**Sorrow Turns into Joy

        Today is the Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene. The Gospel reading from John 20 is beautifully moving. After Mary found the tomb empty early Sunday morning, she thought that someone had carried Jesus away and wept. Later Jesus appeared to her and said to her, "Go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord." Imagine her joy! We can rejoice too when we realize that Jesus' Father is our Father and his God is our God. If you love the Lord, he'll always turn your sorrow into joy.

****Way to Become Perfect*

        To be perfect, we must do everything we should for Christ and mean what we do when we do it. If you realize this, then you are ready and the Lord will make everything effortless for you to succeed. He always does that when you put all your trust in him.

*****How to Know Christ*

      When Jesus was on earth, many people saw him, but they didn't all believe in him. It's knowing him that's more important than seeing him. Today we do not see him, but we can get to know him thoroughly. After all, he is God and nothing is impossible for God. But we'll have to be completely open to him, which is really the only obstacle we face. It comes down to deciding who's most important to you—he or you. In Luke 9:24 Jesus says, Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

****No Praising Ourselves!

        If we shouldn't judge others, we shouldn't praise ourselves either. If we acknowledge God to be our only judge, then only he knows whether we deserve to be praised or not. In any case, only what he thinks of us matters. 

***God Has So Made Us

        I have no doubt that God has so made us that we don't feel 100% fulfilled until we attain full union with him. I think we all intuitively sense this, but we are just too busy to think about it or take it seriously. While the Lord is always calling us, the secular material world has pretty much drowned out his gentle voice. Have pity on us, O Lord.

**A Heavenly Day

        Today's Communion experience. I didn't exactly go to heaven, but the Lord from heaven came down to unite with me. This surely made my day heavenly. 

****One Chance to Make It Good

        Christ came the first time to get us ready for meeting him again. This will take place either at his Second Coming or upon our departure from earth. We only get to go to the Lord once, so we'd better make it really good for both him and ourselves. You goof this one time and you goof up our entire future for good!

**Heart Response Makes Big Difference

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus said to his disciples, "Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them [the crowd to whom Jesus spoke in parables] it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away." It makes all the difference whether we have an open receptive heart or not. We either hear God calling us to enter his Kingdom or shut ourselves off from him altogether.  

**Prayers Are Never Wasted

         I am continuing reading the book "Get Us Out Of Here!!" Maria Simma not only tells us much about purgatory, she also gives good advice on prayer, fasting, and many other topics. She says on p. 41, "Not the smallest of prayers ever goes to waste." That is, if you pray for someone who no longer needs your prayers, the Blessed Mother would take and apply them elsewhere. All prayers earn merits. So pray as much as possible, as your prayers will always benefit someone somewhere.

**Do-I-Know-God Test*

        Greats saints see themselves as most wretched sinners before God because they are humble enough to realize how awesomely holy God is. So if you think that you are already a pretty "holy" person, you don't really know God yet.         

*Communion Experience

        After receiving the Holy Eucharist this morning, the Lord made me want to remain in him forever. 

**Do Not Limit God

        What God can do is limitless. If our faith is weak, then we are limiting him. Let's believe in him with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength so that we may see fully the wonders he can perform.

**When God Lets You Know

        You are in union with God when you know without a doubt that you are in union with him. What I want to say is that when God lets you know something, you just know that it's true. No self-deception here; it's the Lord accessing our innermost as only he can.

***A Most Serious Flaw

       Today, we don't listen to anyone objectively anymore. We only want others to listen to us. We don't even listen to ourselves! If we don't hear our own inner voice, how can we possibly know God? Now, even after you've found God, you'd still need to listen to him in all things to insure that you'll inherit eternal life. To listen takes humility. The lack of this humility among us in general is a most serious flaw of this generation of ours.

**Unique Intimacy

        When I go to daily Mass to receive Christ in the Holy Eucharist, my union with him gets strengthened further. Then the Lord gives me daily thoughts to blog—this is like hearing his voice in my heart and has the effect of drawing me ever closer to him. Such intimacy one can only attain with the Lord alone. My cup runneth over.

***Life implies God's Existence*****

        I just lied down on my bed to put an eye drop in my right eye as prescribed by my optometrist to do twice daily to control the intraocular pressure. As my left ear was in contact with the pillow, I could hear the sound of my beating heart distinctly via the mattress and pillow. It amazed me that a body like mine was alive, and I instinctively knew that God had created me. You can duplicate a body exactly like mine down to the last molecule—without God, it won't come alive. No God, no life, period.

***Don't Forget Sins of Omission

         There are sins of commission and sins of omission. Here's how I see them. A sin of commission is about something you know you shouldn't do, but you do it anyway. A sin of omission is about something you should do, but you just don't do it. For example, you get drunk and go drive a car in public—that would be committing a sin of commission—you do something knowingly wrong. A sin of omission is often more subtle, thus less noticeable. For example, I watch a TV program and find it very interesting. Even though I should go do the dishes, I keep on watching TV longer. Here I don't do something I should go do. Nevertheless, a sin is committed in each case. More advanced Christians should pay more attention to the sin of omission so that they may become more perfect spiritually. This is where I need to work on myself.

***God Makes the Christian Life Easy

        When you faithfully follow the Lord, he gives you deep peace to remain calm always and great joy to keep you feeling exhilarated. The combination of these two gifts just makes your Christian life easy to live and enjoy. Alleluia!