**Heaven Calling

        You probably have heard the saying "Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one want to die to get there." As Christians, we know we can get to heaven and even how we can get there! If you yearn to go there and know that it'll feel like going home, you have been called by the Father.

**Money as a Burden

        Money can be a great burden in life. I still remember way back after I got out of college, I finally found a job. I was happy, even though the pay was not very good. I was single and rented a room in a house, sharing the kitchen and the bathroom with others. As a new convert to Catholicism, I was filled with joy. I decided to support two overseas children thru a charity and freely donated to other causes too. Saving money for the future never entered my mind, and I truly was carefree and free. After I got married and started having kids, giving away money became less free. Anytime you work hard and earn more money, money just becomes more precious to you. The point is that money can weigh us down. And we should give away for the glory of God as much as possible under the circumstances. Happy is truly the one who is free to give away whatever amount he wishes. 

**Goal Attained

        Communion experience. I have attained my ultimate goal on earth and am ready to return to the Father. 

***Inextricably Related to God***

        The Lord God created us, gave us life on earth, supplies what we need for our sustenance, and has even paved the way for us to return to him after this life. We are totally dependent upon him for everything and related intimately to him as his beloved children. Without him, we wouldn't even exist. If you don't think you need him, you can't be more lost. Even after we die, we'll have to appear before him to give an account of our past. In other words, we are inextricably involved with God, whether you realize it or not. Next time you sin, pause first and know that God knows everything about you, that is, you can't hide anything from him. So be smart and live in complete obedience to him and start you days in heaven on earth.

**Why Satan Is Still Free

        God can bind Satan and wipe out all evils in an instant if he so chooses. He hasn't done that because we haven't stop sinning against him. If we all obey the Lord and become holy, Satan'll be rendered completely "useless" and we won't need to be chastised anymore either. Since the reality is otherwise, Satan is allowed the freedom to test our faith. The love, mercy, and humility of the Lord alone should have been sufficient to awaken us to want to follow him and become holy. But we have not all responded favorably. Hopefully, seeing the terrible and horrendous things sin has caused will turn us around.

***One Best Thing About Heaven!

        Happy moments or events in this life don't last long. After a while, they just become memories. Now, in heaven our joy will continue on forever! We should all want to go there. So go to Christ to have him take away all your sins right now!

****Why Pray Unceasingly

        When we pray, we communicate with the Lord and deepen our relationship with him. Once we share everything with him from our hearts and become totally open to him, with the aid of the Eucharist we can attain union with him. So God is accessible and can be ours. Therefore, pray to him unceasingly. He is the most important person to our existence! To ignore him is to ruin our own lives. Everything is not OK without him! We need to wake up to the truth, the reality.

***What Receiving Holy Communion Is***

        The Holy Eucharist enters our body, despite the fact that our body with a lot of bacteria both on and in us is not physically clean. But the Lord doesn't mind, for he is essentially making a spiritual connection with us. He's going to cleanse our hearts and heal our souls—this is what matters. So receive him only if you are in a state of grace and unite with him in spirit with all your heart. He's going to make you become like him!

***God Fulfills Us***

        We all feel the need to love and be loved by someone. Those who are lonely often find some pet to fulfill this longing. Christians fulfill it in the Lord God totally. The one who loves them and whom they love is no less than the Almighty, their creator, their Father, and their Savior! It is a fulfillment that came straight from heaven. The Lord God indeed fulfills all our desires and is the only one we need to know in our life.

*****Only One Worthy of Trust

        One thing we can be absolute certain about the God of Christ—he is 100% genuine and truthful, and is filled with love for us. He is the only one we can trust with all our mind, with all our heart, and with all our soul. How good it is to have such a Lord and Father! Don't you see that trusting in him and we are all set for eternity?  

**Division More Acute than Ever (a Warning)

        The Lord is loving and gentle and never forces his will on us, for he respects our free will. He simply reveals the truth to us and we are free to accept or ignore it. Those who accept the truth acquire faith, leading them to salvation, and those who don't, remain rudderless and lost. That Satan is waging such a fierce war against God intensifies the whole situation. We either see the secular material world we live in as our worst enemy or have already been lured by it to join Satan's side. It's really that clear and simple. To not see it to live in an unreal world! Our time on earth is the only time we have to discover, discern, and accept the truth.

***Make Us Holy, Lord

       God is most holy and we must respect, reverence, and be awed by his holiness. It's his sanctity that separates him from us, but at the same time makes us aware of our sinfulness and need for salvation. At Communion time, I realized that I was not only receiving the food of immortality, but also the Lord himself who can make me holy to be like him. Praise be to him forever!

***Fighting Our Greatest Evil

        This week on Saturday, Jan. 21, the annual Walk for Life West Coast will be held in San Francisco. Since abortion was legalized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973, over 63 millions unborn children have been aborted. I shudder and want to cry at the thought. Imagine that seven of the nine judges on that day played God. Even though the current Supreme Court just overturned that decision in June last year, some states still protect the rights of abortion, and California is the worst one. In case you missed seeing my post Magnitude of Abortion, I invite you to take a look at it.

***Most Efficient Way of Knowing Christ***

         You can do a lot things to know Christ better. You can study the Bible, read spiritual classics or about the saints, attend conferences, listen to talks, go on retreats or pilgrimages, attend daily Masses, pray and meditate, etc. This can take a whole lifetime. But if you are in a hurry and yearn to know the Lord most intimately, go straight to him and surrender your will entirely to his, and the whole thing is accomplished. This is best done after receiving the Holy Eucharist. Now, he'll direct and teach you in all things. This will save you so much time, not to mention the freedom, peace, and joy you'll experience!

****We Are Precious to God!****

        At Mass during consecration of the bread and wine, Fr. Steve, again, recalling the words of Jesus at the Last Supper, said: "TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT: FOR THIS IS MY BODY WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR YOU" and "TAKE THIS, ALL OF YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, THE BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT, WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT FOR YOU AND FOR MANY FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME." The Lord has redeemed us with his Most Precious Blood! We are truly wonderful and most precious to him! Be Thankful and rejoice!

***Mind Your Spiritual Health

         To remain in sin is so much worse that to have the poorest health, for the former affects your soul everlastingly and the latter only your body for the time being. Seize on Christ our Savior so that we'll never die in sin!

**Heaven in Contrast to Hell

        The joy we experience in heaven will be infinitely greater than any happiness we can experience on earth, and the fear we experience in hell will be infinitely worse than any nightmare we can possibly encounter on earth. So heaven will surprise and hell, shock us.

***Compelling Challenge

        The first half of today's first reading from Hebrews 4: The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account. Christ so challenges us that we are compelled to love him or fear him. If you cannot prove that he is false, then you have no choice but to embrace him totally. Otherwise, you remain in a state of limbo.