***Jesus the Only One

         I am sure many of us have heard that Jesus died for us to redeem us from sin so that we might have eternal life. Do you ever realize that no one else could have achieved this? It just had to be Jesus, for he is God, our creator, and the only one who has the power to forgive sins.

**Self-Denial Leads to Freedom

        Matthew 16:24: Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." So self-denial comes first. To achieve that, accept Jesus totally. Then you'll want to please him alone and not to satisfy yourself anymore. With yourself out of the way, you are now free.

**Foolish, Myopic Living

        People in good health work and play hard; they don't think about God for the time being. This is foolish, myopic living, for you don't know how long your good health will last. The wise would put their faith in the everlasting Lord.

**Christ Governs Our Happiness*

        If Christ cannot make you happy, you'll never be happy. If you are totally content with Christ, you'll always be happy. 

***Joy of Surrender***

         Communion experience. There is great joy in surrendering ourselves to God, because in so doing we allow the Lord to deliver us from ourselves.

**Superior Vantage Point

         I arrived at Mass early at Mt. St. Joseph, so I remained in my car and started praying. Since the parking lot is at the top of the mount, you get a full view of the trees on the slope in front of you. Then I saw a small bird landing right on the tip of one of those tall, skinny, cone-shaped conifers. I thought it must have a superior view of all the things around. I immediately saw that when we have Christ, we have a superior understanding of all the things around. 

***A Most Painful Dream***

          Before I tell you about the dream, I need to provide some background information. I have been a photographer all my life. I basically transfigure ordinary subjects to make them look extraordinary. The images truly reflect me. I might have mentioned the rest of this story sometime ago on this blog already. Anyway, more than 30 years ago, I was traveling in Europe photographing. After about two weeks, I was ready to come home. Then shockingly, all my cameras and shot films got stolen at the railroad station in Zurich, Switzerland. I felt as if my right arm had been severed, as all the images were most personal to me. The pain was so great that I couldn't function for a couple of days. I even thought I'd quit photography. The dream came to me at about 3 a.m. this morning. It was still all dark outside. In it, I felt that old pain again, even worse, for it's like all my photographs are now gone! I actually cried out to the Lord. After almost 40 years, how could that pain still come to haunt me? I asked the Lord about it, and I sensed that he's just giving me a small taste of the pain of losing him which would be so much more intense and worse. I got the point. 

**The Lord Ever Present

         If you believe that the all-knowing God is ever present, you might as well live as if he is ever present visibly and physically with you. Being aware that he is always watching and watching over you can certainly help us lead a holier life,

***Sign You're Truly Humble

         You see yourself as the most wretched sinner before the Lord, so you do not judge (look down on) anyone.

***One Bishop Wide Awake***

         We need to hear Jesus preached, preached, preached . . .

***Messages from Heaven

         This is a very interesting video from LifeSiteNews. It's an interview with Sr. Amapola, a nun with the Mission of Divine Mercy in Texas. She has allegedly received messages from Heaven for years. These four things stood out in my mind after watching the video: (1) The Lord God made it very clear to her that he was God, the only God. (2) The coming Illumination of Conscience was affirmed. (3) So many of today's priests are asleep. (4) God miraculously guided Sr. Amapola to the exact spot where he wanted a chapel built. All in all, God is all-knowing, yet most personal. He is awesome!

***Good News for the Doomed World***

         We were all born sinners and need God to save us. The whole world is basically evil with everyone living a more or less self-centered life. That everyone is at about the same spiritual level can fool us into believing that we're all OK. The reality is that without Christ, we are headed toward hell. The reality is also that with Christ, our journey instantly turns into a heaven-bound one. This dramatically shocking good news is what the world needs to wake up to.

**Measuring Ourselves

         It's best to measure ourselves against God's holiness and not against the world's godlessness. How much less evil we are than the world doesn't tell us if we are holy enough, whereas knowing how much we fall short of God's glory gives us a good assessment of our spiritual state. Since our goal is to become like God, he's the one we look upon as our model.

***Faith Provides Peace*

         I came home from morning Mass. It was a beautiful spring day. Both the weather and the scenery are perfect. On a day like this, you just don't think about the afterlife nor your present spiritual state. So for those who haven't settled their eternity yet, it's a dangerous time! We normally think about God and life after death when times are bad and ugly. My advice is to capture Christ now, then you won't need to be concerned about such worrisome subjects anymore.

**Prayers to Be Heartfelt*

        The Jesus Prayer "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner" is an efficacious prayer many pray unceasingly. But like any prayer, it must be said from the heart. If you pray for God's mercy just because it's a nice prayer, but without feeling an urgency within your heart, then it won't do you any good.

***God Imparts Truth

        It is absolutely true that when the Lord lets you know something, you just know that it's true. This is proof to me that if we are open to God, he can absolutely transform us. Of course, the more you are in union with him, the more you're open and will hear him speak to your heart. Make union with God via the Holy Eucharist your priority goal so that your joy in him may be complete.

*****Be Good to the LORD

        Today's Psalm 116 response: How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? Indeed, the LORD is forever good to all of us; things go bad only when we sin against him. So let's be good to the LORD by obeying him in all things so that we may not get ourselves condemned in the end.

***Letting Joy Reign

         It's Friday, the day for praying the Sorrowful mysteries. Meditating upon the Passion of the Lord is always painful, yet I think we should be grateful that God loves us so much we can truly rejoice. Now, let us deny ourselves, take up our own crosses, and follow him.