****Mutual Exaltation

        In Mathew 23, Jesus said to the crowds and his disciples, "Whoever humbles himself will be exalted." Do you realize that when we humble ourselves, we actually exalt the Lord? So whenever you want to exalt the Lord or to be exalted by him, just humble yourself. 

***Spiritual Progress*

        Repenting our sins is a major step in our spiritual life. The next big step to take is realizing how much we fall short of loving the Lord. Then we may very well decide to seek union with God through the Holy Eucharist. This is how we make our journeying toward the Lord increasingly beautiful.

*****Living Perfectly for God*

        Today the Lord also made me see that if we do anything for his sake, it's a very beautiful thing. That's all he expects from us and the best we could do for him. Yes, do everything for his sake and for his glory. It shows that you love him. This is obedience. The Lord is easy to please!

***Letting the Lord Touch Our Soul*****

        It was good that I was good enough to attend daily Mass again. Praise my Lord and my God. And I was also happy that I found my favorite rosary I thought was lost for a while. It's a wooden one I bought from the Carmelite Sisters at the concentration camp memorial site in Dachau, Germany. The first insight I received from the Lord at Mass this morning was that "we all need to let God touch our soul." This will be enough for the Lord to start transforming us to live a new life in him. To let that happen, we need to be completely open to the Lord and desire to possess him, to attain union with him, to abandon ourselves to him, or to belong to him totally. 

**Satan at Work*

        So many souls have fallen into Satan's snares. I can come up with a long list of examples, but I'll just bring up one big one first. The news media are supposed to report facts objectively, but today the majority of them spread blatant lies. This is going directly against God's Commandment "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." As a result, millions of people  have been led to embrace falsehood, risking losing their souls. It is tragic and pitiable beyond measure that we need God's mercy more than ever! 

***Only Thing We Need to Do

        Communion experience. We only need to obey the God of Christ in this life to gain eternal life.

**To Experience Christ's Peace

        Christ is our supreme example par excellence. When we see how he completely resigned to the Father's will and willingly went through his Passion, we are inspired to let all our worries and unrest go and begin to experience his peace.

***Palm Sunday Thoughts***

        On this Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, the Gospel reading began from Matthew 26:14 and continued through the entirety of Matthew 27. The topics covered: the betrayal of Judas, preparations for the Passover, the betrayer, the Lord's Supper, Peter's denial foretold, the agony in the garden, the betrayal and arrest of Jesus, Jesus before the Sanhedrin, Peter's denial of Jesus, Jesus before Pilate, the death of Judas, Jesus questioned by Pilate, the sentence of Death, mockery by the soldiers, the way of the cross, the Crucifixion, the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, and the guard at the tomb. The long reading recalled how the Lord suffered so extremely for our sake. Then, of course, he did rise from the dead on the third day and ascend into heaven in great glory. We all go through our own sufferings, minuscule compared to his. But if we remain faithful, we'll get to heaven too! Being grateful for what he has done for us and following him with all our heart is absolutely worth it! This also shows that we do have his love in us.   

***How to Make the Lord Notice Us***

         Realize first that we owe our very existence to the Lord God. To make the world notice us, we just make ourselves more important. When we let that go, we allow the Lord to notice us. Then we die to the world and to ourselves, and live only in him. We are now his forever.

***Highest Honor from the Lord GOD

        In today's first reading from Ezekiel 37, the Lord GOD says that he will deliver the children of Israel from all their sins of apostasy and cleanse them so that they may be his people and and he may be their God. I see that if we let the Lord GOD deliver us from all our sins and cleanse us so that we may be his faithful servants and he may be our God, that would be the highest honor we can possibly receive from the Lord GOD.

*****Choose Life, Not Death*****

        March is marching to its end. Soon a quarter of 2023 will have passed. Every one of us is fast approaching his judgment day. Because of the car accident, I've been resting a lot at home. I know I'll be OK soon, but I do miss attending daily Mass. Nevertheless, it feels good to know that Christ is with me. The best thing that has ever happened to me is finding out that he is real, he loves me, and he gives all of himself to me so that I might have eternal life. But much of the world has turned against God and gone bonkers. Rejecting the One who created you, loves you the most and even died for you has to be the greatest injustice. Return to God the Father and you shall inherit everything of his. Reject him and you risk remaining lost forever. I can only pray and weep for you. All you need to do is repent and ask the Father to forgive you, and you are welcomed back to his home. Read the parable of the lost son in Luke 15. 

***No Christ, No Freedom***

        In today's Gospel reading from John 8, Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. If the Son frees you, then you will truly be free." We think we are free when we have the freedom of speech, when we are not ruled by another country, or even when we can freely abort the unborn (God forbid)—yet the true, fundamental, most critical freedom we need is freedom from sin! When you don't have that, all the other freedoms don't matter much anymore. This is really saying that if you don't have eternal life, gaining everything else would be pointless. Hence, we need Christ, first and foremost.

**Pain and Sorrow in Next Life

         In this life, we dwell in a physical body. In our next life, we'll be spirits without a physical body. Not only any joy or suffering we experience will be so much greater, we will also feel them more acutely without the "distraction" of our body.

***Satisfying Prayer***

        As a result of the recent auto accident I blogged about, I still experience a soreness in my right shoulder and the back area below my neck. In the dark and quiet of the night, becoming acutely aware of it has made falling asleep more difficult. Getting up to do something to get my mind off it has helped. But if I was still sleepy, I just turned to the Lord to pray for his mercy on me and the world from my very heart until I fell asleep. It was surprisingly spontaneous and easy, and I felt most intimately connected to the Lord. It shows that how you pray and the surrounding circumstances all can make a difference. A good prayer experience is most satisfying. Again, a case of quality over quantity. 

***Powerful Sayings*

       In today's Gospel reading from John 8, we hear about the woman caught in adultery. The scribes and the Pharisees brought her to Jesus. To test him so that they could have some charge to bring against him, they ask him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?" Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." The Lord surely knows how to penetrate our hearts with words. Anyone who still have a heard should feel the impact upon hearing such a commanding statement.
        They went away one by one, leaving the woman alone before Jesus. Then he asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more." This last saying is another commanding one, but this time it consoles and guides the spirit. 
         Listen to the Lord and let his words change you forever. 

**Be like the Lord

        Today's verse before the Gospel, Ezekiel 33:11, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord, but rather in his conversion, that he may live. We would like to see the wicked man die, but that's not the Lord's way. So let's be like the Lord and work on converting the wicked. The Lord only knows how to love. If we love him, we must obey and do likewise. And our salvation will be assured.

**Opposite Ways of Living

         If you remain aware of God's holy presence, you realize that he is always calling or wishing to teach you something in everything that happens to you, and you respond to or learn from him each time. This is the very opposite of living the life of a lost soul.

**Fear of Death or Lack Thereof**

        Most people fear death. The worst fear might be experienced when you know you are dying and not knowing what you'll encounter after death. It's the fear of the unknown. Not so with the Christian who has already encountered the Lord in this life. Dying is leaving this tedious world and going home to the Father to experience his love to the fullest extent for all eternity! It's something the Christian anticipates with the greatest joy!