***Jesus Our Joy!

         It's Friday, a day to pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. They are Agony in the Garden, Scourging at the Pillar, Crowning with Thorns, Carrying of the Cross, and Crucifixion. It's just too painful to meditate upon the Lord's sufferings, so I chose to look at the positive side of things—how his sufferings have liberated us from eternal death—and my prayer became a joy. Really, how can you possibly not jump for joy when you think of Christ?

***Great Feeling and Remedy*****

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, people brought to Jesus a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He rose and went home. When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe. 
        The Lord God is absolutely awesome. Let him completely overwhelm you and you'll feel great and never be the same proud person again.

**Serving the Lord*

        We being human who serve the Lord often like to measure our success by looking to see if anything has happened due to our effort. But let's remember that the Lord changes the hearts and these changes may not be visible to us. The best way to serve God is to serve him single-heartedly and not think about anything else, trusting that he will always work for you, whether letting you see the fruit of your labor or not. 

**Something to Smile About*

        Our days on earth are numbered. We become more aware of it as we age and our health starts to deteriorate. Then I thought of heaven. Once you get there, you can forget about time altogether, for you are going to be with your heavenly Father forever. How so nice! This should put a big smile on all of you who know that you are heaven bound.  

**Smart Thinking and Move

        God is infinite, while we are finite. God knows everything, while we know practically nothing. It goes without saying that if we go against God, we'll invariably lose in the end. To be smart, always go along with the Lord. I might as well go all out and submit myself completely to him to make things work out as smoothly as possible.

***Receiving Truths from God

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." When God reveals some knowledge to you, you just know that it's true. To learn all the truths you need to know from the Lord, just reveal all of yourself to him first.

**Peace of Trust in God

        Today is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. In the first reading from Acts 12, we hear how Herod imprisoned Peter and intended to bring him to trial before the Jews so as to please them. But the Lord sent an angel to Peter to set him free. In the second reading from 2 Timothy 4, Paul writes, "I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day . . ." Paul shows his complete trust in the Lord. When we abandon ourselves in God, we experience a special peace. You just know that you are totally in God's hands and that everything will end beautifully.

**Sign of Readiness

        If you are truly ready to return to the Lord at any time, you are ready for anything in this life.  

**Finding True Happiness

        We all know that we are going to die, yet so many of us live as if we are not ever going to die? We know that we can never find true happiness on earth, yet so many of us still try so hard to find it? Even if I can live forever in this world, I won't be satisfied. Now that I know I am merely passing through, all the more I want to seek permanent peace and happiness in God, who alone can set us free. St. Augustine is absolutely right, stating in his Confessions "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." I can personally testify to that.

***Unique Faith Most Precious***

        To have faith in something is to believe in that something, and you can have myriad different faiths. But there is only one faith that stands above all other faiths—that's faith in the Lord and God of Christ. This is the only faith that can set you completely free from sin, our life's greatest burden. When sin can no longer enslave you, you are free indeed!

***Our Whole Life Must Be . . .

to prepare to meet our God.

***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!