Today's entire Gospel reading, John 16:20-23: Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” I just know that one day my joy will make me forget all my past pains, for there is no joy that can beat the joy of being home with my God and Father! And this is also the joy no one can take away from me. Knowing all this alone is enough to make me rejoice right now.
Friday, May 19, 2023
Thursday, May 18, 2023
***Making the Right Choice Made Easy
Since we have a sinful nature, what God tells us to do often goes against our grain. But we also have a good part in us that can make us obey him. So making the right choice is the crux of the matter. We can choose to remain sinners or to become saints. Let me surprise you by telling you that to become saints can be a lot easier than to remain sinners if you allow God to make it happen. For nothing is impossible with him. Try getting into heaven on your own and you'll find it impossible. Now let God do it and it's done!
**Most Important Learning from God*
Communion time thoughts. Only from God can we learn and taste what pure love is like. Normally, when we love someone, our love is never that pure. So fall in love with God first, then we'll know how to love others more perfectly.
*****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.
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
*****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.
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
***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.
Monday, May 15, 2023
****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.