****To Put Off God's Chastisement

           I just enjoyed reading the book A Walk to Garabandal by Ed Kelly. Here's the first message the Virgin Mary gave to the four children (Mari Cruz, Jacinta, Conchita, and Mari Loli) who saw her. It's clearly for all of us.

     "You must make many sacrifices, do much penance, visit the Blessed Sacrament; but first, we must be very good. If we are not, a chastisement will come upon us. The cup is filling up, and if we do not change, a great chastisement will befall us."

       Note that we don't just make sacrifices, do much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament; we must be very good first. In other words, we must be holy first! Again, seek to attain union with God is the right way to go.

***Basic Facts Review

      A new year just began. It's the appropriate time to review our basic facts. (1) We are all sinners. (2) To go to heaven, we must get our sins removed by God. (3) We are so made by God that if we remain in sin, we can never be free nor happy in our whole existence. (4) Accept Christ as our Savior and we are set free from our sins and become happy now and forever. 

***Praying for Souls

         I've learned that we need to pray for the souls in purgatory for their early release, since they cannot pray for themselves. And if we pray for them, they in turn will pray for us too. I've also learned that many souls are lost because no one prays for them. Naturally, we cannot get in touch with all the souls, so praying for them becomes our only means of saving them. So pray for all the souls as best you can to help the Lord triumph over the Devil.

***Better Way to Know Christ***

        Before I knew Christ well, I read a lot about various saints and their writings. I felt that all saints were human beings and I should be able to relate to them. St. Thérèse of Lisieux was my favorite. That really helped me know the Lord. Now that I know Christ most intimately, I see that I should have gone to him directly a lot sooner, for he became a man when he came to us on earth. So today I recommend that you go straight to him if you want to know him. Open up to him to let him reveal himself to and teach you directly. This will save you much time and effort. Of course, you can still read about the saints to bolster your faith. But tactically, "To Christ First" is the better approach.

***God Is All for Us

         Today I realize that God wants to rule us because he wants to protect us, guides us, so that we may have eternal life! That is, he wants us to become happy forever! Yes, he has nothing but love for us, so I can say that he is all for us! I am making it clear to you now in case you still have doubts. There is no one more on our side than our Lord and creator, the God of Christ.

**Belonging to the Heavenly Family

        Today is not a holy day of obligation, but I went to Mass anyway, as there's no better way to start a new year than receiving the Lord in the Holy Sacrament; besides, it is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. When you unite yourself to the Lord, you become one with the Holy Mother too. As a matter of fact, you now belong to the entire heavenly Family! 

**New Year Is Renewal Time

        The beginning of a new year is the time to begin living for Christ again, for he is forever new and can renew us to become like him. If you do not accept him, you remain your old self, living in darkness.

****Year-End Reflections and Wishes

       Some thoughts as the year concludes. As my time on earth becomes increasingly limited, doing the will of God is now my only priority. Prayer comes first. At this point, blogging to draw as many people to the Lord as possible through the Holy Eucharist is my primary mission. I leave how much I can achieve entirely to Christ and care only about how obedient I am to him. I still enjoy playing the piano and photographing with my iPhone, but they no longer have any hold on me. It's a beautiful day today with blue skies, white clouds, and green grasslands all around, begging me to go outside to enjoy the outdoors, yet no feeling can ever be more exhilarating than knowing that the Lord God dwells within you.  
          My prayer is that every single person will come to know that Christ is our Lord and Savior. I wish more than anything else that you will let him love you so that you may love him and enter heaven. There is no greater joy than giving Christ joy. 

***Glory Be to Our Lord***

         Today's Gospel reading at Mass began with the Gospel of John. I'd like to present the first 5 verses below to glorify our Lord on this last day of the year 2021.

        In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. he was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

***Greatest Revelation and Test

         John 1:14a, 12a is today's Gospel acclamation. "The word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. To those who accepted him he gave power to become the children of God." This has to be the greatest revelation to us, for it is stunning, awesome, and incredible! Of course, to those who do not believe, it means nothing. But for those who believe, it is everything! The Lord wishes to take complete care of us— and it's up to us to say yes or no to him. So this greatest revelation is also our greatest test.

*****God's Love at Work

        This year is coming to an end tomorrow. I'd like to share this story which is basically a happy one, for it shows how beautifully God's love works. Here's the site. If you are looking for a good charity to make a donation to, you have an ideal candidate here. 
          May you have the brightest New Year coming to you!

***Same Old Dilemma

        In today's first reading from 1 John 2, the Apostle writes, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, sensual lust, enticement for the eyes, and a pretentious life, is not from the Father but is from the world. Yet the world and its enticement are passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains forever." It seems as if the Apostle had just seen our world today. To love the Father and not what's in the world is indeed most difficult. The only remedy is to do the will of God. So we must know God first. To attain union with God is of course the way to go. It again comes down to how we respond to God's call. We can keep on loving the world, which is easy, or turn to loving God, which is possible if we were humble enough.

***Our Best Prayer

         Abandoning ourselves totally to God without reservation. 

**Nobody Becomes Somebody

        Be a nobody in the eyes of the world and you become somebody before the Lord. (You can achieve the same result by living for Christ only in secret.) 

**False Humility & True Lack of Pride

        If God asks you to become a saint and you say "Oh no, I am not good enough"—do you know that this is false humility? On the other hand, if you say "Yes, I'll do it"—this shows that you are humble enough to know that nothing is impossible for God and you do not let the your pride get in the way.    

**Are You a Burden or Joy to God?*

        Do Christians carry a heavier burden than non-Christians? I believe so. That's because a Christian feels the tremendous pain the Lord suffers as the entire world sins against him. What is amazing is that Lord helps carrying the burdens of all his servants with joy! 

***Purify the Vaccines!

        Fr. Mark Goring follows up his video Tainted Vaccines of yesterday with a new one today. You can learn more and do something about it by visiting the website https://cogforlife.org/. (Note: Today is 1/26/2022. It looks like YouTube has removed this video. Anyway, you can still visit the website given here.)

**Tainted Vaccines

        Fr. Mark Goring's new message. In case you don't know, not all vaccines are "clean."