If someone did save your life on earth, you'd be so grateful to that person and make him or her your best friend. Now, we have Jesus who is ready to save you for all eternity if you believe in him—shouldn't you rejoice and make him your best friend too?
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Monday, August 25, 2025
**Making God Praise You**
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus continued to denounce the scribes and Pharisees for being hypocrites. He said "Woe to you" at least three times to them. You don't ever want to hear the Lord say that to you, for if he judges you to be wrong, you are done for. Instead, remain faithful to him always to hear him say at the end of your service: Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy. (See Matthew 25:21.)
Sunday, August 24, 2025
***Consequences of Sin***
When you sin, no matter how much pleasure you get out of it, you will lose your inner peace and hate yourself for it, let alone make the Lord feel sorry for you. Now you are in urgent need of God's mercy.
**Sweetest Dwelling
Communion experience. In Christ, all our pains dissolve. Thus he is our sweetest dwelling.
***Basic Principles***
Only God can fundamentally change us for the better. To initiate that process, we need to submit ourselves to him.
***First Key to Salvation***
The gate to heaven is narrow to those who have a lot of pride. To the most humble, it's wide open. I've just given you the first key to salvation. To have zero pride is hard, but if your pride causes you to reject Christ as your Savior, you are going overboard.
**Be Last to Be First**
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus talked about the narrow door, salvation and rejection. He revealed that many who think that they are good enough to be saved may end up being cast out of God's kingdom instead. Then he added, "Behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last." It's clear that if we see ourselves to be poor sinners needing all the help from God to get into heaven, we will be saved. Heaven has no room for pride.
*****Encountering the Lord Head-On*****
From today's entrance antiphon based upon Psalms 86:1-3, we have the verse Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I cry to you all the day long. Have you ever cried to the Lord? I recommend that you do that from time to time. Find a time and place you can be alone, then cry to God straight from your heart, telling him everything you want him to know. You can even beg for his mercy the whole time. When you are this open with him, he'll absolutely be open with you. If you've never done this before, it could very well turn out to be a most exhilarating experience! I was prompted by the Holy Spirit recently to do this one morning after I woke up in bed and ended up shedding many tears of joy and feeling completely relieved and free! This is encountering the Lord head-on. When God listens to you, you are healed spiritually!
***God's Ultimate Beauty***
I just discovered the amazingly talented Uruguayan water-color painter Alvaro Castagnet. You can see his works featured on many YouTube videos. It's true that many of our creations are beautiful, but the beauty of the Lord God who created us all is on an entirely different level. Everything beautiful we create merely reflects his beauty in an imperfect way, whereas God's beauty is more abstract, pure and righteous, affecting the soul and spirit. Once you sense it, your life's never the same again. Let his supreme beauty change you forever!
Saturday, August 23, 2025
***God Needs to Be Taken Seriously*
Each time at Mass, we are invited to receive the Lord present in the Holy Eucharist—he's ready to lift our spirit to the highest possible level to be in union with him! Yet there are those who are not interested in such an opportunity due to their pride. And there are also those who do accept the invitation but don't take it seriously enough. They are in no better state. In the Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22), one guest who did accept the invitation but showed up without wearing a wedding garment got cast outside into the darkness.
*** Power We Possess**
Everything we do on earth counts, and every prayer we say to the Father from the heart goes straight to him and produces fruit. This is the Lord's amazing power those of us who follow him possess!
***Daring to Be Different*
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 23, Jesus denounced the scribes and Pharisees for being hypocrites, not practicing what they preach and performing works only to be seen. As Christians, we must exemplify Christ as shining lights in the dark world. This is our mission and we must dare to be different for the sake of Christ. This is living in the Lord and not being of the world.
Friday, August 22, 2025
**Communion Aspiration*
Communion experience. I totally let the Lord assimilate me so that I might enter the deepest possible union with him.
***Connected to God Are We**
We should know that God has created us out of love to be his children, intending that we become heirs to his kingdom. If you're unaware of this, let it be a realization that can change your perception of both God and yourself to help you connect with him most intimately!
***Simple Way to Be Saved***
When you go before the Lord, the slightest sincerity or hypocrisy he detects right away. Always approach the Lord with complete candidness and you'll have no fear and be saved by him.
Thursday, August 21, 2025
***Yearning as Christ
Communion experience. Loving the Lord automatically makes you want to save all souls, for that's what he yearns for the most!
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