***To Our Heavenly Father

        It is Father's day today. Since we have such a great, perfect, loving, and holy Father in heaven, every day for us should be Father's Day.  

**Jesus Changes Our Plight

       In Matthew 7, Jesus said, "How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." This is true if you do not know Christ. In John 11, Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." And later in John 14, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." So once you know the Lord, the picture completely changes. We are now in that lucky position.

***Be Invulnerable to Satan

         At morning Mass today, Fr. Steve mentioned one saint saying essentially that if your are not enslaved to anything of the world, Satan would have a hard time finding a weakness to exploit. So attach yourself to the Lord God alone to become invulnerable to Satan's attacks.

**Two Spiritual Laws**

      1. You believe in Christ and know that you have eternal life . . . you experience profound peace and great joy.   

       2. You repent of you sins to God and he takes them away . . . you receive great peace.

        

**Worldly Pleasures vs. God's Joy**

        Worldly pleasures are invasive, for they lure and enslave you. Eventually, they become tiresome. On the other hand, the joy of the Lord is purely there for you to enjoy in freedom and remains forever refreshing. 

***Keeping My Faith Simple*

         The Lord just wants us to believe in him, trust in him, and obey him, and our salvation will be assured. Today there are many teachings out there from various sources, some of which are downright confusing or contradictory. And there are also prophecies galore. They are interesting, but do we really need to heed them all? I don't think so because first of all, that would be impossible. Besides, many of them could be false. If not following them can make us perish, that shouldn't make any difference to us who are ready to go to the Lord. So I am just going to adhere mainly to Jesus sayings, using the Church catechism as my guide if need be. 

***Be Holy First . . .***

         You are not free to love God if you are still enslaved to sin. Be holy to enjoy great freedom in loving God.

***Praising God's Love***

        There is no one but the God of christ who can love us with such a great, powerful love that makes us anew, melts our hearts, heals our souls, fulfills all our desires, frees our spirits from all bondage, and fills us with joy and peace. We are indeed most blessed!

*****Stark Truth to Know*****

         If you are not happy for whatever reason, I daresay it's because you do not have Christ yet. He's really the only one who can fulfill us in every way. You have him, you have everything. Without him, you wouldn't even exist. This is the simple truth we all need to realize. 

***Basic Message***

        Christ is our Savior so that anyone who believes in him will be saved from sin. Then not everyone reaches the point of loving your God with all your heart, with all your strength, and with all your soul. So it makes sense that purgatory exists to purify those less perfect ones before entering heaven. It also makes sense that some will be glorified more than others in heaven. As for those who never had the chance to know Christ, the Lord being fair will know exactly how to judge them. The worse case will be for those who believed in Christ once, but have now rejected him.  

***Freedom of Belonging to God***

        When you belong to God, you become his and don't need to own and hold onto anything anymore, for you now have the Lord himself and will have all his inexhaustible riches to enjoy later in paradise.

***Union of Hearts

        Communion experience. The Lord drew me heart right into his Most Sacred Heart. 

**How Important Are We to God?*

        We know God loves us, so we are important to him. But do we really know how important we are to him? Probably not, but we can be sure that we more important to him than we can possibly imagine. The fact that he died for us alone tells me how precious we are to him. Meditate on this often and you'll be so happy about yourself and never ever feel sorry for yourself again.  

***Learning from the Lord***

         In today's Gospel reading from Mathew 5, Jesus said to his disiples, "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment . . . and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna." The Lord set high standards here. We all get angry with someone or think someone is foolish. I think Jesus is referring to doing it condemningly or mercilessly. The bottom line is that if we do not judge anyone and do all things always out of love, we should be OK.
          The Lord also said, "If you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift." We should settle with our brothers and sisters before we settle with the Lord God. This makes perfect senses. Let it be a "revelation" to us.  

***Be Ready for Salvation

        When you ask the Lord to have mercy on you, you are acknowledging that you are a sinner and need him to save you, and that you depend upon him totally. If you don't feel you need his mercy, then you are not ready to be saved yet.

***The Lord Our Refuge***

        Living in this secular world, you see so much rebellion against the Lord God going on, and you can't help feeling sorry for him. Sure, you can say that we should always trust in him and not to worry for him ever. This is correct, but if you love him and are totally with him, you feel his suffering intensely and that you should do something to soothe him as best you can. This drives me to enter even deeper into him who is my only refuge. This means deeper prayer, greater devotion, more perfect obedience, and more intimate union with him. After all, he's the one in charge and is our own hope. But we certainly can show that we truly love him and wish to ease his suffering as much as possible.

*****Incredible LOVE and HUMILITY**

        Communion experience. The Lord let me see that he's my Lord and also my servant!

***Experiencing God's Presence***

        When we kneel in front of the tabernacle in a church, it's easy to feel the holy presence of God. But since God transcends both space and time, he is always present. And you can experience his holy Presence no matter where you are at all times, once you've attained union with him thru the Holy Eucharist.