**Prayer Priority

        If you pray for someone who is ill, pray for his or her soul first, then the illness. For the soul is infinitely more important than physical health.  

*****Key to Receiving Blessings from God*****

        God's blessings are all right before you and they can all be yours. How do you receive them? Simple—just be receptive! That is, you open yourself up to the Lord. This is the key! It is also what we struggle with all our lives. Of course, if you don't believe in or even turn to him, what can you expect? Know that God is always open and is waiting for a change of your heart. Viewing this as a game, you could say that win or lose, it depends entirely upon how you decide.

**Can't Be Any Closer to God*

        Communion experience. After receiving the Lord, I felt that I had entered the holy of holies. 

***Lamenting the World

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 19, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, for he foresaw the coming devastation of the city. Many cities in our world are being destroyed too. The war in Ukraine has already wiped out many towns and villages. For the rest of the world, the buildings may still be standing, but the moral decay and godlessness of the society is ruining many souls. This is much more serious than losing properties and material possessions in a war or natural disaster. The time is fitting for us to lament the inhabitants of all our cities. We need God's mercy more than ever.

***Indispensable Lord***

        From today's first reading from Revelation 5, we learned that "The Lamb that was slain purchased us for God with his Blood from every tribe and tongue, people and nation." So Christ died for us to redeem us from sin! If you know that you are a sinner, this has to be a huge deal, not something to be dismissed outright. It means Christ is absolutely indispensable to our ultimate survival! Let this post be another urgent reminder to all.

****Most Remarkable Lord*

        Today's entrance antiphon from Matthew 25: Come, you blessed of my Father, says the Lord: I was sick and you visited me. Amen, I say to you: Whatever you did for one of the least of my brethren, you did it for me. Jesus identities himself with the least of us. It just shows how humble, meek, and loving he is. Every one of us matters to him. Blessed are we who have such a remarkable Lord! 

**Better Way to Know God

        It's more blessed to want to know God interiorly than to wish to experience him physically through our senses.

*****Great Stupidity*****

         Rejecting the God of Christ who created us and loves us for all eternity! (It's also a most heartless act.)

***Letting the Holy Spirit Fill You***

        Catholics seek the Holy Spirit. The best time to experience the Spirit is right after we receive the Holy Eucharist. We open up completely to God to let the Spirit take over. When we feel great love for the Lord and all our fears and anxieties gone, we know that the Holy Spirit has filled us.  

*****God's Wonderful and Powerful Love

        Communion experience. I sensed God's greatest possible love for us! If you let this love permeate all of you to the core, it will bring about the greatest possible transformation of you and you'll feel so good that you won't ever want to revert to your old ways one iota anymore! (The Lord God has already put everything that's best for us on the table. It remains for us to go to that table to pick up what's been offered to us free by him.) 

***Do You Know That . . .

starting right now you can get to know God and obtain your entry permit into heaven? If you wait too long, you can miss this truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

***God to Be Worshipped and Loved

         That the Lord God is almighty and infinite alone makes him worthy to be worshipped by us. The fact that he also loves us to death makes him deserve all our love for him.   

***Spiritual Growth to Remain Spirited***

        It's not good enough to repent every time you've sinned, and then keep on sinning and repenting. You must realize that you as a sinner need God's mercy and salvation and seek to become holy like him. Then you'll reach the point you no longer sin and repent ad infinitum. Spiritual growth must not remain stagnant; it has to be alive and dynamic like the mustard seed growing into a gigantic tree. We want to grow in God to become like him as much as possible before we see him.

***Joys Overcome All Sorrows

        Communion experience. The Spirit of the Lord uplifts my spirit so much that all my sorrows are overcome. Psalm 23 enters my mind. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. You set a table before me in front of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. I will dwell in the house of the LORD for endless days." (The LORD is all mine forever!)

***What to Be Afraid Of

        In this life we are afraid of many things that might come, such as volcanic eruptions, an economic collapse, a third world war, etc. There is one thing we ought to be truly concerned about is our last day on earth, a day that's surely to arrive. If we live wrongly, we can end up in hell for all eternity. But if we see things right, we needn't be afraid of it at all, as God's most ardent wish is that we all go to heaven; and if we obey him, we'll get there. (Faith makes all things simple and easy.) 

***Endearing Invitation***

        Also in today's reading 1 from Revelation 3, John wrote what the Lord wanted the Church of Laodicea to know. In it he said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." How can one who's not self-centered possibly refuse such an endearing invitation?

***Totally Trustworthy

        Jesus' promises to us are rock solid. In today's first reading from Revelation 3, the Lord had a message for the Church of Sardis. He knew that there were a few people in Sardis who had not soiled their garments and would walk with him. And he said that he would never erase their names from the book of life but will acknowledge them in the presence of his Father and of his angels. The God of Christ is the one we can absolutely trust with complete confidence. There is not another one who can deliver like that.

**What Does the World Have to Offer?*

        I've been away from home the last eight days, so I haven't been able to blog as much. Yesterday I got back home after a long ten-hour drive. On the way I saw the many billboards and signs along the highways and roads, luring travelers to stop for good food, rest, fun, and entertainment. I asked myself, "Is this all the world has to offer—temporary gratification?" Then I saw that what God can offer us is so such more superior and satisfying—eternal contentment.