*Our Role in Serving God

        The first Joyful Mystery of today's Rosary, The Annunciation. God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary to tell her that he had chosen her to bear his only Son on earth. We must realize that as God's children, we each are given a role to play too, albeit how we are called may not be so dramatic and what we are asked to do is more ordinary. It's serving God humbly in our assigned role well that makes life meaning and helps him accomplish his plan for our good.

**Ego and Inner Peace

        As long as your ego remains active, you won't have inner peace. If you let God's will override yours, you begin to starve your ego. Once his will and your will become one, you are free and will enjoy inner peace. 

*****Transfiguration Joy

        As I was praying the 4th Luminous Mystery of the Holy Rosary, The Transfiguration of the Lord, this morning, a great joy burst forth from my interior and took complete possession of me. I felt that the Lord totally enveloped me. I didn't know whether I was crying or laughing or both, as I was overwhelmed by it. I recovered only after I finished praying the whole decade. This is so different from experiencing some joy in the world. You feel good for a while and it's forgotten. The joy from heaven comes from the Holy Spirit and makes a permanent impression on your soul. It's not something you can expect or suppress. It overcomes and frees you at the same time. You don't need to see the Lord to know that he is indeed real and personal.

**Jesus the Compelling One

        Go thru the four Gospels to see if you can find a single thing you think Jesus did wrong. You'll find none. On the other hand, if you are open-minded, you'll find so many impressive, amazing things he did showing that he is God and absolutely trustworthy. You must accept or reject him as long as you are still alive on earth. There's no one else as compelling as he, for no one else is God. Reject him and you risk losing your soul. 

**Sign God Dwells in You*

        Follow Jesus faithfully and one day you find yourself no longer worry or complain about anything. Now you know that the Lord dwells comfortably within you.  

***Everything Is Accelerating

         For millennia, the world had remained pretty much the same. Then Industrial Revolution started in the 18th century. Within the last century, the advance in science and technology has truly accelerated. As a result, materialism has pretty much displaced God, accelerating immorality and godlessness. You can be sure that the Second Coming of Christ is also fast approaching. Everything is fast coming to an end. I may not see it in my lifetime, but this is what I feel now.

***Being Nice ≠ Being Saved

        Being a nice person and being one obedient to God are two different things. You can be a very nice guy, even believe in God, but not follow him in every way, and your salvation remains uncertain. On the other hand, you may even be a bad sinner, but despite your failings, you do your best to obey God to become holier, you can be sure that you will receive salvation. In today's world, it's sad to see that there are many who claim that they believe in Christ, but since they think they have figured out how they should live their life, they follow their own ways and go against some of the Lord's teachings. This is a case of overruling God and the consequences can be most severe! Don't forget, with God it must be all or nothing. 

***Finding Peace in Christ

        True permanent inner peace can only come from the God of Christ when you have reconciled yourself completely to him.  There is not another way.  You can consider this to be a natural law, for that's how God has made us.

**We Are Not Unnoticed

         Do we just somehow happen to be born into this world, grow old and die, not knowing what life is all about? The fact is that there is plenty of evidence showing that God exists and that there is a spiritual world which we enter after death. Evidence further shows that those in that world actually see and know what we do on earth. Of course, logically, God should know everything about us. So the spiritual world exists right next to us, you could say, even though we don't see it. And we slip right into it after shedding our body. This awareness that our life is completely exposed should help us live a better life.

****Going to Christ Directly****

         In my lifetime, I have attended numerous spiritual conferences and heard many inspiring speakers. Some of them uplifted me for a few days, a week, maybe longer, but the effect is never long lasting. Reading about the saints helped me more. Now that I've always gone to Jesus directly, I wonder why people don't do that when they want to know him. I just received the announcement about a Saint Joseph Summit. It's an online conference you can register and attend. The list of over 50 illustrious presenters is impressive. I am sure they will inspire a lot of people. But I can't help wondering that if our ultimate goal is to know Jesus, why don't we go directly to him? Why do we need to go through many other fellow brothers and sisters to go through another saint to help us reach Jesus? Jesus helped all the saints directly, surely he will do the same to us. If you don't get all the help you need from Christ, could it be that you didn't go directly to him? Or perhaps you seek the Lord, but your heart is are not completely open to him yet? For if your heart is, you would want go to him directly. If not, you can go thru a thousand speakers and won't know him much better. 

***Evil of Human Trafficking

        I've posted about human trafficking before. To me, this is an evil that's as bad as abortion. Thank God that we have Tim Ballard and his organization Operation Underground Railroad devoted to fighting this horrible crime. When you pray to end abortion, please pray for ending human trafficking too.

*Nipping Sin in the Bud

        If you still have some conscience left, you would know it when you are about to sin. No matter how feeble that red light you "see" might be, obey it and you'll be happy that you did later on. Think of sinning as diving into an abyss with no safety net down there to catch you.

****True Sweetness!

        Worldly things that taste sweet merely satisfy our appetite, and we become enslaved. But the sweetness of God makes us want to satisfy him, to abandon ourselves totally to him, and thereby we are set free! 

***Endearing Ourselves to God

        We adore God, praise God, and thank God. What don't we tell him that we love him often too? I know that saying this from your heart will definitely please him and endear yourself to him as well. After all, God is our heavenly Father.

**How We Feel About the Cross

        For the Christian, the Cross is a glorious symbol. When I see it, I recall why Jesus came to us, how the Father loved us, how my life was completely transformed, and that I'll be going to my beloved Lord soon. It brings me gratitude and joy! I remember reading the story written by a Jewish convert. He said that the first time he entered a Catholic Church and saw the large crucifix showing the dead Jesus hang on the cross, he was absolute shocked. So the Cross can not only make you feel sad or happy, but also baffle or daze you. And that's how people feel about Jesus the Lord too.

**Living for One Who Knows Everything

        God must know everything that's going on. You can't run the universe if there's one thing you don't know. So I know that he knows everything about me, such as the number of hairs on my head, all my past and presents thoughts, and even what will happen to me in the future. Because of his omniscience, I know that whatever I do will affects him and ultimately myself. It's his awareness that makes me want to live for him alone.

**Aiming High for Heaven

        If you truly want to go to heaven, why not aim for getting straight there without going thru purgatory? Look at the criminal crucified next to Jesus. The Lord told him that he would be in paradise with him that same day. I believe that's because he had completely accepted his own suffering as his punishment and reconciled himself to the Lord. In general, I believe how much you long to see the Lord is also a factor. If you don't even wish to leave this world, don't expect that you'll enter heaven without any delay.

**Sinner's Precarious Position

        Jesus has already died for us to save us from sin, yet evildoers continue to "crucify" him again and again nonstop. Even committing a venial sin hurts him. Only a God with infinitive mercy can handle this. So if you reject him now, you'll get rejected by him in the end for sure. Know that unremoved sins will always come back like a boomerang to hurt you.