***Freedom in Serving and Loving God***

        Be least to give yourself the greatest freedom in serving God. Be most humble to give yourself the greatest freedom in loving God.

**Appreciating Jesus

        Jesus is not only an amazing person, he is also our God. So we have an amazing God. And this is a tremendous blessing to us.

**Be Ready like Simeon

        Today's Gospel reading from Luke 2 is about the Presentation of the child Jesus in the temple. The Lord had revealed to Simeon that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Holy Spirit into the temple and saw the child. He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: "Lord, now let your servant go in peace: your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared...." We who have not seen the Lord, but have believed in him and known him intimately should surely be able to go to him in peace at any time.

***Amazing Lord***

        We do not see the Lord God, yet many of us rejoice and believe in him without the slightest doubt. How is this possible? Answer: It's possible because the Lord who created us knows how to speak to our hearts. The Holy Eucharist can be the big catalyst here. So we need to keep our hearts open to God always. 

****Most Uplifting Tidings

       Today's entrance antiphon, John 3.16: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life." Response to readings from Psalm 96: Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice! This is huge news! If you truly believe in it, you can't help but be glad and rejoice. If you don't feel that way, then most likely you don't know the Lord personally well enough yet. 

**God at Our Disposal

        I slept on my right side last night and must have put too much pressure on my right arm. It went numb momentarily and I woke up. Well, like all other things that happen to me, it's all the Lord's doing. Then I am directly connected to him, so I can communicate with him about anything at any time. The subject can range from a numb arm to eternal life. The Lord is most personal to us!

***What God Asks of Us***

        All God asks of us is to not sin anymore so that we might have eternal life—nothing more, nothing less. Is this really a request that's unreasonable or too hard to accept? The Lord has done all be could for our sake and we have no power to change anything except by him.

****How to Succeed in Loving God**

        Yesterday I posted that to love someone, you need to make an effort to know that person well by sharing inner thoughts and feelings with each other. This works with the Lord God too. If you truly love God, you'd want to share with him all that's in your heart and be completely open to him to let him reveal all of himself to you, for love implies intimacy.

**How God Blesses Us

        As the priest invokes the Lord God to bless us all at the end of Mass, I feel that the Lord actually adorns all of us to make us more beautiful to him. 

*****Christ the Ultimate Experience*****

        Communion experience on this Feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs. I just feel that Christ is my final quest, my ultimate fulfillment. I have come to an end and also a brand new beginning. He is the answer to all my questions and solution to all my problems. My existence is now full of meaning. Freedom, peace, and joy are all mine. I am going home, heaven bound. Nothing can top or outdo what the true God can do for us! 

***Treating Your Loved Ones Right*

        In any family, we normally help each other out in various ways. Providing material aids or services is common. At a time like Christmas now, gift giving is popular. But much more meaningful is taking the time to talk to those you love to really get to know them. This is not always easy because we are always so busy with other things in life and listening to another person takes both humility and patience. I've seen people regret when one of the parents died. They wished they had spent more time getting to know that parent. For anyone, to show love is to show that you are interested in knowing and understanding that person. So to all of you who read this message, do not neglect to get to know your parents well (or for that matter, anyone you love). If you show that you truly care for them from your heart, your children will treat you likewise too. We sow what we reap, and this is also true with the Lord God. Anyway, do all things for the sake of God's love for us.   

**Living Our Life Is Important

        Our time on earth is the time the Lord God has allotted to each of us. How we use up this time will determine the kind of life we'll live after we leave here. Basically, we reap what we sow. 

***Awake to God Now!

        Some old messages from Medjugorje, but it's good to hear them again. If we sleep thru life, we'll miss heaven. 

**What We Can Logically Believe

         There is a talk on YouTube now showing a Fr. Robert Spitzer presenting the latest scientific evidence of God and the soul. As usual, we can group people into believers, agnostics, and atheists. My private thoughts are that we don't even know how we came into the world, so we are just not qualified to say God doesn't exist or cannot be known. The only logical thing to do is to believe in God and the gospel. As it turns out, this leads me to freedom, peace, joy and the positive knowledge that God is both real and personal.

*****Something So Special to Us!

        Today I rejoice because the Lord God loves me. That's a fact and something huge! It makes all the difference to my life. This love is all yours if you believe in the God of Christ and be open to him. It can't be easier. We all need to be loved, but if you are loved by none other than God, that makes it extra special and in fact, perfect. It settled my whole existence forever! 

***Way of Regaining Peace***

        Many minor sins bothered me and I suffered. Then I decided to accept this suffering as my penance and my peace was restored. In others words, accepting our imperfections and moving on to become more perfect by abandoning ourselves in the Lord even more is the way to go.  

*The Imperfect Meeting the Perfect

        Communion experience. Before the awesome holy Lord, I was aware that he saw all my blemishes. I'd never be worthy to receive him. But because of his infinite love and mercy and my earnest longing for him, I dared to receive him and humbly submitted myself to him even more.

**The Day to Ready Ourselves For

        Today is the Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr. As his enemies were stoning him to death, he called out "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The response to readings from Psalm 31 is its verse 6B: "Into your hands I commend my spirit." Jesus' cried out these exact words to the Father just before he breathed his last on the cross. We should likewise be ready to commend our spirit into the Lord's hands at any time. The day for the Lord to receive our spirit is the day we look forward to.