***Key Awareness***

        Let's be clear that we are completely at God's mercy. After all, he has created us and can do whatever he wants with us. We are totally dependent upon him for our very existence. This awareness should help us abandon ourselves to him without reservation. 

***Accepting Sufferings on Earth

        Looking at the problems we face in this life, I am glad that I won't be around forever. Most recently, after I caught COVID-19, the cough I had was pretty bad, making it almost impossible for me to fall asleep. Knowing that you are heaven bound can really help. It gives you the strength to endure all your sufferings patiently by offering them up to the Lord. Once in paradise, all past sufferings will be forgotten, for they are nothing compared to the eternal heavenly joy you experience. So accept your sufferings. It's thru suffering that God is glorified.

**Doing What God Commands

        In today' Gospel reading from Luke 6, Jesus tells his disciples that anyone who goes to him, listens to his words, and acts on them is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was destroyed. So acting on the Lords's words bears fruit, and fruit secures our eternal future. 

**Critical Connection We Need

        The most important thing we need to have in our life on earth is to be connected with God. Without this connection, we are lost souls. Once connected, we'll be with God our Father forever. Don't ever let the lure of the material world blind you from seeing this truth.

****Secret of Happiness

         If you are unhappy with anything, you are unhappy with God. One who enjoys the Lord totally is the happiest person, and nothing can rob him of that joy. If you have the Lord, nothing else matters. God is not only love, he is also joy. (If God makes you happy, that's plenty enough.)

*****Most Humble and Exalted Miracle*****

        During Mass when the bread and wine are consecrated by the priest, they are transformed silently into the body and blood of the Christ as happened at the Last Supper. This strikes me as God's most humble miracle. Since it's most humble, it's also most exalted.

***Living in Christ, Huge Deal

        Today is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so Happy Birthday to our Most Holy Mom! May we love your Son enough to make you happy. From the Gospel reading from Matthew 1, we heard read that the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that through the Holy Spirit, a child had been conceived in Mary. She would bear a son to be named Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins. Lately, the Lord has impressed upon me the many basic truths I am already familiar with. So I was struck again when I heard that Jesus would save his people from their sins. I want to let that sink in once more. Yes, it's another huge deal, not to be taken for granted. A little later during Mass, when I received the Holy Eucharist, the Lord entered me to unite physically with me—another huge deal not to be taken lightly. Living in the Lord is surely both memorable and exciting!

**Good Question to Think About

         If we meet someone who is say 100 smarter and more knowledgeable than us, we most likely would pay close attention to everything he or she has to say. Now, the Lord God is infinitely smarter and more knowledgeable than any of us, then why is it that we sometimes don't even want to hear from him? 

***Living the Fullest Life

        With Christ, you are never alone again. You live your life in the most meaningful way. You are back in your Father' house with your eternity all taken care of. What more can you possibly want? 

***Pity on All!

        A true Christian pities everyone, especially those on whom people look down. He does not judge anyone and sees Christ in everyone. In fact, he prays the most for those who have most need of God's mercy. He loves others as God loves them. 

***Always Beyond Expectations

        Communion experience. Assuming that you are in a state of grace and wish to receive the Lord in the Eucharist, I could see that the Lord wishes to enter you even more than you wish to receive him. I also see that he loves us more than we can possibly love him and wants us go to heaven more than we want to go there ourselves. His infinite goodness is beyond our finite comprehension. We can never outdo the Lord. Therefore, follow him and be surprised and amazed by him throughout your life.    

**To Be Satisfied Forever

        Is it possible to find something in this world that can satisfy us forever? Of course not—we can't even find anything that can satisfy us totally in this life. We need to look beyond this world and this life. And there Christ the Lord is, shining brightly like a beacon amidst total darkness. He is exactly the one we need to fulfill our hunger, our thirst, and all our desires forever—a truth to be realized and appreciated. 

*****God Most Personal*****

        Today I am struck particularly by the fact that our God can become most personal to us. Through receiving the Holy Eucharist, we become one spiritually with the Lord, and he is now our soulmate. How can we possibly ask where God is? He is Jesus the Christ and he is all ours when we let ourselves be all his! Wake up to this astounding truth!

*****Time to Pray for Our own Soul

        Christ is so merciful that he never wishes to condemn us; he only wants to convert us to save us. If we get condemned, it's by our own choice, and we cause him great sorrow. Also, he had suffered so many physical blows already when he was crucified for our sake. Continuing sinning against him, we continue inflicting wounds on his Most Sacred Heart unceasingly. It's time for us to pray for our own soul like never before!

**Good Prayer Rule

        When you pray, whether you ask for anything or not, never question or doubt. You simply mean every word you say and let it go at that. 

***Christ or the World

         The more you know Christ, the less interesting the world becomes. This is a natural process. If you have gone to heaven first, I am sure you'd never want to come down to live in this world. You either fit heaven above or the world below. 

**Jesus Is "Too Much"

        Communion experience. I felt that the Lord was "too much" for me, not as a burden though. I say "too much" because I was overwhelmed by his love, mercy, generosity, understanding, as well as his holiness, humility, beauty, and omnipotence. I'd like to add that when I submitted myself totally to the Lord, I felt peace, tranquility, and total freedom from the world. No one else could have made me feel that way but the True God.

***God's Mercy Ignored*****

        I see Christ the Lord as the answer to every need of mine. What we most urgently need is God's mercy, but the people of the world are not asking for that from the Lord. This is my big sorrow.