**God Invulnerable to Evil

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 26, Judas Iscariot was getting ready to betray Jesus. This shows clearly that evil is real and Satan always tries to attack God. This time he lost again because he didn't know that it's God's plan that Jesus should die so that we might all be saved. Anyway, follow God no matter how bleak things seemingly look, for evil can never thwart his plan.

**God Loves High Aimers

        Always aim high before God. You want to be good enough to go straight to heaven! If you are satisfied with going thru purgatory first, then you are like the student who is happy if he can just pass the course. He can miss the passing grade by half a point and flunk the course. And that's not being smart. God loves high aimers who trust fully in his mercy and generosity. Allow God to lift you up as high as he wants you to go. This is being smart!

****Incredible, Awesome Sacrament*

        Communion experience. Before receiving the Lord, I was excited, realizing that we can attain union with God and become holy! This is absolutely awesome, exhilarating, and most humbling! Then when I received the Lord, it's like the heavenly banquet being delivered right to me—again, awesome and incredible!

***Amazing Lord!

        In today's Gospel reading from John 13, Jesus announced Judas' betrayal and predicted Peter's denial. I am amazed by the following. (1) Jesus knew that he's going to suffer greatly and be crucified, yet he humbly accepted it all and never complained. He's no ordinary human. (2) He knew in advance when and how Peter was going to deny him. Only God has such power. 

**Union with God Solidified

         Today Tuesday is the day for praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. I am thinking that people bond with each other when they have a good time together, but the bonding is even stronger when they go thru some tough or difficult time together. When we meditate on the Passion of Christ and feel his sufferings, our union with him is also solidified.  

**Eternal Life Begins in This Life

        When we follow Christ, we not only gain eternal life, we start experiencing freedom and receiving peace and joy in this life. By contrast, living without Christ is living a lost, meaningless life devoid of real peace and joy that can last forever.

**Letting God Prepare You

        God is in charge. We should put ourselves in his hands before doing anything. This way, whatever happens to us would be expected. If you do not put yourself in his hands and do whatever you feel like doing, whatever happens to you may shake or shock you and it would be difficult for you to deal with it properly without losing your peace.

*****Max Giving, Max Gain*****

        Communion experience. Christ shed his most precious blood to save me from eternal death—he couldn't possibly have given me more than all of himself. I surrender myself to him totally and gain all of him plus eternal life—I can't possibly gain any more that that. It's God's lopsided love!

**Most Important Thing to Take Care Of

        We don't hesitate to take care of the many things in life. It's often necessary. Yet we totally cast aside looking into our relationship with God, the most important of all things. Let's say that's because you don't have any faith yet. Then the right thing to do would be to find out who Christ claims he is and what he teaches. To head into an unknown future is a terrible thing.

**Switching on God

        God is always calling us. Why? Because he loves you and wants to save you. That is, he wants to give you the vey best in every way beyond you highest expectations. You are now enslaved by your own sins, fooling you into thinking that you can find happiness in this life. But deep down, you know that you won't, and life is short. Like many, you are not able to break free of your attachment to the world to face God for a change. The best way to get going is to start praying to the God of Christ even if you don't know him yet. Tell him honestly about yourself. The more humbly you acknowledge your helplessness, the more he can help you. Getting started is hard, but get started you must. Once you get going with an open heart, it should become easier and easier. If you go all out, your spirit will soar in no time.

***Just Passing Thru

        We who follow Christ already know our endpoint—heaven, that is. So whatever we go thru is what we must go thru for a little while. You might as well enjoy the scenery, while your heart is with the Lord. Doin't complain, be patient, and remain faithful. In fact, be like the breeze, free, easy, and carefree. Before you know, your journey is over. Now it's joy all the way!  

**Be Wise and Have No Regrets

          In today's Gospel reading, as Jesus was carrying the cross to his execution, a large crowd followed him, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' At that time people will say to the mountains, 'Fall upon us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" These are poignant words. I believe that such days are coming to all those who ignore the Lord now and will regret later. God's infinite mercy is yours for the asking. But if you do not ask, you could end up regretting for all eternity. My advice: "Never do anything that might make you regret later!"

**We Deny Jesus, Huh?*

        Today's long Gospel reading from Luke 22 & 23 at Mass started with the Last Supper and ended with the burial of Jesus. In it we heard Peter denying the Lord three times. That made me realize that we Christians deny the Lord all the time as we ignore him and go our own way. At least Peter did it out of fear, while we do it not even thinking about it. Shame on us! We need to weep bitterly for ourselves as Peter did after he realized his failure.

***Being Exalted by God

        In today's reading II from Philippians 2, Paul describes how Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness. He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth an under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus himself has said to all, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:12). Now we know exactly how to let ourselves be exalted by God. Let God alone be the Lord over us and ourselves be obedient to the Father as Christ was. Humility marks the true disciple of Christ.  

***The World Betraying the Lord

        Today is Palm Sunday. The psalm response from Psalm 22 reads "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Jesus was going to go thru his Passion and be crucified. Evil is real! Look at the war in Ukraine now. You see soldiers blowing up enemy soldiers with the push of a button and they cheer and celebrate. The "worst" video I saw shows a sniper taking down what he deemed to be enemies one by one from a long distant away when they were not even seen to be attacking anyone. Are we to decide who should live or die? What about God's commandment "Thy shall not kill"? When a country sends weapons to another country to help it fight a war, isn't that promoting more killing? Anyway, starting a war plays right into Satan's hands and greatly saddens our Lord. During this Holy Week leading to Easter, we need to reflect, repent, repent, repent, and reform to make up for how much we have sinned against the Lord, and pray for peace.

***Blessing Not to Be Missed

        Communion experience. I haven't gone back to attending Saturday morning Mass at my church for a long time. So when I resumed that this morning, it's heartening to see the fairly large attendance and the extra long confession line after Mass. Those of us who believe that we are in end times are now more awake than ever. As I received the Lord again in the Holy Eucharist, God and I united and my eternal destiny was settled. This blessing is not to be missed and is one I believe the Lord wishes to bestow on everyone.

**Know God Is Lord

        God is infinite and we are finite. Infinity is not even a number. If we are assigned any number, that number is in effect zero relative to infinity. Therefore, we must acknowledge that we are totally dependent upon God our creator in every way and live accordingly.

*Heaven Will Be Perfect for Us

        Today in prayer after Mass, I saw that no matter how much we intend to love God, our loving falls miserably short. I suppose that it'll become perfect only after we get to heaven. It's in heaven that our desires will all be perfectly fulfilled.