**Natural Consequence

        The more you love God, the more you feel sorry for having offended him. 

***Prayer Power

         I believe that the Lord hears everything we tell him, and he will surely respond to anyone who prays to him from the heart. How and when he'll respond we do not know. But we can be sure that anything we ask for out of love will be answered in our favor, unless there are hidden facts we are not aware of. That our prayers can make the Lord change the course of humanity and world events is undeniable.

**One-Way Giving and Receiving

        With God, I feel that it's practically a one-way thing. We receive everything from him, while the most we can give him are ourselves who were created by him in the first place. There's no way we can thank him enough. The best response to the Lord I can think of: "Keep his word" (John 14:23).

*Communion Protocol

        While the Lord is still on my tongue, I do not kneel, for the Lord does not bow down to anything or anyone. Once I have fully consumed him and he has become part of me, then I kneel and thank him. If Mass is not ending so quickly, I'd savor the Lord by keeping the Host on my tongue as long as possible. One time when I really yearned for the Lord, the Host remained in my mouth for over 20 minutes.

***Reality Check*

         Here's the basic reality in a nutshell. Evil is real, we are sinners, and only God has the power to annihilate evil and take away our sins. We need God to save us from sin and evil. 

*Saying Yes to God

         In today's Gospel reading from Luke 1, the angel Gabriel appears to the virgin Mary, announcing that she will conceive and bear a son to be named Jesus, who will be great and called Son of the Most High. Mary does not doubt, only curious about how it can happen, as she has no relations with a man. The angle explains that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. Mary consents, willing to let it be done to her according to the angel's word. We see that the Lord prepares Mary for the task he has for her. Likewise, we should always believe and let the Lord prepare us to carry out whatever task he has for us. We should always exercise our free will to say yes to God.

*To Be Holy Before God*

        No matter how holy we are, we are never good enough for the Lord. We recognize this and he shall be pleased. Fortunately for us, the Lord looks more at our intentions and less to how perfect we are. 

**Our Role Before God*

        The Lord God alone is omnipotent. Everything must go thru him. If we ever want to be fruitful or accomplish anything that's good, we ought to go thru him, that is, follow his will. Everything has to do with the Lord and our role is to participate in accomplishing whatever he wishes to be done.

****Great Surprise from God

        To become a slave to God, we actually gain the greatest possible freedom and become God's friends!

*****How Best to Help God

        When I feel helpless in helping the Lord and ask him what I should do, his answer is always "Be holy." This translates to "Be obedient" to me. 

**Source of Freedom and Joy

        In union with God, you pour your heart out to him every moment. This gives you such freedom and joy, knowing that you are always with him.

*****Knowing What God Wishes for Us*****

         No matter what we pray or pray for, it boils down to "Thy will be done." This is the very reason we pray so that we do not get in the Lord's way. Total obedience is what the Lord desires from us so that he may exalt us to the max, for he truly loves us. 

**Desire for Complete Belonging

        Communion experience. I ask the Lord to wipe clean everything that might rob me of my inner peace in me, even from my subconscious. For I seek complete belonging to him.

***Great Gift Idea***

        In my last post, the Lord made it possible for the mother of Samson to conceive him. We all know that Sarah became pregnant and bore Issac to Abraham in his old age, and Elizabeth bore John the Baptist in her old age. Of course, the Holy Spirit made it possible for Virgin Mary to conceive and bear Jesus. Nothing is impossible for God! Therefore, be open to let the Lord conceive in us all the good things he wishes us to bear thru us for his glory. That would be a most beautiful Christmas gift for us to give to the Lord.  

***Need to Be Stirred by God

        In today's reading 1 from Judges 13, an angel of the LORD appeared to the wife of Manoah from Zorah, who was barren, and announced to her that she would conceive and bear a son to be consecrated to God from the womb. He would begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. She bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up and the LORD blessed him; the Spirit of the LORD stirred him. I like that last expression "the LORD stirred him." We need the Holy Spirit to stir us at all times. Without that, we become complacent; whereas like a fire, we need to be stirred by the LORD to keep burning hot for him.

**Life-changing Salvation

        As Christmas approaches, I realize that our Savior has already come. In saving us, he's going to fill us with great joy and remove all worries, anxieties, and fears, for we shall be made clean and have eternal life.  

***Shocking News!

         It's is headline news that Father Pavone, head of Priests for Life and a heroic leader of our pro-life movement has been stripped of his priesthood by the Vatican. This has shocked many of us. If you do a search online, on YouTube for example, you'll find plenty of people speaking up against this action. It seems that the Church hierarchy has bowed to the left to be politically correct. Please pray for Fr. Pavone (who's been addressed as Mr. Pavone now by the hierarchy) and the Church that the Lord will straighten everything out and restore the purity and glory of his Church. 
       I posted the above over an hour ago and have some afterthoughts. Jesus always did things out of love, not following the rigid rules of the scribes and the Pharisees. It seems today, many bishops act more like the scribes and Pharisees. When they want to get rid of some priest who speaks the truth and irritates them, they just accuse him of having violated some rule sans any compassion. 

***A Love Story

        We who follow Christ have all found the Lord to be attractive. So I see the progress of a spiritual journey as the evolvement of a love story. To remain stagnant is to cease falling in love with God more. The best way to move forward is to remain in his love until you finally attain spiritual union with him. Now you and the Lord are united in his divine love as one forever.