*Know that God Is Lord

        Today's responsorial psalm response from Deuteronomy 32: It is I who deal death and giver life. It is undeniable that God is in charge of our life and our death. Then we have no choice but to accept him willingly as our creator, our judge, and our savior. In other words God must be our Lord

**How God Speaks to Us

        When God speaks to you, he's alway gentle and with love. He never touches your free will, so you are free to respond any way you choose. If you say yes to him, it will entirely be of your own volition, for he never oppresses you. 

***Die so You'll Live

         If we die to ourselves and live for Christ, we'll die and live forever. But if we live for ourselves only, we'll die and never live again. 

***Underlying Prayer Motivation*****

        When you pray, your motivation should always be allowing the Lord to do whatever he wishes and that you give him your full support. Submission is what he needs the most from us, not petitioning for this or that. By trusting in him and being willing to follow him, we make it easiest for him to conquer evil and bring peace to our hearts.   

**Jesus Is the Light

         Communion experience. Once you have the Lord with you, he is so dazzling that all things around fade away.

***God's Drawing Power

        Things of the world can never satisfy us fully. For example, I enjoy listening to great music. But if I listen to it nonstop, I get tired and would want to stop listening for a while. Eating something you enjoy is another example. Eating too much of it and you don't want to touch it anymore. Knowing Christ provides the greatest contrast. The more you enjoy him, the more you want to enjoy him, for he continues refreshing, renewing, inspiring, and cleansing you. Such is God's drawing power.

***Simple Rule to Remember

        Also in today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, when Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly and be killed and on the third day be raised, Peter began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." Lesson learned. God always knows what he is doing. We may not understand, but we must always follow along and never question. Saying no to God is a no-no.

****Revelation from God Needed

        Today is the memorial of St. John Vianney. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." In my early days, I came to believe in Jesus after I read and heard a lot about him. It's my intellectual conviction and spiritual thirst that made me decide to accept him. Of course, I now see the truth without a doubt, for I have opened up to him and he has made himself more real to me than anyone else I now see, hear, or touch. It is important that we remain open to the Lord to receive revelations from him so that our faith may become super strong.

***Christ the Ultimate Quest

        We usually admire people who look good, are powerful, are generous and loving, never show off, and/or are holy. Look at Christ Jesus and you'll find all these attributes and then some. In fact, he is the embodiment of everything that's good and beautiful. This is why so many of us have fallen deeply in love with him. In him, you find total fulfillment, the completion of your existence.

*Myopic Learning

         We all learn the ways of the world fast. We find out how to get good jobs, invest our money wisely, know influential people, etc. We learn from both mistakes and other people and pretty soon do quite well in this world. Sad that we don't see the forest for the trees. Know God first and you'll know how to live this life wisely and take care of your next life as well.   

**Awake or Asleep?*

         We are supposed to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind. So how are we doing? Looking at the world, I can't say that most of us are even awake. Even though God's mercy is infinite, it wouldn't do us any good if we remain oblivious to it. On the other hand, we can make his work in saving us effortless. Then our eternal joy is assured. The choice we face: to wake up or to remain asleep (possibly forever).

***To Be Super Strong . . .

become super weak in Christ, the source of infinite power.

**Heavenly Experience

        Communion experience. I have never been to heaven. But after I received the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I was virtually in heaven. 

**Beautiful, Logical Sequence

         (1) Say the Lord's Prayer with all your heart. (2) Abandon yourself completely to the Lord. (3) You are ready for union with God.

***Most Personal Lord

        When Jesus changes the bread and wine into his own body and blood during the liturgy of the Eucharist, he does that for all those present. Nevertheless, at Mass this morning I felt that he, being my personal Lord, just did it for me, and I was overwhelmed.         

**This Is Also Trust in God

        God does not discriminate. He treats and judges us differently because our backgrounds and life experiences are all different. He knows exactly what we deserve in each case. We are to mind our own business and not judge anyone else. 

**Living Fully in Christ

        Since there is no limit to how much we can love God, we always fall short of loving him as much as we should. This precisely makes wanting to live a full life in Christ challenging and exciting!

***Proof God Loves Us*

        The fact that we can establish a most personal relationship with him, achieving intimate union with him through the Holy Eucharist.