In today's Gospel reading from Mark 4, Jesus said to the crowds: "To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade." How good it is for us to be like that mustard seed, letting God make it grow! Know that when God transforms us, it is the greatest miracle that can happen to us.
Friday, January 27, 2023
***Living This Life Wisely
Our life continues on beyond death, for our soul is immortal. We are only now living the minuscule beginning of our life. Not seeing this is blindly heading toward an abyss. One who follows Christ knows he'll always be with the Lord. This makes a difference as vast as that between day and night. The best I can say about living only for this life is being myopic to the extreme.
***Amazing Power of Love***
Jesus is the only one who has died for us out of love and made many of us willing to die for him.
Thursday, January 26, 2023
**Proud and Humbling Experience
Communion experience. The Lord is all mine; I now possess him! I couldn't quite believe that he would let me receive him, and this humbled me.
***Surrendering to God for Maximum Returns
We reap what we sow. How much we receive from God depends upon how wide we open up to him. To be wide open to the Lord is to surrender our will, our mind, our heart, our soul . . . our whole being to him. When we do that, it's like opening all the floodgates to let all God's blessings and graces in. This is reaping most abundantly from the Lord.
**Total Dependence upon God*
On the physical level, without God sustaining us, we would instantly die. On the spiritual level, without him wishing to save us from sin, we would perish forever. He's the one to hold onto for existence!
Wednesday, January 25, 2023
**Soul over Body*
Communion experience. I see that my soul dwells in my body only temporarily. One day it will leave the body, discarding it altogether. From the numerous near-death experience stories, we learn that after a person's soul leaves the body, all the senses amazingly become even more vivid. So don't get hung up on your body too much, for the soul is infinitely more important. Saying "Happy Eternal Life" would be more meaningful than saying "Good Health" to anyone. (The only thing is that people might think you want them to die when they hear you wish them HEL, whereas GH clearly means "Don't die yet.") Anyway, when I receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, I know that my soul now belongs to him.
***A Life Passing By
I am already at a ripe old age, so I think I am qualified to describe what living a typical life in a country like the USA is like. Take a typical person who lives to about eighty. Of course, in the early years, you are just discovering the world and learning about it. Then you go to school, studying all the common secular subjects. Say you do get thru college. Now you concentrate on getting a good job. Your whole aim is to make a lot of money. As time passes, you work hard to realize you dreams. You might have already become a Christian by then, but Christ is just not you top interest. When you approach sixty, you either continue to pursue material success or start thinking about retirement. In the meantime, various health issues start popping up and finally, you start thinking about God and your own inevitable demise more. But the attachment to the material world is still strong and you face fighting a tough battle. You still decide to enjoy this world as much as possible in the time you've left, whereas abandoning yourself more to God is more appropriate. Really, the best way to live is to follow Christ first and only as early as possible, then you'll become detached to all material things. When death approaches, you look forward to meeting Christ your Savior and returning to the heavenly Father in peace and with joy. Heaven is now assured.
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
**Not-of-the-World Feeling
After Mass, I did all my prayers before the Lord in the tabernacle. As I drove home, seeing all the familiar roads, trees, and houses along the way, I felt that I no longer belonged to this world. I felt liberated—it was a great feeling!
***Everlasting Relationship!
Communion experience. Christ is my Lord and my God. I realized that this bond would last forever and was filled with joy.
**How to Do Unpleasant Things
Many things we'd rather not do, but we have to do. For example, something around the house breaks down, now I must figure out how to fix it, go to buy whatever I need, and do the work. If it's something I can't handle myself, then I must look for a professional first. All these things I'd rather not have to handle. Then I regard doing such work as doing it for the Lord, and I lose all my anxiety. I am just going to get to it and complete it in a timely, orderly manner. By offering all work up to the Lord, he sets me free.
**Feeling Sorry for the Lord and Us
We all sin against the Lord. We feel sorry for the Lord because he is holy, and for ourselves because we are sinners. This is good because we are close to repenting our sins.
*****Called to Console the Lord
After my last post They Know Not What They Do!, I have these thoughts today. Christ our Lord had been mocked so much already when he was being crucified, and now 2,000 years later, people mock him even more blatantly—don't they realize that hell exists? If they don't really believe in God, I suppose they wouldn't care about hell either. They are to be pitied the most. (Then I see Catholics who support political candidates who fully support abortion. This is basically also mocking the Lord, albeit on a lesser scale.) To console the Lord who is enduring the pain inflicted upon him by the mockers, we need to be extra obedient, pray extra hard, and make more sacrifices for the atonement of all our sins.
Monday, January 23, 2023
**They Know Not What They Do!*
I know that many of us are praying hard for the world so that the Lord may lesson or even eliminate any chastisement that's coming to us. Here's a new video showing how Madonna horribly mocks God. Watching it makes it increasingly difficult for us to pray for people of her ilk, yet pray we must for the the atonement of their sins, for God loves us all. Here's that video:
*****Christ Our Liberator and Joy*
People generally talk about things of the world. It often gets boring or even depressing and I feel weighed down. Then I think of Christ and it's like receiving instantly a breath of fresh air that's liberating and exhilarating. I just can't live without my Lord and my God for a single moment. Life would be joyless and unbearable without him.
**Why Be Attached to God Only?
Because He'll always be there and is the only one who can save us from sin.
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