**Our Choice to Make

       We know that when we do good works for the glory of God, we store up treasure in heaven. In today's first reading from Romans 1, Paul warns that those who judge others, do not esteem God's kindness, and remain impenitent are storing up wrath for the day of judgment. And God will repay everyone according to his works. What a contrast—storing up treasure vs. storing up wrath! The choice should be obvious.

***Today's Sad Reality

         God is absolutely real and wants us to return to him, and evil surrounds us and dwells in our hearts. Yet we are unaware of, or do not see or wish to see this. It's the saddest reality today.

**Our Omniscient Lord

        The Lord God is all-knowing. Being aware of this fact has made me feel secure and want to become holy and trust in him as well. It has also stopped me from worrying and judging others. Last, prayers are made so much easier.

*****Through Christ . . .

we are saved, we can enter heaven, we are able to remain alive on earth, we get to enjoy all the good things in life, we can directly reach our creator and Father, we become one with him and all others who love him, we learn what pure love is, we become selfless, we are liberated, ad infinitum—all good or great things!

****Most Wonderful Grace

         I feel that the Lord is preparing me for meeting him. This is such a wonderful grace. I know I can never reach him on my own. But once you have abandoned yourself to him, he just does all the work for you. This is his infinite mercy—he takes total care of you.

**What God is to me

        Besides the fact that God is my creator and savior, he is an anchor to keep me from drifting away, a ballast to hold me steady, a refuge to provide me protection, and a beacon to light my way. Above all, he's the sanctuary in which I find heavenly peace and joy. He is all I need.

**To Believe in Jesus or Not

        If you don't believe in Christ, you'll never know God. So what not try believing in and be open to him? Then when he reveals himself to you, you'll know that he is real. Talking common sense here. Of course, if you've already made up your mind not to look into Christ, then there's nothing anyone can do about it. Personally, I wouldn't want to be in such a state ever, for it's the most miserable state one can be in, not knowing the truth.

**Childlike Faith Leads to Liberation

        To have a childlike faith in God is a beautiful thing. Since the God of Christ is the true God, it works out beautifully. In fact, the older we get, the more childlike we should become. Let this lead you to total abandonment in God. Now the soul is completely liberated, and God and you become one, attaining your highest state of existence on earth. 

*Waiting for the Lord

         We wait for the Lord's Second Coming, but we also need to wait for the Lord to show us what to do every moment. This takes patience, for we tend to rush ahead thinking that this is a good thing to do for the sake of the Lord and end up failing. God has his timing for us and we must follow it for best results. To do God's will is to follow him in all things.

***Most Fundamental Relationship

         Speaking of relationships, our relationship with God is our most fundamental and important one. Let this relationship take care of all other relationships. Not the other way around. This is putting God first and making him truly your Lord. And your reward will be great!

***God Utterly Needed

         Communion experience. I feel I absolutely need the Lord. He not only sustains my life on earth, but also heals my soul to prepare me for entering heaven! There is nothing more important than these two things and I appreciate and am most grateful for that!

***What Not to Possess

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 10, Jesus said to a rich man who had observed all the commandments, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." Clearly, the Lord wants us to detach ourselves from our possessions. It's interesting that when we want to possess things, we are actually letting them possess us. Later, Jesus said to the disciples, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come." So, we should even detach ourselves from our families. When we are free of worldly possessions, we become free to let God possess us and we end up possessing the Lord as well.

*Extreme Foolishness

        From today's second reading from Hebrews 4, we heard "No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account." So it would be extremely foolish for us to do whatever we wish to do and ignore the will of God. In fact, we should never live apart from his will, for we are naked before him and will be judged by him. Wise up before it's too late.

***First Humility

        Man fell because of pride, so humility is the key to returning to God. Our first humility is to realize that we are sinners and need to repent of our sins. Before Mass started this morning, the Lord made me see that this realization is one of his great graces, for it can start our journey back to God. When Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon, millions of us heard him say "That's one small step for a man, one giant step for mankind." Repentance might seem to be a small step, but it's a mighty step as far as the soul is concerned. Let's embrace humility and appreciate and treasure this great grace. 

**Leaving All to God

        We see some of the things happening around the world and do not know what's going to come next. We don't even know how much time we have left to live on earth. Does it matter? No, it shouldn't because the Lord God knows everything and is in charge, and that should be good enough for us. We just follow him and leave all else to him, and we'll enter eternal life in the end. 

***To Experience God's Wonders

        I believe I posted about this before, but it's worth sharing one more time. If you are in tune with the Lord, you experience wonders. "To be in tune with" is "to be totally open to." One example to illustrate what I mean. You may be familiar with the phenomenon of being slain in the Holy Spirit. That is, when you are blessed by a spirit-filled priest, you fall to the ground and experience great peace. It's as if the Holy Spirit had kissed you. I had experienced this quite a number of times. You just have to be totally receptive and open. I still remember the time a holy priest came to the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento, Ca, close to where I lived. He blessed all present with a piece of wood from the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and we all collapsed to the floor. Since you must leave space for others, you got up within a minute or so. Otherwise, you probably could remain in that peaceful state for a long time. Anyway, there's one time I went up to be blessed by a priest and didn't fall like the others. That's when I had a littler bit of extraneous thoughts on my mind and wasn't 100% in tune with the Lord. The lesson I learned was that God knows everything about us and we must be totally in peace with him to experience his wonders.

**What Makes Me Happy*

        Nothing can make me happier than making God happy, even though I don't always succeed.

***Abortion IS Evil!***

        Life begins at conception, this should be obvious. Anything that grows has life. Even the animals instinctively defend their newborn. Yet many human beings choose to exterminate the unborn. Evil has indeed taken possession of them.