In the world, we learn how to get along with others in order to achieve success. Dale Carnegie's book How to Make Friends and Influence People is a classic. I read it when I was young and found the advice given to be wise, sensible, and most helpful. In today's reading from Psalm 51, verse 19 reads "My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn." This is it—to get along with God, approach him with a contrite and humbled heart. Here we have the secret of getting God to accept us.
Saturday, March 26, 2022
Thursday, March 24, 2022
***How God's Justice works
In the current Ukraine war, many thousands of lives have already been lost in one month. Perhaps Russia has suffered the largest loss of its armed forces so far. I feel sad that all the deaths occurred because one man, Putin, decided to invade Ukraine. I started thinking about God's justice. Say you have two individuals, A & B. Let say that A killed B, but finally repented of his sin, so God forgave and saved him. B was not a bad person, but when he died, he was in a state of mortal sin, so he wasn't saved. To us, it seems unfair because it appears that the killer got away, but his victim didn't. We can learn two important things here. (1) Repentance is absolutely essential to salvation. (2) Each of us is responsible for his own soul. How someone else's soul ends up is all up to God, none of our business.
***Calling All Hardened Hearts***
We so often harden our hearts, not even willing to listen to our Lord and Savior. Guess who has the softest heart of all? It's the Lord who has the most merciful Sacred Heart! It seems so unfair to have billions of hardened hearts turning against one most loving soft heart. Pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus to soften and melt your hearts to experience a transformation. All you prodigal children need to return to your heavenly Father or remain lost forever!
***Don't Evict the Lord!***
Once you receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist, he begins dwelling within you. To make sure that he is most happy, you must remain as holy as possible. Otherwise, you would be evicting him!
***True Humility Is . . .***
perfect obedience to God. (Our true God is most meek and humble. When we obey him, we become like him.)
**Repaying the Lord
Communion experience. The Holy Eucharist is our greatest gift on earth. It nurtures us, elevates us, and fulfills us spiritually. How can we repay the Lord? It seems most appropriate that we put ourselves completely at his disposal.
*Having Undivided Faith in Christ*
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 11, Jesus drove out a demon from a mute man, and some people said that it's by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that he drove out demons. Jesus said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?" I believe we've all heard the saying "United we stand, divided we fall"—it's practically common sense. I started thinking that if we want to remain strong in Christ the Lord, our faith must not be divided in any way. That is, we must single-mindedly trust in him. A strong faith gets results.
**Best Action to Take Now
From today's Reading I from Jeremiah 7, we heard that the people no longer obeyed nor paid heed to the Lord. They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts and turned their backs to him. It's a nation that would not listen to the voice of its God. Today, the peoples on earth are doing no better. With the ongoing war in Ukraine, abortion continuing worldwide, most governments and the Church corrupt to the core, mass media spreading fake news, and shocking evil deeds being performed by so many people every minute, I no longer pay much attention to all these things. The world will reap what it sows. My only resort is to go deep into the Lord and pray even harder, for only he can do great things for us. If everyone would trust and follow Christ, we'll have peace within us and throughout the world. This shows that I am doing the right thing.
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
*****All Thru Christ
It is thru Christ that we were created, remain alive on earth, are given all the things we need, are saved from our sins, obtain all kinds of favors from God, do great things, and finally get to return to the heavenly Father. For he is the way, and the truth, and the life. We owe everything to him. Without him, we wouldn't even be around!
***Christ Our Savior and Perfector
Jesus came to us to save us and also to perfect us. Let him perfect us and we are automatically saved.
**God to Be Our Only Guide
When you love God, he knows exactly how you can serve him best. Since we are all different, we are called to serve him in different ways. If others seem to do greater works, let yourselves be inspired by them, but do not imitate them. Let the Lord alone be your guide.
**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.
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
***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.
Monday, March 21, 2022
**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.
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