***Childlike Faith Most Valuable*

        This is today's short Gospel reading from Matthew 19: Children were brought to Jesus that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." As God's children, we need to be childlike in believing in the Father. You may be the most intelligent, knowledgeable person in the whole world, but if you don't have a childlike faith in God, you are not one step closer to entering the kingdom of heaven.

***The View That Matters

        How do you view a city or a country? Do you look at its history and culture? Its architecture? The number of modern skyscrapers and shopping malls you see? How affluent or poor its people are? How beautiful the sceneries are? All such things we notice. But the Lord God looks only at the hearts of the people which we cannot discern. This is the true, realistic view that will determine the eternal destinies of those at that locale. 

*****Most Intimate Experience on Earth*****

        Communion experience. God and I coming together to dwell in each other—it's the most intimate experience one can possibly experience in this life!

***What God Will Always Grant***

        Ask for God's mercy and peace and you'll invariably receive them. 

**How We Live Our Lives Matters*

        Each of us has a life to live. It is how we live it that matters! I can't come more to the point. If you are too busy or not aware of this, you need to stop right now and look at how you've been living your life. Everything we do has consequences. What we do now determines what kind of lives we'll live in our next life. Do we live for God or ourselves? If however we live doesn't matter, then there's no right or wrong and no God, making living totally meaningless.

**Let Christ Refresh You

        Jesus is forever refreshing, for he can refresh you spiritually at all times, especially when you are in union with him. You can always start anew with him, up to the last minute of your life on earth. But why take a chance, for you may suffer dementia or die suddenly without warning? 

***Joy of Going Home (What Makes Life Worth Living) *

        The first thing I felt today was the joy of going home to my Father, also the Father of Christ our Savior. It's only a matter of time. I don't desire that it come sooner nor later; I am just looking forward to it. This is what makes life worth living, no matter what kind of life you have now.

***Power of the Holy Eucharist***

        Communion experience. Believe in the Holy Eucharist and you'll experience the greatest and most beautiful transformation of yourself!

*****Demanding Commandment

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 18, Peter approached Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." (Some translations say seventy times seven times.) In other words, the Lord wants us to always forgive others. So if we do not forgive anyone, we go directly against the Lord—something we must not do if we don't ever want to impair our soul!

***Ultimate Objective

        We usually pray to God asking for something. But even if we don't ask for anything, communicating with God from our hearts always endear us to him, bringing him closer to us. Our objective should be to attain complete spiritual union with the Lord. Be one with him so that we may become like him. 

***Faith Being Tested**

        The world is in a horrible state. Looking at my own country, I see so many lies being propagated daily, so much hatred among people . . . godlessness and lawlessness in general. Good news is always followed by a lot more bad news. Will things reach a lowest point and turn around? At times like these, our faith is being challenged to the core. For those who follow the Lord, they are experiencing a form of martyrdom, even though they know that the Lord will triumph in the end. It's like us watching Christ undergoing his Passion, knowing that he'll rise from the dead and ascend into heaven afterwards. Meanwhile, they must offer their own passion up to the Lord, never deviating from the truth. Mercifully, life on earth doesn't last that long.

***Dealing with Suffering*

        As sinners living in this sinful world, it's impossible to avoid suffering. The right attitude is to accept it, believe in Christ who went thru so much suffering for our sake and is still suffering horribly today due to our unbelief, and offer all our sufferings up to him for his sake. This way we earn merits and will be rewarded greatly in heaven. 

***The Christ Challenge***

        You probably have heard of Pascal's wager. Pascal is a 17th century French philosopher and mathematician. The wager goes like this: If God exists and you believe in God, you'll go to heaven. If God exists and you don't believe in God, you may go to hell. Of course, if God doesn't exist, it wouldn't make any big difference whether you believe in him or not. But if he does exist and you don't believe in him, you'd be in big trouble. So it's wise that we don't take a chance in not believing in him. Let's look at Christ. He is either true or false. If you cannot prove that he never existed, he never worked miracles, he never rose from the dead, or what he had taught was all false, then you'd better believe in him totally.

****Division Among Us*

        We'll either go to heaven or go to hell for all eternity after we die. Witnessing how the world is sharply divided between those who follow Christ and those who reject him, you see clearly where they are headed now. Of course, anyone is free to change his destination at any time. A clear conscience is our best hope.  

***Wise Warning and Advice***

         We only live once on earth. It's a oneway journey and there's no reincarnation. So live the best possible life here and now.  I'd follow Christ to head straight for heaven.

***In Defense of Holy Mother***

         Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary was bodily taken up into heaven, which explains why she doesn't have any relics left behind for us as many other saints do. Non-Catholic Christians erred in believing that we Catholics worship Mary. We don't; we worship God alone. But we love Mary, for he is our Lord's beloved mother whom he also gave to us to be our mother. We also venerate her as the greatest saint among all the saints, for she was conceived without sin. This is completely fitting for someone who's going to bear the Divine Lord. Praying to her simply means asking her to intercede on our behalf. Protestants tend to ignore her, for they didn't find her mentioned much in the Gospels. Well, the Gospels don't cover everything; they are to support, not replace, the tradition of the Church. I remember reading the private revelation of one Church-approved visionary and learned that Mary, out of humility, specifically asked the Apostles not to mention her because she wished that all our attention be on her Son. In Luke 1, we do find Mary prophesying before Elizabeth ". . . behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed." From today's reading 1 from Revelation 11, we heard read: "A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth . . . She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne . . . Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: 'Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.'" There's no question that Mary is the woman mentioned here. In more recent times, the Holy Mothers has appeared more and more frequently to us, giving us messages and warnings from heaven. It's quite clear that God is using her in a major way in his war against Satan. He has already promised her that she will triumph in the end. To understand more about the Assumption, you may wish to watch this Fr. Corapi video which came on YouTube today:

***Being Imperfect a Blessing

        This morning I realized that because I am imperfect, I really need God! Also, for that same reason, I wasn't quite happy with myself. Then realizing that God loves me, I accept myself as is totally. These are big revelations to me.

**Perfect Fulfillment**

        Communion experience. God's love is so beautiful that I just want to obey and follow him. That we love each other fulfills me perfectly.