***Christ Most Beloved

        Because Christ is all mine, he is dearer to me than my own life, my own soul, and my very existence.

***Perfect Exchange*

        Communion experience. The Lord invited me to receive him, so I received him to let him take all of me.  

***Having All of God***

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 8, Jesus said to the crowd, "To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away." So to have God, we must start with accepting him or something. As we trust in him more and more, we also receive more and more from him. The progress accelerates. Finally, with him taking complete charge, our part becomes effortless and a joy. Now we have all of God!

***Lesson on Trust

        At my age, having fallen numerous times, I make sure that I don't fall again. This morning as I was leaving home to attend the 7:30 morning Mass, I saw that my big garbage container placed next to the road ready to be emptied had been toppled by strong winds, and the garbage pickup truck was coming down the road. So I got out of my car, intending to put the container back in place. Well, after the early heavy rain, the ground was still wet. In reaching for the toppled container, I stepped on a pile of rounded stones and slipped. I first fell forward, then backward, and ended up lying on my back. Miraculously, even though parts of my clothing got all wet, I wasn't hurt at all. The garbage truck driver saw all that and came over to help me up and raised the container for me as well. Bless him! The lesson learned: We do what we sensibly should do, but unexpected things can still happen. Ultimately, it's our Lord God in control. So we always do our part, while putting all our trust in God.

***Most Horrible Feeling

        Being lost can be terrifying. In my lifetime it has happened to me that I completely forgot about doing something or lost something really important. Although this is not exactly a case of being lost yourself, the feeling is similar. Such experiences can affect one's psyche deeply. This morning I had a dream I was lost somewhere and panicked, and I woke up. Of course, that was just a dream. And I realized that the most horrible feeling you can possible have has to be the loss of your soul, knowing that you are now cut off from God forever. Don't ever let that happen to you or anyone else! 

**Who Is Smarter?

        The humble person or the proud one? The humble one knows his limits. When he encounters difficulties, he turns to the Lord for help and accomplishes his task. On the contrary, the proud one thinks he can do everything on his own. And one day he suffers defeat. He's now set back or injured, in worse shape than before.  

***Becoming Fearless***

       We shall all die one day, so accept that. It is where we go after we die that should be the big concern. Once you have your soul all secured by Christ, there is really nothing left for us to fear anymore. Amen. 

*Fulfilled by Christ*

        Communion experience. I am completely satisfied with Christ. He's the only one I need and wish to please. 

**Moving On Spiritually

        If you have sinned, just repent and move on. That is, be as holy as possible from now on. Let the past go, for it's already in your record in heaven. It's what you do from now on that matters. 

***Diabolical Proposition

        Proposition 1 that will be on the November ballot in California here is totally diabolical. After the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe vs. Wade and made abortion constitutionally illegal, California now wants to make all abortions all the way to birth constitutionally legal in the state, forcing all tax-payers to support abortions, including those that are performed on pregnant mothers from out of state. If you are a California voter, please vote No and let as many other voters know about it as possible. For those who are not Californians, please pray for the defeat of this proposition. This is serious spiritual warfare!

***A Couple of Tips

        (1) Treat Christ right and you'll treat everyone else right too. (2) Letting the Lord draw you to him directly is the best and quickest way to know him. Rather than letting others inspire you to know Christ (and there are relatively few who are good at that), let the Lord himself be your inspiration.

***Betraying the Lord

        Today we have prominent politicians known to be Catholics, but blatantly opposing the teachings of the Holy Church. And there are not a few bishops and cardinals in that category as well. These souls are to be pitied the most and they urgently need our prayers

**Prerequisite to Asking for God's Mercy*

        At Mass, we do ask the Lord and Christ to have mercy on us. It seems that when we pray that, we are also surrendering ourselves to God. For it wouldn't make sense to beg for God's mercy when we haven't decided to obey him in all things yet.

***Living for Christ Only

          Anything you do that's not Christ-centered is wasted effort. Do I sound too severe? It would seem so to those who do not know him yet, but not to those who already know him well. Think about it. Christ is the Lord and God and a lot more . . . he is to be glorified forever by all! So anything not done for his sake is not going to do us any good.        

*It's All Up to Us

        To know or to reject God, it's all up to us. If our faith is weak, it's so easy to drift away from the Lord. We close our heart to him and we'll never know him. We remain humble and really want to know him, and he shows up to enter our heart. God absolutely wants to give us the very best, but we must allow him in first.  

***The Lord's Constant Presence

        I read that Mary once appeared to the visionary Marija of Medjugorje a few minutes after a consecration. She neither prayed nor spoke to her, and left after a mere few seconds, having only blessed the small group at the Holy Mass. Later when the attending priest asked Marija why it had happened so quikly, she, directing her hand toward the front of the altar, said, "Mary didn't talk to me because Jesus was standing right there." So Jesus is present at all Masses. In fact, he is present with us at all times. Anytime you turn to him, he's there. The awareness of the Lord's constant presence should help us remain reverent to him always and also deter us from committing any serious sin.

*****Our Foremost Concern Always*****

        The world we live in today is just so horrible with people rebelling against, insulting, and attacking the Lord, our God. So what are we to do? Of course, we need to pray for God's mercy on all. But the Lord made me see clearly that we must foremost be concerned about our own relationship with him. Of No. 1 importance is that we surrender ourselves to him to become obedient and holy. This is his urgent call and cry! If we all do this, we'll be giving our God our greatest help and joy, and have peace on earth. In any case, let us who hear this call give in to him so that his mercy may safeguard our soul even more securely.

**Being Choked by the World

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 8, Jesus told the crowd the parable of the sower. "A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold." When the disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He explained it all. First of all, the seed is the word of God. About the seed that fell among thorns, the explained that they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasure of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. I see a lot of people today in this category, being choked by the world.