"Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Friday, September 5, 2025

***On Communion Experience**

         You adore the Lord. After you receive him in the Holy Eucharist, he now dwells in you. Adoration becomes more internal. The experience humbles and sanctifies you. More peace and joy ensue.

**Communion Experience

         To receive the Lord is to surrender to him so as to let his love make you whole. 

**Rejoicing in the One Forever New**

         In this world, everything eventually perishes, but Christ remains the same forever—I could say that he remains new forever. This makes following him exciting and satisfying. He's the one to rejoice in always!

***All or Nothing with God*

        If you pray for God's protection against evil or anything, you must be willing to put yourself in his hands. If you pretty much think that you can take care of yourself, then any request for protection just can't be serious. It's like telling God that you love him but don't come too close. With the Lord God, it has to be all or nothing, for you can't possibly trust in any god who doesn't demand total obedience.

Thursday, September 4, 2025

***What a Christian Looks Forward To

        The spirit within us basically seeks freedom. Follow Christ and that is achieved. You now see the day you leave this world as your day of liberation! For you now will be free with your Savior forever!

***Holy Rule*

         Never do anything to make people see or think that you are good; do only whatever the Holy Spirit prompts you to do.

***Know Our Place***

         No matter how smart we are, we can never create life, for God is the sole source of life! It's he who keeps us alive! Even if we can duplicate a human body (which we can't), it will remain lifeless. Because we have life, we have a conscience. Now, this would be even more impossible for us to create. So we need to remain humble and submit ourselves totally to the Lord God who's our sole creator and Lord. By the way, he created us out of pure love, in case you are not aware.

***Reason to Rejoice!***

         How good it is that we have a Lord who can read and loves to speak to our hearts!

***** How to Live Forever*****

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus called Simon, James, and John, and they left everything and followed him. What an ideal and beautiful act! This is precisely the way to be set free from sin and go to heaven!    

**A Central Truth**

         Colossians 1:13-14 from today's first reading: God delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the Kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. This statement by the Apostle Paul is important for all of us, whether Christians or not, to understand, for it's a statement of truth, not to be dismissed!

**Loving God Full-Time

        We usually turn to God for help only when our hearts are troubled. This falls far short of fulfilling the greatest commandment "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" given to us by Jesus. Turning to God to praise and thank him even when everything is fine is just as important. Loving God is not a seasonal thing; it should be a full-time job.

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

**Jesus, Cause of Unease**

        People are in various stages of wakefulness when they hear Christ mentioned. It seems that the name makes many feel uneasy because they know that they are sinners. You tell some of them about the Lord and they just go on as if they didn't even hear you. In the worse case, they accuse you of judging them! I believe that all of us are situated somewhere between not believing in Christ at all and believing in him wholeheartedly, and we could move either direction. Note that Christ is not like any other subject which you can talk about freely and no one puts up any guard. Perhaps people do sense that he might truly be the Lord who can read our hearts and will come to judge us. Last, I can testify that if you believe in Christ with all your heart, you'll experience the great possible ease and comfort.

**Christ Readies Us

         Communion experience. You are now all Christ's ... you are home! It would make a perfect last moment on earth.

***A Most Beautiful Thing***

         We all remember the time when we were kids, we just played, did all kinds of fun things, were excited about making new discoveries and learning new things ... while feeling carefree the whole time because our parents took care of everything for us. Now we have our heavenly Father who can take even better care of us, and if we trust in him we can become even more carefree! If you don't believe me, let me ask you if have ever tried it. If you had, then how far did you go? The first thing I sensed this morning at Mass was that trusting in Christ like a little child is absolutely a most beautiful thing, for it does make you feel carefree again!

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

**Obvious Conclusion**

         The Lord God is omnipotent and loves us with the greatest love; therefore, he can and will totally fulfill us, perfect us, and save us for all eternity if we let him.

***All God's Doing***

         We are never somebody until God makes us somebody. That is, we are lowly until God exalts us.

**Christian Perspective on Living**

        In today's first reading from 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul reminded the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord would come like a thief at night. Therefore, they must not sleep, but stay alert and sober. I am thinking that if we knew the exact day of the Lord's coming, most likely we'd slack off and not get ready until he's about to show up. This wouldn't be good for us! The proper way is to live every day as if it's our last day on earth, then it won't matter when the Lord is going to come. We focus upon loving and serving the Lord every moment in peace and with joy, knowing that the very best is to come.  

Monday, September 1, 2025

**Down to Two Choices*

        We either let God divide or unite us. The first choice will result in the separation of those who are against him from those for him. This division will be permanent and heart-wrenching for many. On the other end, the second choice will result in the union among those who follow the Lord. This union will also be permanent and so strong that no other force can possibly break it up. To each his own. But I do pray with all my heart that that we'll all be united as one flock under one shepherd, Christ the Lord.