*God's Universal Mercy

        God's mercy is for all, so pray for the righteous as well as the evil ones. 

**Most Appropriate Prayer

        God will triumph over evil in the end, that is a given. So while the spiritual warfare is ongoing, our appropriate prayer is to ask the Lord to overcome evil as speedily as possible for the sake of all.  

**Silence Is Enough

        Communion experience. I remain silent, enjoying the Lord. When you are in union with your most beloved, words become superfluous. 

**Prayers God Will Always Answer*

         (1) Forgive me for my sins, (2) Pour your Holy Spirit on me, (3) Make me holy . . . . You see, God's foremost desire is that every one of us become perfect and be saved. If we all become perfect, we'll be one with the Lord and the world will be in peace. God loves each one of us to an unimaginable degree, so praying humbly for ourselves to become perfect is most desirable and appropriate.  

**Time for Self-Examination

        In today's Gospel reading from John 3. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." God has made it so simple for us to have eternal life, so it's alarming that many are making it most complicated for themselves! Time to examine ourselves.

*****Wonderfully Made by God*****

        When God forgives our sins and makes us clean, we just feel so good. Why so? Well, when our soul is not in order, we just lose peace—this is how God has "wired" us. Once the Lord cleanses us, our soul is healed and we are set free! It's that simple. Now you know to feel good always! God has wonderfully made us, so thank him with all your heart. If we feel miserable, we have only ourselves to blame.

***Driving Satan Crazy***

        Every time you see your own sinfulness, you surrender yourself to God more and become even holier. 

*****Being Renewed Unceasingly*

        Protestant Christians talk about the born-again experience. Christ can make us anew in him for sure, but I don't see this as a one-time thing. Instead, I see it as a continuous process with the Holy Spirit renewing us every single moment. This is what make living a Catholic life so exiting!

***God's Love vs. Our Love***

       When we love someone or something, we basically seek self-satisfaction. So our love is not pure. Since God is love, his love is pure and selfless. When we experience his love, we are transformed to love others as he loves all of us. We now seek to glorify God only, and we are set free. Yes, God can make us become like him!

**Small Foretaste of Heaven

        When you are totally immersed in the Lord, you are only aware of his loving glorious presence and become oblivious of everything else, including time. This is but a small foretaste of what it'll be like in heaven.

***Connecting with God

        We are nothing without God—this is absolutely true. So to become something, we need to connect ourselves with the Lord God. The steps involved are extremely simple: You accept and believe that Christ is your Lord and Savior and follow him, and you are connected. This is to have faith! The greater your faith, the more perfect is your connection. This is what being Christian is all about.

***All Glory Is God's

        We all have our ego and seek glory for ourselves. Today at Mass, the Lord made me see that he alone deserves all the glory, and we deserve none. There is only one God, one Lord, and all glory belongs to him. The Lord exudes glory. We can only reflect his glory by becoming humble and holy. When we acknowledge all this, we are set free and gain peace.

***What We Must Realize

       A church friend just had his pacemaker replaced because the battery in the old one was getting weak. I am happy that the operation has been a success and he is doing fine. This made me realize that whether we need a pacemaker or not, we are all living on borrowed time. The Lord God lends us each only so much time and that's all we get. So it would be extremely foolish to live as if our time is not going to run out. We don't want to live on this earth forever; we want to live our eternal life in heaven according to our heavenly Father's will! 

*****The Lord Is Our Joy*****

        Jesus is risen! Because of it, we will all be risen one day. How can I possibly not feel jubilant? The Lord is all about love, life, and joy!

***Letting God Alone Influence Us

        The Lord God communicates with us in various ways. We may hear his voice or get dreams from him, or receive messages from him thru prophets, angels, saints, seers or anyone he sends our way. Naturally, he also speaks to our hearts directly, teaching us or inspiring us to take certain action. But it's essential that we remain fully open to him first. I am open to him everyday, yet some days I receive a bunch of thoughts to post and other days nothing much comes to me. This only makes it clear that it's all his doing. Now, Satan also tries to influence us, so we need to ask the Lord to block him out entirely for us. Anyhow, if we open up to the Lord only, Satan won't be able to approach us. Let's make the holy Lord our only influencer. 

***Remaining Free in the World*

        After I got home from morning Mass, I took a walk outside the house. It was a beautiful spring morning. The skies, clear and blue. The temperature, cool and most comfortable. The foliage displayed the freshest shades of green. The birds sang happily around you. And I wondered why many of us still get so messed up. It's clear that we mess up because we don't follow God anymore, we let the things of the world get to us, and we start sinning more and become self-centered. Now we are heading toward being lost forever. What we need to do is to start out with a foundation built firmly on the Lord God. Seeking to attain union with him thru the Holy Eucharist is my foremost recommendation. Once you become strong in the Lord, you wouldn't want to sin anymore. You can still enjoy the good things of the world, but they no longer can enslave you.   

***Incredible God*****

        A new priest, the grandson of one of our parishioners, celebrated Mass this morning. He did a beautiful job, showing great reverence and with joy. As he consecrated the bread and wine, recalling the words and actions of Jesus at the Last Supper, I knew that the Lord had offered the greatest possible sacrifice for us. I was overwhelmed that he should love us this much and rejoiced that I have such an amazing Lord.  

**No Escape from Christ!**

        Also in today's reading 1 from Acts 4, Peter, referring to Jesus, said to the leaders of the people, elders, and scribes, "He is the stone rejected by you which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." This is a truth we must see too. Whether you know Jesus or not, whether you accept him or not, whether you are a Catholic or not . . . every single one of us must go thru him. There can be only one God and one Savior! It's almost common sense.