***Our Love for Christ***

        Communion experience. My joy is great. I see that my love for the Lord is like his love, also pure and unconditional—I just love him without expecting anything in return.

***Serious Conditions

        Today is the Feast of St. Mark, evangelist. In the Gospel reading from Mark, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned." We must not take these words lightly, for the conditions of being saved or not are definitive. 

***How to Receive Power from on High

        Just obey the Lord and he will empower you. Be weak and humble and he'll make you strong.

***Jesus All Peace and Joy

         Before Mass started today, I shared all my thoughts with the Lord from my heart and put myself completely in his hands. He was with me and I knew that I'd be going home to him. Great joy and peace pervaded me!

**A Problem of Conscience*

         To see if some belief or deed is good or not, it becomes clear when we look at the outcome if everyone believed like that or did that deed. For example, if we believed that we must always come first or have no mercy on anyone we think is bad, the world would have its people all at war with one another. Then if we all remained humble and selfless, we'd have instant peace worldwide. Sometimes we think that doing something minor but not quite right is OK. But if magnified, we'd see that it's not OK. So we need to see sin as God sees it. Know the Lord intimately to develop a super sharp conscience is the way to go.  

***God at Our Service!***

        If you don't have peace in your heart, it's because you're still carrying your sins. Let Christ unburden you by making you clean, and you'll be filled with peace and joy. In a way, our sanctity on earth, our salvation, our eternal destiny . . . are all up to us, for the Lord is ever ready to make all the good things we desire happen the moment we give him the permission. He is at our service! It'd be most unkind and foolish for us not to cooperate with him. 

***The World-Asleep Warning***

         The world has become so godless that the average conscience of its population has gotten so muddy or dull that it can no longer discern good and evil clearly. As a result, sinful practices and influences have been accepted or tolerated. Guilty feelings are easily suppressed or cast aside. When we no longer live for God, we are already following Satan!  Again, as in Biblical times, we are in a state totally unprepared for God's impending chastisement or judgment. I am not any doomsayer, only a clearheaded follower of Christ the Lord.

**Christ Is Not Our Enemy!**

        In today's Gospel reading from John 10, Jesus said to the crowd, "If anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day . . ." The Lord didn't come to condemn us but to save us. If we get condemned, it's by our own choice. He is our Savior! If he makes us feel uncomfortable, that's because we need him! So it'd be a huge wrong and total injustice to treat him as if he were our enemy.

**Total Fulfillment*

         To surrender yourself to God is to open yourself up to him so that he and you may become one, as in union. The more you surrender yourself, the more goodies you receive from the Lord. Once you attain union with him, you are always filled to the brim. To me this is total fulfillment.

**Are We Jesus' Sheep?

         In today's Gospel reading from John 10, Jesus said to the Jews, "My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish." We may consider ourselves Christians, but if we don't always do the Lord's will, or don't think about or pray to him much, we can hardly be considered his sheep. And eternal life is no longer assured for us either.

**A Great Reminder to All**

         Each of us is a unique being created by God the Father in his own image and is greatly loved by him. So let us rejoice and never judge another fellow being again. To thank the Father, let his love reign in our hearts. We'll now have heaven on earth! Amen.

***God's Love Most Overwhelming!***

         Again on this day of praying the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, we see how Christ carried out his greatest act of love by dying in our place on the cross. The sufferings he underwent were unbearable even to think about. But what really amazes me today is how the Lord so willingly went thru the whole thing in following the will of God the Father. God's love now even overshadows his action.

***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.