***What Prayer Is*****

        Just saying or reciting some prayer perfunctorily is not prayer at all. Prayer must originate from the heart; so true prayer is revealing what's in your heart to God.
        Here is the well-known Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." If you feel compelled to pray this, or simply "Christ, have mercy on me" spontaneously, it is proof that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

****Our Greatest Tragedy

        We are all sinners. Living in this secular world with so many temptations, it is easy to serve mammon and live for ourselves with no awareness of God's love for us and his ongoing war with Satan fighting for our salvation. The dulling of our conscience is our greatest tragedy today. 

****Our Greatest Celebration

        We celebrate many things such as recovery from an illness, success of a business venture, graduation of our children from schools, or any unexpected event that makes us happy. This is all normal and good. But realize that whatever we celebrate in this life is always something that passes. As Christians, we have something we can truly celebrate—it is that God loves us to death and we are destined for eternal life in heaven! This happiness or joy surpasses any other we can possibly experience in this life and is something we can celebrate secretly in our hearts at all times. Besides, this joy of yours is being celebrated in heaven too.

****Clear Vision of Consequences

        This is almost common sense. If I stick with God, follow and obey him, then I, my soul, is completely safeguarded by him. I'll be heading straight for heaven. But if I don't believe in God, I would be on my own and become a prime unprotected target of the Devil. I'll be piling sin upon sin and if I am not careful enough, chances are I would end up in hell. All this is so clear and logical to me and I hope that everyone will see it too.

***Beautiful Christian Journey

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 9, Jesus gave this message to anyone who wishes to follow him: "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." What a beautiful inspiring saying! A Christian never looks back. His eyes are always on Christ, the brightest light and hope, as he marches toward the kingdom of God.

*****Bypassing Struggling on Your Own

         I still remember my early days as a Christian, I had doubts about God's existence since I didn't feel it, about whether prayer really works, etc. And there was a considerable amount of struggling on my part to want to bolster my faith. Of course, I now know a lot better since I've learned the best strategy. The secret is to let God do the work for you. On your own and with good intentions, you can struggle all your life and not make much progress. Let God do it—which is exactly what he desires from you—and it's done effortlessly for you. Precisely, I am talking about seeking union with God. You simply surrender yourself entirely to God, and with the aid of the Holy Eucharist, you attain union. Now you know God most intimately. Amazingly, he becomes more real than anything else, yourself included, to you! Your faith is now rock solid, eliminating all doubts. Shall I say that you now soar with the Lord or that he carries you on his wings? When you let God take over, his power takes over. The happiest soul is one who abandons him- or herself totally in the Lord!

***Essential Desire to Change Ourselves

         I realize that I am far from being perfect. There are many (involuntary) things about myself I don't like (this is not saying that I don't like myself whom God loves). So I want to change myself to become more pleasing to both myself and God. This desire to change is essential for spiritual growth. And transform us God certainly can. The fundamental change to become absolutely perfect I believe will happen only after we get to heaven. While on earth, we can let the Lord perfect us as much as possible. All changes begin with a desire!

***Joy of Salvation***

        When we realize that we are sinners and have offended God, we feel sorry and repent our sins to God and ask him to forgive us, and he forgives us and we feel instantly relief and great joy, knowing that we have reconciled ourselves to God and saved from death—this is the joy of salvation! Every bona fide Christian should have experienced that.
         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 25, Jesus addressed this parable to the Pharisees and scribes: "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance." First, we are like that, showing that we were made in the image of God. Secondly, when we realize that we can give God such great joy of our salvation, we should feel that joy too.

****What To Be Aware of Foremost

        Friday today I prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. What Christ had gone thru for us has to be the most horrendous suffering one can ever endure. And we must always remember that. But one thing we must even be more aware of is that the Lord did all that out of love for us! This is the central foremost awareness we must have. Everything he does is for this love! This alone should be able to transform our lives and spirits if we have a heart. Love your Lord and you become free and set for eternity! By loving God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, I am made anew and belong to the Lord forever!

*****Monumental Day!!!!!

        Today is the Solemnity of Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is not a coincidence that on this day the U.S.Supreme Court overturns Roe vs. Wade to outlaw abortion. It's been almost 48 years since abortion was legalized and way over 60 million unborn children have been murdered since. The Lord finally answers our prayers at a time that the world is more godless than ever. Hallelujah! But there is still work to be done to convert the pro-abortionists. The spiritual battle continues, but we now know that the Lord can wipe out any evil when the time is right. Here is more about this monumental court decision.

****We Are Wonderfully Made!

        Today is the the Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist. Psalm 139 of David is today's responsorial psalm. The response  is "I praise you, for I am wonderfully made." David also wrote: "Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are your works." We should also realize how wonderfully the Lord has made each of us. We must highly appreciate his work and thank him by submitting ourselves to him so that we may enjoy eternal happiness with him, which is his most ardent wish for us.

***How to Find Happiness

        People are trying to move from one state to another within the country and citizens of other countries are seeking to flee from one country to another. Is there an ideal country or place you can move to on this planet? The answer is clearly none. Some countries may be richer and/or freer than others, but all countries worship materialism and are corrupt to various degrees. The ideal country would be one that follows God and cares for all its people, loving them as Christ loves us. And there is not a single country like that. Thus the world remains godless and in chaos. So what can we do? We can convert ourselves to be liberated from the world. Believe and follow Christ and we'll have eternal life. Earth is not our home; we'll be through it in no time. Live for the real future. This is not an escape; it's in fact making the only wise, farsighted, and realistic move. Don't ever think that you can find happiness on a sinful earth!

****Christ Is Relevant

         If Jesus is someone who is completely irrelevant to you, then you should be able to look into or ignore him freely and not be affected either way the slightest. The fact that you feel uneasy about looking into him is already an indication that he is relevant. Not willing to look into him is not willing to look into yourself. Somehow, you sense that looking into Christ will expose all those parts of you which you wish to hide from him. 

***Letting God be our Lord

        In todays's Gospel reading from Matthew 7, Jesus said to his disciples: "Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you." It's so clear here. Don't judge others so that you don't play God. Let the Lord alone be our judge. That should make our life a lot easier. How stupid it'd be to go against God and make our life hard!

****Our Most Important Realization****

        I have gotten over my COVID, but still have a lingering cough and a CT scan to go through. As I was resting in the family room this morning, I saw the photos of my grandkids on the shelves, my own photos hanging on the walls, and many other things that meant something to me. And there are lots of other things around the house that have been useful or enjoyable to me. I also realized that if I leave the world, I'd leave every single thing and person I knew behind—it's goodby forever. The only person I am going to face and answer to would be Christ the Lord. And we must be ready for that one moment. This has to be the most important realization for all of us. 

*****Only Division That Matters******

         In Luke 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Now, we are all individuals with likes and dislikes and hold individual opinions and views, so we may agree or more often disagree about many things. But if we all love the Lord, all these differences can be overcome, for his love is so great that it can make you love even your enemies. But if we don't all believe or love the Lord, then our differences will result in division as great as that between heaven and hell! This is the only division that matters to us. It's because Christ is the Lord and God! Think about it. I am making the reality totally clear to all.

***Truly Loving God

        You know that God loves you. If you love God, do you also know that he knows that you love him? knowing this assures that you you truly love God.

***Avoid Living in Delusion

         In today's Gospel from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.... Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." What I want to focus upon is that last sentence: "Sufficient for a day is its own evil." We need to be aware that we live in a sinful world and face evil everyday. The spiritual warfare fighting for our souls is raging on nonstop. Every moment, it's either you are with God or you are not. Our solution is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and not worry about anything else. To think that everything will be hunky-dory if you just mind my own business is to live in delusion.