***Contrasty States

         A humble person realizes that he is a sinner, so he repents of his sins to God and is made clean and is saved. Now he feels free, enjoys inner peace, and is filled with great joy. On the other hand, a proud person does not admit that he is a sinner and keeps on sinning, so he never feels free, experiencing no peace nor joy—he could remain in this miserable state all his life. I am not making all this up; it's sad reality.

***Hail Mary's Special Grace

        The Hail Mary prayer, of course, I, as a Catholic, have prayed countless times. It goes like this: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death. Amen." The first part is based upon the greetings given to Mary by the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation and the second part upon that given to her by her cousin Elizabeth when Mary visited her, both came from Luke 1. The last line, a petition, was added to complete the prayer. When I say that petition, I thought I simply ask Mary to intercede for us from now on to the hour of my death. Today I listened to Dr. Taylor Marshall's podcast on YouTube and he made me see something new. The petition in the prayer says "now and the hour of our death," not "now to the hour of our death" as I had thought. This is significant: we are actually asking God to grant us a special grace at the hour of our death. And it happens that God does make many aware of their sins in that last minute, giving them one more chance to repent and be saved. Therefore, we must not cease praying for anyone we wish to save.

**Our Sensible Role

        We love God, but he loved us first. We open ourselves to him, but he's always open to us. He has always existed, as he had revealed himself to be I AM, while we are the late, late arrivals on the scene. It makes complete sense that we let God initiates all actions and we just follow him.

**To Be Rich and Beautiful**

        There are two ways. Choose to be rich and beautiful in this world and after you die, you'll be poor and ugly forever. Choose to be rich and beautiful in God now and after you die, you'll be even richer and more beautiful for all eternity.

***What We Only Need to Know Now*

        I watched an educational video on Bluetooth. It was quite amazing to learn what certain electromagnetic waves can do for us. The scientists probably have only understood them to the point they can built devices using Bluetooth technology to communicate wirelessly with each other. The Lord God who created everything of course knows all about that and more. We have to think hard, do research, experiment, and finally come up with something new, but God knows it all and does not even have to think and it is accomplished. (Notice how healed the sick instantly as he willed.) Yet with such infinite knowledge and power, he never teaches us such things. He only teaches love to us, for that's most important and all we need to learn. Know how to love now and we'll know everything in the end.  

**Responding to God Only

        When we sin, can we blame it on Satan? I thought about this today. If we do not sin, then Satan can't do a thing about it—I am sure of this. For example, when you are in union with God, you enjoy his presence so much that sinning couldn't be further from your mind, and Satan would have no way of sneaking in. Then suppose I am in a bad mood and don't feel like doing something I as a Christian should do, this would please Satan for sure, then I don't know exactly how he can make things worse. I believe we are ultimately in control of deciding whether to sin or not, but Satan might have been permitted by God to tempt us to a certain extent. At any rate, we should respond to God only and ignore Satan. Always stick with the winner and dismiss the loser.

*Follow God, Not the World

        Living in the world, we learn how to survive successfully, but the world only teaches you how to serve yourself and not God. To serve God alone, we need to follow God alone. Success in the world is meaningless if you can't get into heaven. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said to his disciples, "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"

***Our No. 1 Problem

        I have blogged about what life is all about from time to time. There are different ways of looking at it. Today I see that it's all about combatting sin. Since we were born with original sin, to overcome sin becomes our No. 1 problem. And we need to solve this problem within our limited time on earth. Of course, Jesus is precisely the solution God has provided us. It comes down basically to whether we want to get into heaven or not.

***Way to Freedom

        If we want to live longer, we don't have a say. If we wish to die sooner, we don't have a say either. And there are at least a million other things we can't do a thing about. The smart way is to leave everything up to God. This is total abandonment, the way to freedom. You see, you no longer lord it over yourself.

**Dramatic Turnaround

        We are sinners, so in general, we march toward hell step by step. Then we repent our sins to God, asking for his forgiveness, and he spins us 180 degrees around instantly and we start marching toward heaven.  

***Ego Warning

        Are you aware of the presence of your ego? Ego is definitely something to be starved or rid of if possible, for it destroys humility, thus keeping you from knowing God. A well-fed ego can inflate to the point that you are no longer aware of its existence—now you are in the danger zone, spiritually. Know that some day it might get popped and hurt you horribly, but that would be your big blessing.

**No Loneliness with God

        People get lonely without God. If you are young, it's not that bad because you are still much engaged with the affairs of the world. Then you grow old and retire, and you start feeling lonely. But for those who know God all along, they can never be lonely, for the Lord is their constant companion or soulmate.

***God Needing Attention

         Unexpected things, usually misfortunes, happen to us in life. When that happens, know that God wants our attention, and we'd better turn to him. We seek attention to satisfy our ego, but God seeks our attention purely to benefit us.

**Living a Solid Life

        I like Fr. Goring's video posted today. It is most interesting. Watching it I learned that God truly knows our heart. Every thought we have, every gesture we make, everything action we take . . . he knows, and they are not trivial to him. If I pray without being 100% reverent, he knows. If I praise him or confess a sin without total sincerity, he knows. Nothing escapes him. Being aware of God's omniscience makes me want it live a solid life, not a flimsy one that can crumble. And trusting in him makes that entirely possible.

**Formula for Joy

        Do everything large or small in the name of Jesus and you'll be filled with joy. 

***God Is All We Need

        We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the same God in three. I see that the Father is the one who sets us free, the Son the one who grants us peace, and the Holy Spirit the one who gives us joy. We've got it all! God is all we need. 

**Ready for Death

        At the presentation of the child Jesus at the temple, after Simeon saw the child and knew that he was the Messiah, he was ready to go to God in peace. We who already know Jesus personally as our Savior should likewise rejoice and be ready to go to God in peace.

***The Simple Truth and Fact

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus said to the crowd, "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person: but the things that come out from within are what defile." Later he explained to his disciples that all evils come from within the man, from his heart, and they defile. We see that we are all potential evildoers and we need the Lord to cleanse us so that we may have eternal life. This is what life, our existence, and our survival are all about. See this and all your life problems are solved. There's nothing more urgent to know.