*****Essential of Christianity***** (God's Greatest Gift)

        Christianity without the Holy Eucharist is incomplete. The Church without the Holy Eucharist as the center of worship is like the Last Supper with Christ absent. The Holy Eucharist is Christ. If I don't get to receive this Most Blessed Sacrament, I lose my most intimate connection with the Lord. That the Holy Eucharist is in all Catholic churches backs up the Lord's promise to the eleven in Matthew 28:20 that he'd be with them always until the end of the world. It's through the Holy Eucharist that one may seal one's union with the Lord, and be assured of eternal life (John 6:48-58). Do not miss receiving this greatest of God's gifts in this life.

**My Sane Choice*

        Jesus knows everything about us. He knows our hearts, our thoughts, our motives, our past as well as what we plan to do. You might say he's always a step ahead of us. This is evident from the Gospel readings. Being a sane person, I know that he is the one in whom I can and must believe and trust.   

***Tragic Unawareness

        We are all unknowingly searching for God, attempting to find the meaning of life. And we'll reman restless until we find the true God, the God of Christ. The message he has already given us is loud and clear, but sadly the secular world has captivated and enslaved so many of us that they are no longer aware of their spiritual needs.

*****Our Ultimate Fulfillment

        Communion time thoughts. Isaiah 55.9: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, says the Lord, so are my ways higher than your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Yet the Lord is willing to come down to us to offer himself to us via the Holy Eucharist. This is both amazing and a great joy to us. I see it as our ultimate fulfillment on earth!

***The Spirit of Truth Extolled***

        In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus tells his disciples that when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide them to all truth. This Spirit is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity. Let me share what I know about him and some of my experiences. Like the wind you don't seen him, but you see how he has affected us. He can set our hearts aflame with God's love, a fire so intense that it purifies and refines us, yet so gentle that it never scorches us the slightest. The Holy Spirit consoles us whenever we experience sorrow for God's sake and doles out joy to delight us when we least expect it. He is the Spirit of truth that makes us see the truth and prompts us to seek union with God. He gifts us with a super-sharp conscience to keep us holy. This is the Spirit in whom you can totally abandon yourself. He is the greatest mystery and reality in one. I love and enjoy God the Spirit of truth. 

***St. Malachy's Prediction of Future Popes

         In case you you haven't heard about these prophecies, here's a video that tells you the whole story.

***Big No-No!*** (A Big Reminder)

        If you don't acknowledge that your are a sinner, you are virtually dying right now? To die in sin is no better off than committing suicide; it's in fact a serious sin in itself. So get all your sins removed by Christ now if you ever wish to live happily ever after.

***Blessed State

        Communion experience. Being totally occupied with the Lord after receiving him, all my problems seem to have vanished in the sense that they longer bother me. This is as it should be when you remain totally in him and let him remain in you. 

*****A Reason to Be Holy

      Adam and Eve's sin has affected all their children to this day. Know that every sin has its far-reaching effect on others, especially your own children which the LORD treasures. A sin that makes others sin is a far greater sin, for it can destroy more than just your own soul. All the more we need to surrender to God to become holy.

***Truly a Man of His Word

        I pray the Sorrow Mysteries of the Holy Rosary today.  In John 15:13, Jesus said to his disciples at the Last Supper, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." And he demonstrated that by dying on the cross for us himself. The Lord always lives up to what he says.

**Reasons I Pray

         The reasons are many, the least of which is to pray for my own well-being. The main reasons are to be obedient to the LORD, to let his will be done on earth, to honor him, to glorify him, to please him, to show my love for him, to seek union with him, and to be holy so that I may become a most effective intercessor before him. 

****A Small Prayer Answered*

         I use drip lines to irrigate my plants. I had noticed that the lines that irrigated the trees had been dripping water continuously even when that zone wasn't turned on. The valve that controlled that zone must have been clogged or its diaphragm seal had worn out. To solve the problem meant digging underground to locate that valve, checking it out, and most likely ordering a replacement. All this would take much work and time, and in the mean time I wouldn't be able to water the trees in this hot 90+ deg F weather. So after praying for the world, the Church, my own country, the souls in purgatory, my family and friends, and myself at the end of each morning Mass, I tacked on this little prayer asking the Lord to help me solve this water problem. Today my son's regular gardener showed up to whack and pull some weeds for me and I asked him to take a look at the valves. He dug up all the dirt around them and started to hear a faint hiss, indicating that water was indeed seeping through the valve. He dug some more until we could see all the valves and the pipe connections below. All of a sudden the hissing sound stopped. We checked the drip lines and sure enough, water had stopped dripping from the holes along the lines! We had no idea how it had happened. There might be a logical explanation to it, but I didn't care. All I knew was that God definitely had something to do with it. That my prayer was answered was all that mattered. Once again, I thank the Lord from the bottom of my heart.

**Amazing Discovery*

 

        You may wish to visit the website of the host of this video to see more such videos.

**Praying for Evildoers

        We'd like God to crush all evil for us, but we should always pray for the conversion of the evildoers, not their condemnation, for the Lord loves all of us. 

**Going to God

        Communion time thoughts. I wish to go straight to the Lord after I die, not because I am concerned about going thru purgatory, but only because I look forward to going to him so much. Nevertheless, his will be done.

**One Business to Be Finished First

        As long as we live on this earth, there will always be unfinished businesses to deal with.  But with the Lord God, once you believe in and follow him, your business with him is essentially finished—remain faithful and you are assured of going to heaven. Now you just take care your other unfinished businesses if need be without any anxiety.

***Our Greatest Unifier***

        Jesus came and caused division, for not all of us believed in him. Then I also see the Lord as our greatest unifier, for it we believe in him, he breaks down all barriers between him and us to become one with all of us, forming the strongest possible bond forever!   

**Sign the Holy Spirit Dwells in You

        In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus said to his disciples: "When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning." If you do have the compelling urge to testify to the Lord and spread the gospel, the Holy Spirit dwells within you!