***God's Awesome Holiness

        God has made us so that being holy feels great. God is attractive and most beautiful not only because he is love, but also because he is most holy. Love holiness and you'll love God. Only the Devil can't stand holiness. If you don't want to get close to God, you have been influenced by the Devil. Once you are holy in the Lord, you are shielded from all evil and set for eternity. 

**Spiritual Progression

        Before we believe in God, we need to realize that we are sinners who need salvation. After we believe in God, we need to realize that we are imperfect and must become holier. This second realization is essential if we are not satisfied with being merely lukewarm. Why not make attaining union with God your goal, for God deserves the very best from us?

**How to Pray More*

        In these trying times (and during Lent), we can increase our prayers in this way. Do all necessary things, no matter how small, mundane, or uninteresting they might be, for Christ joyfully with love. Offered up this way, they make great prayers. Do extra if you can. For example, call someone whom you haven't seen or talked to for some time to find out how he or she is doing. There are always good things you can find and do. They make good prayers too. When you increase your prayers like this, you joy increases too.

**Submission Before Petitioning

        We petition the Lord for all kinds of favors. It seems that we should submit ourselves totally to him before petitioning for anything, or at least initiate both at the same time. Once we earn the Lord's trust, we'll more likely receive what we ask for.

**Happy Realizations

        Two realizations at the beginning of today's Mass. (1) As followers of Christ, we are indestructible!  (2) Our God deserves our unquenchable faith! 

***Rejoicing in the Lord

        Praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary this morning, I realized that this was the LORD who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and with whom I would be one day soon. At that moment, I was filled with great joy.

**Why We Should Love God

          The most important and proper reason should be that God loves us and is most merciful to us. Realizing that he can free us from sin and get us into heaven is also a good reason, but secondary. That we want Satan to lose the spiritual war he wages against God even sooner and worse is also valid. Loving and serving God, our Father and creator, is our duty.

***Obedience Begets Freedom*****

        When I obey the Lord, I become one with him, and all my will is now his as well. It follows that in his infinite space I am free to do whatever I wish. Another way of looking at it: When you obey the Lord, sin no longer has any power over you and you are set free!

***Riddle of Life Solved***

       Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 18:24) So if we don't deny ourselves, we cannot be following him. Again, it comes down so clearly to "us vs. the Lord." Now you understand why we don't have peace in the world and our hearts. Now you see why there must be heaven and hell and that eternal life is real. 

**Holiness Always Called-For

        At Mass at the small chapel at Mount St. Joseph Seminary this morning, feeling the holy presence of the Lord in the tabernacle right in front of me, I was very aware that I must remain holy. Then I realized that Lord is present everywhere outside the chapel too, so I need to be so aware at all times, no matter where I happen to be. 

**Living in Christ Forever

        Communion experience. Since Jesus is with me always, I no longer fear death. It follows that there's no need to fear anything else anymore.   

***God Perfecting Us

        Communion experience. The Lord made me see all my imperfections before him. Then when I received Holy Communion, he perfected me. What a rewarding experience! (Of course, being human, we become imperfect again, then the Lord is there to perfect us again.)

**God Challenging Us, a Blessing

        I love the Lord challenging us; otherwise, spiritually we would just remain lukewarm at best. By challenging (not lording it over) us, he inspires us to go all out for him as he had done so for us in saving us from condemnation. 

***God Challenges Us

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 9, Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life for my sake will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." So it comes down to following the Lord or yourself. It's no contest if you believe that Christ is the Lord. So it comes down further to whether you believe in Christ or not. The fact that he challenges us to the core here only shows that he is authentically the Lord, for there's not another one like him.

**No Show-Offs for Christians

        Today is Ash Wednesday. In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples: "Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them; otherwise, you have no recompense from your heavenly Father." Jesus wants us to perform righteous deeds in secret only for the Father to see. In other words, we must not do anything in order to make ourselves feel and look good before others. Glorify God alone, not ourselves. We are all sinners who need to remain humble to get into heaven.

***Foolish Sinners

        If you're not quite sure that you'll get into heaven, you probably won't; for Jesus' promise that whoever believes in him will have eternal life is ironclad. There are also people who continue to sin but say that they wouldn't mind going thru purgatory first. Well, here they put themselves in the danger zone already, for they've decided to continue offending God and think that they'll get off the hook by paying a little price later. This is sheer folly! It doesn't work that way. Besides, the suffering in purgatory, if they ever get there, can be long-lasting and quite severe. So do yourself a big favor: stop sinning and start following Christ, then you'll have nothing to worry about.

**Healing of the Soul

         Communion experience. The best feeling was knowing that the Lord was going to heal my soul! Having our body healed feels good while we still have the body; having our soul healed is getting ready for living the eternal life!

***Great Reason to Be Holy

       In today's first reading from 1 Peter 1, Peter wrote, ". . . be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, Be holy because I am holy." Here Peter quoted from Leviticus 11 and/or 19. This is a great reason for us to be holy. Since God is always present among us, how can we possibly not be holy? "Be unholy because God is holy" would absolutely make no sense.