***Great Homily to Hear***

        How I wish that all Catholics would have the courage of this priest in times as ours. 

**Which Comes First??

        To convert the world or to obey and love the Lord? The desire to convert the world is strong and urgent, yet obeying and loving God must precede that. For it's from the Lord that we receive guidance and power—we are only his instruments.

**Communion Desire

        I ask the Holy Spirit to take full charge of me so that I may be purged of all tendencies to sin. 

**Lamenting Lost Souls

        Jesus had come to us two thousand years ago, proclaiming the good news that we might have eternal life if we believed in him, and he backed up his claim by performing numerous miracles, including his own Resurrection from the dead. Shouldn't we at least pay attention and look into it, realizing that we are sinners and don't know what will happen after we die? Yet most people don't seem to care! It seems that they have lost their minds. If one doesn't even care about his afterlife, he is lost indeed.

***No Ordinary Food

        Communion thoughts. All foods we eat satisfy only our stomach temporarily, whereas the bread from heaven, the Holy Eucharist, satisfies and prepares our soul for eternity! 

***Determinant for Entering Heaven

        Will we enter heaven? It all depends upon how obedient we are to the Lord, our Creator and Savior. 

***Choosing Not to Be Great and First

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 20, Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave." The world is doing the exact opposite. Looking at our own government, I see that the rulers lord it over us and the great ones make their authority over us felt (I am borrowing Jesus' words here). I can shed tears over that. 

**Reaping Rejoicing

        Today is the Feast of Saint James, Apostle. This is the Psalm response from Psalm 126: Those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. The verse resonates with me. Anytime we shed tears because we are deeply moved by God's love and feel sorry that he underwent so much suffering for us, or see how the ungrateful of the world continue ignoring and rejecting him, we shall be rewarded with great joy. 

***Our Most Urgent Callings***

        Our first and most urgent calling is to obey and love the Lord God, the God of Christ. The second and equally urgent calling is to help the Lord God save as many souls as possible, for this is his primary wish. Hell is too horrible for anyone to go there, while heaven is so beautiful that it's worth anything for us to enter.

***Why God Needs Our Prayers

        The Lord God can accomplish anything he wishes, so why should he need our prayers? I believe the reason is that he needs to know that we support and are with him, and that we love and trust in him. This would hasten the day of his total triumph over evil, benefiting all of us. By the way, praying to him shows our obedience to him, thus pleasing him and edifying us. Stand with the Lord is always the right thing to do. 

***How to Let Humility Grow***

        Do you know that as we worship the Lord, adore him, praise him, and thank him for his mercy and generosity, we become more and more humble ourselves? Now you can let your humility grow unceasingly.

***God More Merciful than We

        I do pray for the salvation of some family members and friends. I reason that since the Lord God is so much more merciful than I, surely he will answer my prayer—I only need to trust in him. And I find great comfort in reading what Jesus said to his disciples in Mark 11:24: "Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." Amen.

**Ending and Beginning in Christ*

        Communion experience. I receive Christ and are now one with him. There is absolutely nothing beyond him worth seeking. I end in Christ and my eternal life begins.

***A More Serious Sin

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus mentioned those who cause others to sin. When you are tempted to sin, ask yourself if that sin will cause others to sin also. If yes, then your sin is a lot more serious and you should wisely avoid committing it. Of course, the best thing is you don't sin at all, then you won't face issues like this one. And that's what you should aim for. Seek to attain union with the Lord thru the Holy Eucharist and you are heading in the right direction.

***Main Focus at Mass

        At Mass this morning, the music was somewhat contemporary. I personally prefer more traditional music. I've attended many Masses at various churches around the world and can recall hearing some truly beautiful uplifting music. Then different music styles inspire different people. The church setting is another issue that affects people differently. Anyway, the Lord made me see that the important thing that matters at Mass is how we dispose ourselves to worship him. He alone must be our main focus and we should not let other things detract us from that. 

***Going All Out to Love God***

        Just believing in the God of Christ is not good enough. We ought to cling to him for dear life! This statement is accurate, for if we don't, we can lose eternal life. The Lord dislikes anyone who's only lukewarm (Revelation 3:16). No matter how we much we love God, we can never love him enough. So do not remain complacent. Follow the greatest and first commandment Jesus gave us: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Complete trust and abandonment should be our goal. Again, with God's help, this should be no sweat.

*****Reminding All One More Time

        Our time on earth is brief. Next to eternity, it's practically zero. Clearly, we are not meant to remain here permanently. While here, we do have enough time to think about our afterlife and eternity. This is something we must do, especially when Christ has already revealed to us the way to salvation and eternal happiness. It's the only message that's been spelled out clearly, positively, and definitively to all of us. I can testify to you with all my heart that Christ is truly our Lord and Savior because God loves us so much that he was willing to give his only Son, Christ, so that anyone who believes in him might have eternal life. With God, it's always true when it sounds too good to be true. Override your pride with humility and you'll see the light.

***Being Truly Smart

        We should be smart enough to know that if we always follow our ways, thing just don't always work out our way. If you are really smart, you would want to follows God's ways. Then things will always work out your way with final success and satisfaction assured to boot.