**The Test Catholics Face

        As the Holy Church is going thru a period of great turmoil and confusion, Catholics are being tested severely. One thing we must realize is that all Church members, including the Pope and the entire clergy, can sin, but the Lord is always holy. We must never leave the Church, for doing it breaks up the Church which is the body of Christ. We must not do anything to hurt the Lord further. The right course of action to take is to pray for the Church, ourselves, and the whole world even more fervently.

****Love and Obedience

        In Corinthians 13, Paul writes, "If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but I do not have love, I gain nothing." This has inspired me to say that if I worship, adore, and praise the Lord but do not obey him in all things; I worship, adore, and praise him in vain and am a hypocrite.

Making Special Requests to God

        In today's first reading from 1 Kings 3, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you." Solomon humbly asked for an understanding heart so that he might distinguish right from wrong and judge the people wisely. The Lord was pleased with Solomon and did as he requested. It struck me that we can ask the Lord for what we think would glorify him and he's likely to honor our requests too.

***Challenging Choice

       Do you wish to be with God alone or to be with the whole world? The prices you pay and the rewards you receive are vastly different.

***Recipe for Achieving Freedom

         You are not free if you only want to do what you want to do. But if you only do what God wants you to do, you become free. This really tells you something. 

***Our Only Source of Happiness

        There are no perfect nations in this world. You can go to a country and live a pretty comfortable life as long as you don't speak up against the government. Or you can live in a country where the people have the freedom of speech and that right gets abused and you end up with chaos. Also, you can find nations that are materially affluent but morally corrupt. I can go on and on. Yet people still seek to live a happy life in this world, not realizing that life is a lot more than just being happy in this life. It should be clear that you cannot find true happiness on earth. Even if you can, it'll be short-lived. We are made by God to find true, permanent joy in him. So quit chasing after an empty dream on earth and start storing up treasures in heaven to prepare for your eternity. This was what Christ had come to tell us all along. It's either him or oblivion.

***Our Smart Alternative***

        As I was praying the 5th Joyful Mystery of the Holy Rosary this morning, the Finding of Jesus in Temple, I recalled the 12-year-old Jesus told his parents after they found him that he must be in his Father's house. This got me thinking that we must be wanting to go back to the Father in his house. We surely don't want to be left outside the Father's house forever!

**Be Christ-Centered

        To know Christ, we must know about him first. At some point, we make a leap of faith and become believers. Now the danger is that many things can distract you and lure you away from him. So I advise that you focus exclusively upon him and never let anything make you look away from him. Of course, anything that draws you even closer to him would be fine. Remain Christ-centered and you are sure to reap your heavenly reward.

**Trust in God, Not Ourselves

        We do so many things in life, trusting in ourselves. And we don't really turn to God unless we are in some kind of trouble. The question is whether we truly treat God as our Lord. If we do, then we need to trust in him only, consulting him in all things beforehand and leaving the outcome to him. This is the proper, easy, and happy way, believe me. Trusting in yourself basically amounts to letting the blind lead the blind.

****Just in Case You Die

        It was in the news that on the 29th of this past month, a young Catholic priest, Fr. Joseph Tran Ngoc Thanh, was killed while hearing confession in his parish church in a city in Vietnam. The death was tragic, but triumphant, for he died serving the Lord. It's better to die like this than dying in sin. Here are two worst ways of dying. (1) You die at the hands of a sin. For example, you lose your temper, fly into a rage, and suffer a fatal heart attack. (2) You die while you are committing some serious sin. Since we don't know the hour of our death, it's best that we be holy at all times. You wouldn't want to be caught dead doing anything that could make you lose your soul forever, would you?

**A Good Start to Becoming Holy

        From what I've read so far, it seems that when we go before the Lord to be judged by him, he's going to show us the harm we've done to others, how we badly we've made them feel. (I believe this is what we'll experience when the illumination of conscience takes place.) So it would do us great good to start working on not hurting anyone in any way. 

***Repentance and Obedience

        The Lord always looks at our intention in whatever we do. Whether we succeed or fail is not as important as our original intention. Sometimes we fail to accomplish God's will because it's not easy, then God understands. Peter's denial of Jesus comes to my mind. If we have sinned, we need to repent the sin. If we have failed to do God's will, we need to pray for more submission to him so that we might not fail the next time. God loves his children who repent and obey him. 

**Union with God Strengthened

        To want to attain union with God is to want to be like him. We learn his ways and his thoughts. Since we love the Lord, we want to know how he feels about all things. Sharing his joys and sorrows greatly strengthens the union.

***To Be Spirit-Filled

        God is spirit, so to know him we must let the Holy Spirit touch our spirit. Such an encounter is essential for us to be filled with the Spirit and to set our heart on fire. Pray for baptism in the Holy Spirit.

**Hearing God Calling

        Some people pray to God hard, do not hear anything from him, and conclude that he does not exist. The better approach would be to remain passive and listen for his voice, for God is always calling us thru various means. Revelation 3.20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." In life, anytime you feel discouraged, rejected, hopeless, bored, or burdened down, it's the Lord calling you to look his way. If you'd just listen with your heart, you should hear him calling you to follow him. This would be such a blessing! Of course, if you've already hardened your heart and/or in a wrong environment, you probably wouldn't hear anything or a voice so faint that you can easily dismiss.

**Faith Is Fundamemtal

        It is faith that makes it possible for God to forgive our sins and save us, and for us to experience peace and be made whole. All good things spring from faith in God our Savior. Start believing in him with all your heart today.

***GOD'S LOVE***

        If we truly love others, we would harbor absolutely no hatred for anyone and forgive always everyone, and we'll have peace in our hearts. Fr. Mark Goring's video today, inviting us to become fire to ignite lives, is most timely. The Spirit-filled message comes straight from his heart.

***God Most Miraculous!

         We do not expect to see miracles very often, yet there are ongoing miracles we don't even notice. One prime example is the fact that we can remain alive on earth for many years. This morning before I got out of bed, I noticed the sunlight on a part of the bedroom wall outlining the window opening thru which it came. Then I realized that this light has been visiting me every year at the same time on the same day at the same spot for all these past years; perhaps it's been consistent like that for billions of years since the earth came into existence. This has to be a miracle made by God. I further realized that he must have made the size of the earth, its distance from the sun, the speed of its rotation about its own axis, the speed for it to go around the sun, etc., just right so that we who reside on the earth do not even feel that we are being whirled thru space—all this is truly miraculous too. The infinite God has truly created infinite miracles around us. Actually, everything he does is miraculous, and the most amazing miracle of all is that he loves us and is ready to transport us into heaven to be happy with him for all eternity. Let us appreciate our miraculous God.