will be many souls lost. No doubt that God will triumph in the end. We need to trust and obey the God of Christ to get to heaven. 

**Our Only Proper Response to God

         Communion experience. To God, our only proper response is to submit ourselves to him completely. This is choosing to belong to him alone. On this Pentecost, I renew my submission to God the Holy Spirit. 

***Key to Being Baptized by the Holy Spirit

        Today is Pentecost Sunday. I attended the Vigil Mass yesterday. Three parishioners were confirmed at the Mass. We all prayed "Come, Holy Spirit" for them. My thoughts are that the focus really should be more on the candidates. Here's why. God the Holy Spirit is ready to enter any baptized person who desires him. So it all depends upon how receptive you are. If you don't know this and don't expect anything, ask all you want and nothing will happen. (I saw one confirmed person and her sponsor left the Mass early.) But if you remain wide open and desire the encounter with Holy Spirit, believe me, you'll witness wondrous things happen!

***Our Infinite God

        Jesus is such a rich, inexhaustible subject that you can teach about him, proclaim his kingdom, and praise him without end, for he is the God of the greatest love. 

**God Empowers the Weak

        Since the Lord knows all your weaknesses, if you love him, he will never test you to fail you, for he only wants to strengthen you. And he'll never send you suffering you wouldn't be able to bear. So love and trust in him confidently to let him make you strong. The Lord loves empowering the weak!

***Back to the Basics and Reality***

          It's good to hear the basics preached again, which many of us have almost forgotten. God bless Fr. Corapi.

***Incredible Knowing God***

         I had eggs for breakfast this morning. I saw the cracked shells and realized that the chicken egg has such a perfect shape that it cannot possibly somehow came into existence by itself. This alone showed me that God exists. In fact, I intuitively know that without God, there would be absolutely nothing—no you, no me, no anything, not even nothing! God has to be a being who always exists with no beginning nor end. Now, whatever I do not know no longer bothers me, for God knows it all. The incredible part is that not only I know that God exists, I also know him most intimately!

**Only God and No Self

        Ego and the lack of humility are closely related. I can't think of any sin we commit that has nothing to do with the two. If we are like the Lord who is holy, we would be totally selfless and most humble. Sometimes I say something I thought was justified, but not realizing that it could hurt someone's feelings. This ultimately comes down the lack of humility on my part. To kill the ego entirely and become humble, we'll have to submit ourselves even more to God. "Only God, no self" should be our ultimate goal. By the way, this is also how we get ourselves completely liberated by the Lord.

***Only Christ Can Bring Us Peace

         Perhaps there is not a single family in which all members get along with each other perfectly because we are all different from each other and not saints. That is why we need Christ in our lives to make us as perfect as possible. The motto "The family that prays together stays together" is right. Unfortunately, many Christians don't even pray enough on their own. Also, the good practice of examining your conscience everyday before you go to bed is pretty much forgotten. In sum, only by letting the God of Christ into our lives can we expect to achieve peace in the family, or for that matter, the nation and the world.

**Some Temporary Good News?

***God Desires Union with Us!***

         In today's Gospel reading John 17:20-26, Jesus prayed to the Father ardently that all those who believe and will believe in him and he and the Father may be one and in each other. He left no doubt that he wants us to seek and attain union with him. This is also the way to fulfill his command that we be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. 

*Patience in Following God

          To follow the Lord, we need to be patient. I've learned that zeal can cause us to rush ahead of the Holy Spirit and end up losing valuable time. Jesus never rushed around in a hurry. Surely we face urgent issues, but we still need the Lord to show us the way. To be patient is to stay calm and not worry, while we pay utmost attention to his guidance.