***Powerful Surrender Novena

         Another Fr. Blount talk to listen to and you'll be glad you did.

***Appreciating the Holy Eucharist***

        How joyful it was for the followers of Jesus to see him again after he's risen! They couldn't help telling everyone "We have seen the Lord!" For those of us who have not seen Jesus but have received him in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we can surely proclaim "We've received the Lord!" with equal joy, if not greater! 

**Returning God's Favor

        Communion experience. The Lord has given all of himself to me. Such a favor is impossible for me, who is nothing, to match. All I could do is to not ever go against him. And I saw that's exactly what he desired from me. 

**Another Good Feeling . . .

when you no longer try to impress others, put on a false front, act unnaturally, or are hypocritical in any way. You are now the genuine honest you.

**God-Inspired Desire

        Once you realize how beautiful God's holiness and love are, you just want to surrender yourself completely to him to let him transform you into a new creature most pleasing to him.

****Choosing How to Be Treated by God

       In today's Gospel reading from Luke 6, Jesus said to his disciples, “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” Out of love, the Lord tells us exactly how we can expect to be treated by him. At the same time, he is humble enough to let us choose how we wish to be treated, as Fr. Stephen pointed out in his homily this morning.

***Healing of the Soul

        We have all experienced the healing of our body, but we need to experience the healing of the soul! I experience that every time I receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist. This is healing at the spiritual level, way beyond the physical one. Physical healing makes you more fit for living in this world. It's spiritual healing that prepares you for living the everlasting life that's to come!

*Remedy for Loneliness

        There are a lot of lonely people around, especially if they live alone. But they might basically feel lonely even if they live with other people. To cure loneliness, get to know Christ dearly. Once you know that he is with you, you'll never feel lonely again, whether you are alone or not. 

*Our Love like God's Love

         In an earlier Fr. Mark Goring's video titled What Near Death Experience People Say is Most Important, he said that some people who died and came back described that God's love is like our human love in its purest form and infinitely greater. Perhaps it'd be more correct to say that our love is rather like God's love except that our love is less pure and is finite. This is not surprising, since we are made in God's image. So let the Lord purify and increase our love, and we should do OK.

***God First, We Second

        We must love God foremost—there is no question here. It follows that we should become like him, meaning that we must be concerned about becoming holy. This makes God first and we second. What about the others? Well, everyone of us will answer to God and be second to him on his own. Once you have perfected yourself, you'll know exactly how to love others. God only expects you to respond to him alone, nothing more. So there'll be no third.

**God's Healing Words

        I've been watching some Ocean Conservation Namibia videos showing how its members rescue seals entangled in loops of fishing lines or pieces of fishing nets. Sometimes they even find fishing hooks piercing the face or the mouth of the seal. The injury often causes deep cuts around the seal's body. Of course, each seal has to be caught with a net or by hand first. This is the unpleasant part of the ordeal for the seal. Once the entanglement is cut and removed, you could sense the seal feeling relieved. The lead me to the following thoughts.
        The Lord's words work in a similar way. They can cut you to the heart when you hear them. But like surgical instruments removing cancers and tumors, they restore the health of your soul. Deep down you now feel liberated and grateful. When love wounds you, it heals you.

**Don't Let Satan Target You

        If we remain in the Lord, then Satan cannot do a thing and we are completely safe. But if we do not have the Lord, we become Satan's easy targets and are led into sin. Should Satan be of concern to us? That depends upon us. Personally, I'd rather remain in the Lord and forget all about Satan.

***Be Clear About Our Role

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus told his disciples to love their enemy and pray for those who persecute them that they might be children of the heavenly Father. He commanded them to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect. This is a key teaching. The Father loves us all equally and we are to be like him, loving everyone, friend or foe. Each of us shall answer to God the Father alone and has no business of judging anyone. Our only business is to love, obey, and serve the Father. Let's be clear about our role.

Important Moment

        Communion experience. I felt I was born for this moment. 

**How Far Apart Are We and God?

        If we were truly aware of our sinful state and need for salvation, we would be prostrating ourselves before the Lord God, repenting of our sins, and begging earnestly for his mercy. If Christ were truly No. 1 in our life, we would be thinking and talking about him most of time instead of all the other things of the world. 

**Why Do We Get Angry?

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus said to his disciples, "I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgment." Why do we get angry? Many things can make us lose our cool, but I can see that we get angry basically because we lack humility. Being angry with someone is liable to judgment, precisely because it manifests the presence of our ego and pride.  

***God Is Fair

         Today's Psalm response from Psalm 130: "If you, O Lord, mark iniquities, who can stand?" If the Lord judges us to be guilty, we are guilty indeed. But his mercy is infinite. He made it clear to Ezekiel in the first reading today that he does not derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked man, but rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live. He is on our side and for us. He only wishes to save us, not condemn us. By choosing to commit iniquity, we choose death ourselves. God's way is totally fair. We must not let our pride and the world blind us so that we no longer see the truth!

***The Only One

        There is only one person to whom we need to get close to know most intimately, and that's Christ the Lord!