**To Move or Not to Move*

        My wife and I have been wondering if we should also leave California, as many other residents have already left for Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, and other states. This wouldn't be so difficult if I were single and much younger. I still remember the days I could easily pack all my belongings into one old car and take off. In fact, that was how I came to California. I parked my car overnight in a garage in Los Angeles and someone broke into it and took all my clothing. And I was left only with my books. Today as I look around my house, I see so many possessions, some really big. To move to a different state would mean disposing of many old things, changing info on many accounts, notifying a lot of people, finding a new home, acquiring new things to start all over again, etc. It's going to be a hassle. What I have is like a big "mess" accumulated after having lived so long. In theory, I can just get rid of everything and leave, but in practice it's not that simple. I must seek and follow God's will always, remembering that I am merely passing thru this world. 

***Special Union Consolation

        In union with the Lord, you feel both his joys and his sorrows. Rejoicing and suffering along with him brings a great consolation to the spirit.

***Living the Secret Life in God

        In today's reading from Matthew 6, Jesus taught about almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Essentially, the Lord teaches that if we do all these things openly to show how righteous we are, then we are like the hypocrites. Instead, he wants us to perform all righteous deeds secretly, known to the Father only, hidden from others. Then the Father wi'll repay us in secret. Blessed are those who remain humbly in the Lord, for they will have inner peace. 

***To Be Perfect like the Father*

        Also in today's reading from Matthew 5, Jesus said to his disciples, "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." How do we become perfect? Answer: Accept and submit yourself completely to the Father's love, the only power that can fundamentally transform us to become like the Father. 

**Love Begets Peace

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus tells his disciples to love even their enemies. This naturally means that they are not to judge anyone. If we do likewise, we'll have peace.

****What the Lord Deserves

        The Holy Lord deserves that we be perfect for him, and he can make that happen. We only need to submit ourselves to him and be willing to endue any suffering that comes our way. 

***Need to Remain Calm and Collected

      Yesterday the Lord let me know that I need to remain calm no matter what people say or think about me. This is particularly difficult in a family situation in which you know everyone well. At morning Mass today, I heard in Matthew 5 what Jesus said to his disciples: ". . . offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles." Then Fr. Steven in his homily talked about shutting the doors to the demons of anger and violence. All I heard confirmed what the Lord wanted me to work on.

***Sweet Sorrow***

       On this Father's Day, I feel great sorrow for our most loving Father because so many of us still reject his Son, our Savior. Then my sorrow turns sweet because I realize that I am suffering for the Father's sake. 

**Only Appropriate Response*

        Communion experience. God's love and mercy makes me speechless and want to submit myself to him completely.

**Responding to Anyone

        Our response to anyone should be exactly how the Lord himself would respond in our situation. That is, we let the Holy Spirit guide us entirely.

**The Lord Died So That We Might Live*

        Today is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, "Christ indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." How appropriate it is that since he died for us, we should now live for him!

****Critical Awareness

         To let God change us, we must acknowledge that we are sinners and need him to do it. This is critical. Otherwise, we remain in sin and that's a most horrible thought. 

***Way to Become Holy

        Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus exclaimed: "I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the little ones. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." On this holy day, what I learned from Fr. Phil's homily was that we must always speak from our hearts with humility. I see that if we can do that, we are holy.

***Special Love for Mary Our Mother***

        During morning Mass, I felt the special love many of us have for the Holy Mother. We were all born of a mother on earth who is special to us. Of course, our earthly mother may not be able to love us for whatever reason, and the Lord knows that. So he gave us a perfect Mother in heaven who can always watch over us and lead us to her Son, our Lord and Savior. That's why she is so special to me. She's my perfect companion in doing God's will and I love her with all my heart and soul. She is inseparable from me as the Lord, the only difference being that the Lord alone is God and is to be worshipped. If you believe that you love Jesus and don't need Mary and all the other saints who truly love the LORD, then you've been misguided. 

*****Faith Means a Lot to God

        When you attain union with the Lord, you experience freedom, peace, and joy. He showed me today that if you experience only sorrow but still believe that he is with you, he will bless you extra. 

***Highest Level of Intimacy

        Communion experience. By receiving the Lord into me with all my heart and soul, he raises me to the highest level of intimacy with him.

***Rejoice if You Follow Christ*****

        Because Christ loves us with a pure love, we can also love him and others with a pure love. Because his love for us is infinite, our love for him and others can also be boundless. Being most holy, he can make us holy. Being most beautiful, he can make us beautiful. Last, he is the life eternal. By remaining in union with him, we have life eternal too. We can not possibly get any better!

***Sanctity alone Shines Bright

        The saints are the ones that shine the brightest before the Lord. How high a position you hold within the Church on earth is not a determinant.