***Humility Being Tested

        If you are truly humble, the amazing thing is that when people misunderstand you, accuse you falsely, or get angry at you, you may be surprised or somewhat shocked at first, but you would never harbor any resentment or think about retaliating in some way. You still maintain your inner peace and only feel sorry and want to pray for them. This is how Christ feels about us.

**Prayer to Complete the Day

        May I suggest that you pray "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy" in bed repeatedly until you fall sleep. The prayer is most appropriate, easy to sustain, and will help you achieve praying unceasingly.

***Being Too Lukewarm?

         I posted "Most Serious Message for All Catholics" last Jan. 12. This is a good hard message that reinforces my thoughts. We may be worse than what we think and not good enough to get into heaven?

***St. Mother Teresa's Great Message***

         https://youtube.com/shorts/rseNJzU7f1s?si=CA7lk3r4c5w38Ysl

**An Awakening Process*

        As I get old, I do see life differently. When I was young, death couldn't be further from my mind as I saw mostly old folks die. I lived as if I was never going to die. Old age changed all that, but not in all cases. You become wiser as you see more clearly the reality of life. You might say that we are all at various stages of a sleep; some are more awake than others. It's good if we wake up fully before we die. I feel blessed that I am totally awake now, ready to enter the next phase of my existence, thanks to Christ.

**Talking About Jesus to Others

        Do you notice that Jesus is hardly mentioned by many Christians? Another video by Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel that's short but right on.  

*Lord and God for All

        Communion experience. The Lord made me see that we all need a Lord and God and he is that one, for there's no one else who can equal him in any aspect. I concur with that totally.

*Waiting on the Lord*

         The Lord God is in charge, so we can be sure that everything will fall into place in time. When a miracle happens, things get speeded up a bit. What we need is trust and patience. An impatient person will invariably lose out in the end.

***Intuitive Faith*

        I know that even if I were the only sinner in the world, Christ would be willing to die for me. So I love him and have no doubt that if I prayed to him from my heart, he would definitely listen and respond to me. 

***Lay Catholic Gone Astray

        This is a good video to follow the last one. It shows lay Catholics can go astray too. It relates to my post of last Jan. 12 "Most serious Message to All Catholics." In that post, I pointed out that being good may not be good enough for entering heaven. 

***Bishop Gone Astray

        Another good sermon was given, but what happened afterwards showed how so many of our bishops had already gone astray. Pray for the purification and restoration of the Holy Church!

**Great Disobedience to God*

       When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, one of the Beatitudes was "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Many global government leaders are warmongers. Let's use the current war between Russia and Ukraine as an example. Many leaders already assumed that one side was bad and the other side good. So they jumped right into helping what to them were the good guys. you can be sure that they had ulterior motives too. What followed were horrible destruction of many cities and villages and tragic loss of numerous human lives. No one attempted to defuse the situation early or at the very beginning. How can you have peace if you don't even find out from your enemy what's really on his mind? Say Putin is concerned that Ukraine joining Nato would pose a threat to Russia, then assure him that Nato would never attack his country first. This could have avoided the war.  By the way, after Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount, he also advised that we settle with our opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Peacemaking should always be our first goal. 

*****Life After Death

         Heres is a good sobering message for all, Christians and non-Christians. Jesus' question of Mark 8:34 comes to my mind: What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?

***Greatest Exaltation by God***

        Communion experience. John 6:51: says Jesus to the people, I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. Not only have I just got a foot in the door to heaven, I am now deeply implanted in the Lord, all set for eternity! 

***Food for the Soul

         Communion experience. The Holy Eucharist is the only food that nourishes the soul. When you let the Lord feed you, you are totally satisfied for all eternity!

**How We Become Defiled

         In today's Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus said the crowd, "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." I see that when you face temptation, it's how you respond to it that will determine whether you remain clean or become defiled.

***Being Smart

         Things will never always go the way you want, so let God's will be your will and you'll be happy always.

**Clear, Powerful Message*

         This video by Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel is worth listening to.