***On Borrowed Time!

        The Lord already knows how much time each of us still has on earth. You could say that we are all living on borrowed time. This reality should awaken us to look far ahead and not just focus upon doing what we want to do. It's doing God's will that matters. In Matthew 16:25, Jesus said, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Amen.

***Be Beautiful in God's sight

         Today is a beautiful sunny day with perfect temperatures. I see beautiful trees, roads, and houses all around the neighborhood. I wonder what God thinks of what I see. Then I realize that he would likely notice the state of our souls first. If our hearts were unclean, they would probably appear as dark smudges to him. A beautiful landscape is now ruined by these dirty spots everywhere. It seems that instead of making everything beautiful for us to see on earth, it's really much more important and profitable to us to keep our hearts clean and pure to make ourselves beautiful for the Lord to behold. 

*****Sublime Encounter*****

         Communion experience. The most exalted almighty God stooped so low as to be one with me, a lowly, wretched sinner—I could not be more humbled and elated at the same time!

****FIRST MUST Humble Act****

         You cam be sure that only the humble will enter heaven. The first must humble act for us to perform is to acknowledge that we are sinners and then turn to the God of Christ and repent all our sins to him—there's no way around it!  Let this be a critical reminder to every single one of us now on earth.

**Are We Laboring in Vain?*

         Most of us work hard all our lives, but spiritually, we may not get any richer. When we die, we can be lost forever. Blessed are those who always do God's will, aware that his yoke is easy (Matthew 11:30). They are the productive ones who will receive eternal life.

**Thoughts on AI*

         I watched a video on AI, artificial intelligence. It made me see that the Lord God who created our whole universe has to be the source of all intelligence. Look at just one example—how amazing our body can digest all the food we eat, extract the nutrition from it, and then discharge the waste—the Lord God had to be super intelligent to have planned all that and made it possible. All intelligence comes from him. We've already been warned that managing AI wrongly could result in destroying our souls! This makes following the Lord even more mandatory, for he'll always lead us to life eternal. 

**A Contradiction**

         Many who claim to be Christians follow the Bible alone. If you read the Bible carefully, you'll see that Christ wants his followers to follow the Church he has established and her teachings. Besides, the Bible as we know it was compiled and approved by the Church centuries later. So you have a basic contradiction here.

***Greatest Treasure***

         Communion experience. the Lord is my greatest treasure, dearer to me than my own soul! Receiving him is truly a heavenly experience.

***Secret Joy***

         The joy in Christ is a secret one, for it is known to him and experienced by you only.

**Stark Difference in Awareness**

         Those who follow Christ know that they are heaven bound, while those who do not have Christ are not even aware that they are lost.

**God Our Sustainer**

         Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 54: See, I have God for my help. The Lord sustains my soul. I will sacrifice to you with willing heart, and praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. It is indeed good that the Lord sustains not only our body, but more importantly our soul. For this alone, we can rejoice and praise his name.

**Wise Observation*

         As we are just passing thru on earth, instead of squandering away these temporary moments, it is the time for us to fix our eternity before facing God.

***God Exists!*

         The fact that after we sin, we feel that something is not quite right and lose our peace is proof that we have a holy God who will be judging us one day. 

***Sensible Advice***

        To be early and ready for anything is always better than to be late and miss possibly your opportunity. Do not put off believing that Jesus is your God and Savior. Capture him and you'll have eternal life.

*****Folllowng Christ Is Right!*****

         On Saturdays after morning Mass, the sacrament of reconciliation is offered at my church. Right after receiving Communion, many who want to confess their sins rush to line up to be as close to the confession room entrance as possible. Is this proper? It becomes clear when you look at the extreme case. Suppose that everyone at Mass that day wants to make a confession and does that. You'd see all the Mass attendees lined up against the walls around the whole church. When the priest continues saying Mass, he'd be facing a bunch of empty pews! This shows that you should not go lining up for confession before Mass ends. Let's look at a second case. Say you see someone you know and start saying something unfavorably about another person. Doing it once seems to be alright. But what if you do that to everyone you talk to and everyone else in the world does the same thing? I wouldn't be surprised if a world war breaks out! It shows clearly that speaking ill of anyones is wrong. What I want to get to is the following. If everyone of us in the world would follow Christ and learn to be as loving, as humble, and as forgiving as he, we'd have peace throughout the world. This proves that following Christ is the right and proper thing for us to do!

***Utter Folly***

         The Lord God is almighty and infinite. We were all created by him, so we are finite and any power we have all came from him. Mathematically speaking, any finite number, no matter how large, compared to infinity is a big zero. If we think we are mightier enough to not need the Lord, that would be utter folly and laughable! I hope you see this and agree with me.

*****MY BOLDEST CLAIM*****

        The only reality is the God of Christ, for without him nothing would exist! (Truth is always bold.)

**Receptive Heart Essential**

        Every time you ask God to bless you or receive his blessing thru a priest, be completely open and the Lord will make you holier. A receptive heart is essential for spiritual growth (entering heaven, more to the point). Letting the Lord have your heart is a smart preemptive move.