*****Mark of True God*****

         Christ is the only leader whom, if you cannot prove that he is false, you must accept totally.

*****How to Love God*****

        God has everything except our obedience. So if you love God, just obey him. This is the best we can do and all he expects of us. It would complete his joy and make the whole heaven rejoice! So don't be a spoilsport and do it now!

**Sign We Need Salvation**

        If I were perfect, sinless, and knew that I was heaven bound, telling me that Jesus can save me from sin just wouldn't interest me. The fact that we can be deeply moved, even to tears, upon learning that Jesus as God the Son actually died for us so that we might have eternal life clearly shows that we are aware that we are sinners and need salvation.

**Jealous God

        In today's reading from Exodus 20, the LORD God gave the ten commandments to his people. He also made it clear to them that he, the LORD, was their God and they should not have other gods besides him. Thus we are not to idolize any other god or anything else, material or nonmaterial. This means that we must detach ourselves from the world and worship the LORD alone. It is only right, as the LORD is both our creator and our heavenly Father.

***Which Way to Go After Death***

        We are on this earth now. After we die, we end up either going to God or falling into hell. Choosing which way to go should be a no-brainer. But we may not quite realize that it's how we live our life on this earth that determines where we'll end up in our next life for ever.

***Jesus' Calling for Us*

        Jesus called his Apostles to give up everything to follow him. Why should his calling for us be different? The only way to follow the Lord is to follow only him.         

**Knowing God Cherished

        For all of us who already know the Lord, we need to cherish this privilege. For he has chosen us and we are now directly linked to him. He now guides and shields us from all evil, and we are on the way to heaven. There's much more, but that's a lot already!

**God Can Transform Us*

        When you belong to Christ, you are set free from the world. We all pursue pleasures in the world, but after knowing the Lord, you realize that such pleasures provide only short-lived enjoyment, while the Lord truly satisfies your deep inner longings. Now you let the world go and devote all your time honoring the Lord. Yes, God can truly change us to make us feel good.

***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.