**Two Stages of Becoming Holy

        Start with a pure heart, then your thoughts will be pure and your soul clean. Now you are ready to live a life completely in the Lord God, obedient to him in everything for his great glory.  

***Holy Mother Calling Us

        Our Blessed Mother has always been calling us to turn to her Son, now more urgently than ever. I'd listen to her now to avoid forcing God to giving us some kind of a big shock later as a last resort to wake us up.

***Who Can Console God?****

        We find joy and consolation in the Lord. But in whom can he fine joy and consolation? The answer is us! A father always finds great joy and consolation in his beloved children when they trust and obey him, and we can do precisely that to our heavenly Father! This would make the whole heaven rejoice too! And knowing that the Father is pleased with us, our joy and consolation further increase. The Father in heaven and his beloved children on earth rejoicing in each other—what a glorious event! 

**Ideal State for the Soul

        The Lord can increase in us only if we decrease ourselves. If we don't decrease at all, then there won't be any room for him. If we decrease to nothing, he then fill us to the fullest and we are set free. This is the ideal state for our soul to enjoy peace and freedom in him.

**Be As Forgiving as God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 18, Jesus wants us to always forgive anyone who sins against us. We must do this because this is how the Lord forgives us. If we are unforgiving, we prevent him from forgiving us.

**Teaching on Purgatory*

        I recently read the book The Amazing Secret of Purgatory, an interview with Maria Simma by Sr. Emmanuel. Maria Simma probably knew more about purgatory than anyone else. I learned so much that I am getting the book Get Us Out of Here by Nicky Eltz, a more complete and better-known interview with Maria. This Fr. Goring video of a week ago on purgatory is worth watching. You'll learn something definitely beneficial to know. 

***Every Moment We Live Matters

        I watched today's Fr. Mark Goring video titled St. Joseph Was Deep. There is one line he said that struck me: "Every moment carries the weight of eternity." It is true that how we live every moment on earth affects our eternity. If we live every moment wrong, then when we face the Lord, we'll have nothing worthwhile to show and realize that we have wasted our entire lifetime. On the other hand, if we live every moment right, we know that at the end we'll have no problem whatsoever getting into heaven. Yes, how we live every moment determines our eternity. 

**Liberating Communion Experience*

        Communion experience. A most intimate union made possible by the Lord between a mortal creature and its immortal Creator. He also made me see all my imperfections and and it's most liberating!

**Our Spiritual Enemy

        I believe the reason so many of our generation have abandoned God is because materialism has gotten hold of them. The advances in science and technology have made people believe that they are gods. They are now so enthralled by their own inventions, feeling like they're living in a magic world. They are due for a rude awakening.

*****Heaven or Hell?

        Another Fr. Corapi talk. This is what every Catholic needs to hear.  

**God Loves Sinners

        Communion experience. A poor sinner receiving the greatest (most tender) love from the holy God! 

***What We Must Realize

        If we submit ourselves to Christ now, acknowledging him to be the Lord, we'll have nothing to fear at judgment time. If we don't, we'll have problems for sure later. Later could be 50 years later, 20 years later, 10 years later, next year, next month, next day, or next hour. This is something we all need to realize, for we all will have to answer to the one Lord.

**"About Jesus" or Just "Jesus"

         Knowing about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Anyone can know all about Jesus and still not be a Christian. An Arab tour guide I once met in Holy Land comes to my mind. Preaching about Jesus is not the same as preaching Jesus either. How do you tell one from the other? In general, the former does not draw you any closer to Christ, while the latter does. Bible study classes are similar. I once attended a class that treated Christ like an academic subject, easily putting me to sleep; and another one lead by a wise priest focusing mainly upon the Lord, and I felt spiritually uplifted. 

**Simple Journey to Heaven

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus calls us to repent and bear fruit in order not to perish. When you repent, you open the door to salvation. Then you bear fruit as you journey on. Now you are sure to reach heaven at the end! There's nothing complicated here at all.

***God's Awesome Holiness

        In today's first reading from Exodus 3, Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, came to Mount Horeb. There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire out of a bush. Moses was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. He decided to go over to look at this remarkable sight. The LORD called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses! Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." My thoughts are that since God is most holy and ever present, we really should live as if we were standing on holy ground. The Lord sees us and knows exactly what we are up to at all times, so let his holiness purify us, inspire us, and renew us. There is no better influence than that.

*****Dearer than My Own Soul*****

        God created all of us—that's why we call him "Our Father." Being our creator and Father, he is closer to me than anyone else! Only he knows me and understands me perfectly. Above all, he loves all of us with an everlasting love! Without him, there would be no me. So he is dearer to me more than my own soul. If you don't know him yet, you are neglecting your own soul.

***The Way to Sainthood

        Sometimes we wish that we can convert a lot of people for Christ—a nice thought, but maybe unrealistic. When Jesus saw some wealthy people putting their offerings into the treasury and a poor widow putting in two small coins, he said to his disciples, "This poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood." (See Luke 21:1-4 or Mark 12:41-44.) So quality counts, not quantity. Following St. Thérèse's Little way, we can become saints if we do everything with great love for God. This should be within our reach. I may not be called to openly convert a lot of souls, but I can always do every little thing in secret to please the Lord. The little thing can be a thought, a smile, a gesture, or a simple act such as cleaning up the mess someone has created. This is the way for all of us to become great saints and we should rejoice about it. 

**God's Unique Peace

        The peace God gives us is unique and beyond our understanding. We experience this peace only after we have reconciled and surrendered ourselves to him, abandoned ourselves in him, or attained union with him. This is how he has made us! No one else in the world can give us this peace. If you experience it, you've been chosen for heaven.