***The Lord Most Sweet***

        Today's psalm response from Psalm 119: How Sweet to my taste is your promise. We normally see the Lord as one who is almighty, holy, splendid, magnanimous, etc., but he is also sweet. To me, his voice and his words spoken always with great love are all most sweet!

**Calling on the Lord*

        Communion experience. i called on the Lord, not to ask for help, but to express my gratitude and joy for having saved me.  

**We Are Sombody*

        Today is Memorial of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. God choosing to have his Son born through Mary, a human, shows how how highly he regards us. 

***In God's Eyes*

        1 Corinthians 3.19: The wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God. In the same vein, I dare say that "Relative to Christ, the absolute truth, we are all phonies."

***Double-Barreled Power*

        Communion experience. The Eucharist has the power to not only lead us to eternal life, but also make us holy.  

***All We Need to Do***

        The Lord has come and will come again, but we don't when that will be. So there is so point in thinking about it. All we need to is to be ready, which means that we obey the Lord in all things and be as holy as possible, no more and no less. 

***Living Outside the Box

        We accomplish many things in life, many of which are good and even amazing. But we do them shall I say in a horizontal space, never rising any higher spiritually. It's the humble Christians serving their Lord faithfully that rise above the box, so to speak, as they store up treasures in heaven.

***Incredible Union***

        Communion experience. By the Father's great mercy, the immense gap that separates a finite sinner from his infinite, holy creator is no more.

*****Christ Essential to Us*

        In John 14:6, Jesus declared, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Therefore, without him, we are lost and dead and doomed.

*****Critical to Be Open to God***

        From today's first reading from Revelation 3, we heard read: If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. The Lord is always knocking at the door. In fact, anytime he comes to your mind, it's him wanting to speak to you, but he can't enter unless you open your heart. What a pity you shut him out your whole life and end up being shut out of heaven forever later!

*****Most Intimate Relationship***

        When you meet someone with the same interests, you can easily hit if off and enjoy each other's company. When I was studying math in college, I greatly enjoyed talking with other math majors about math. Since my other interests were piano music and photography, it's great fun talking about piano music with my teacher, and photography with other fellow photo enthusiasts. Now that Christ is my closest companion, do we talk with each other? Of course we do, but when you are in union with the Lord, you and he already know each other fully without any exchange of words or thoughts. The relationship is on the high spiritual level, the soul level. In all other relationships, there is much sharing, but no deep union. 

***Powerful Holiness***

        God's love is most powerful. Equally powerful is his holiness! When you bask in it, you become holy.

***Saving Faith Most Precious***

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 18, Jesus healed a blind beggar because of his faith. Indeed, it's by our faith that God saves us. No faith, no salvation; so treasure your faith and allow it to grow until you totally abandon yourself to the Lord.

***Becoming Victorious in Christ

        Today's response to readings from Psalm 1 based on Revelation 2:17—Those who are victorious I will feed from the tree of life. My thought was that when we follow Christ, we become victors as we overcome sin and secure eternal life! It's time for rejoicing from that point on.

*****Communion Awakening**

        The Lord fully gave himself for my salvation! 

***Our Imminent Appearance Before Christ*

        Today's Gospel acclamation based upon what Jesus said in Luke 21:36— Be vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to stand before the Son of Man. We'll all have to appear before the Lord one day—happy is the one who is ready and can't wait to meet his most beloved Savior and soulmate! 

*****Beware!***

        In this life, we experience both things that make us happy and things that make us unhappy. In our next life, we'll end up being either extremely happy or extremely unhappy for all eternity! But we do have the chance to predetermine all that while we're still alive now.  

***Powerful Payer Against Evil***

        The late Fr. Gabriele Amorth was Vatican's leading exorcist. Here's one of his powerful prayers that can benefit all of us.