**Duty We Easily Forget**

         Today's Entrance Antiphon based on Psalm 95:6—O come, let us worship God and bow low before the God who made us, for he is the Lord our God. Perhaps you believe that God exists, then are you aware that he actually made you? If you are, then shouldn't you seek to know him and develop a most special personal relationship with him? To ignore your own maker is just plain wrong!

***Urgent Notification***

         The relationship we have with God, the God of Christ, must be straightened out before we leave this world. You can make it as easy or as hard as possible, depending upon how cooperative your are to the Lord. This basically involves fighting a battle against yourself. If you have a lot of pride, you may likely lose, but if you are a most humble person, you'll surely be a winner. This message is critically important for all of us to know, for the stake can't be any higher! Remember never to die in sin.

**Two Guiding Principles**

        (1) When we follow God's will, we are set free. (2) When we follow ourselves, we enslave ourselves. This is how the Lord has made us.

**God Is Forever**

         The Lord God is our beginning and our end, but he himself has no beginning nor end, for he exists forever. His plan for each of us is for all eternity. And I know that the joy I received from him this morning at Mass will last forever! 

***Putting All Your Heart into Prayers***

         The Lord loves hearing us talking to him from the heart. If means a lot more to him than reading some written prayer which may not be easily comprehensible to us. Unfortunately, many Catholic are so used to reciting written prayers that they have trouble saying prayers from the heart. If the heart is not involved, you just don't get to experience the Lord. Should you not feel free saying your own prayers before others, you can always do it alone with the Lord. It's such a good feeling to be able to share all that's in your heart with him, for it can truly be life-changing!

***Free Will Wrongly Exercised*

         So far since 2009 I have posted over 17,000 messages all inspired by the Holy Spirit from my heart. Perhaps there are not many who have read all my messages. Bu if you had and still did not believe that Christ is our God and our Savior, you must have a heart made of stone. Again, know that nothing is impossible with God, but we have to give him the OK. 

**Today's Great Feeling:**

 realizing that Jesus knows and loves me—I am really somebody!     

***Most Gratifying One-Way Trip***

        The process of attaining union with God through the Holy Eucharist may take a while for some, depending upon how you let yourself go. But once you get there, you'll feel so satisfied and fulfilled that you don't ever want to look back again; you simply want to go deeper into the most beautiful Lord. 

**May I Ask?**

        Why don't most Christians talk about Christ when they get together informally? Aren't we supposed to love him with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength? If you are not very excited about the one you love, you are not really in love.

*****Only One We Need to Know on Earth*****

        Almost all of us have known or heard about people who died in our lives. So we all entered this world, get to know a bunch of people, and depart again. While on earth, we either got to know Christ or not. I can speak for all of us who came to believe in and followed him: When we leave this world, we'll be going to be with the Lord in heaven forever.

****God's Drawing Power****

        Communion time thought: Knowing the Lord makes you want to learn as much as possible from him. And anything he reveals to you is most sweet to the soul.

*Commandment vs. Tradition*

         In today's Gospel reading fro0n Mark 7, Jesus chided the Pharisees and some scribes for disregarding God's commandment but clinging to human tradition. We are the sane today. We follow social customs in doing what we think is proper in order to look right in others' eyes, not out of true love. This is a hard nut to crack because we all so care what people think of us. I hope that if we realize that this is not right, we are not true hypocrites.

**A Lovely Feeling*

         Today's Mass Response from Psalm 84 reads, "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!" If you feel the same way and want to be there, you are close to the Lord.

**How Open Are We to God?*

        In Matthew 13:12, Jesus Jesus said to his disciples, "To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Based on this, we can say that "To anyone who expects a lot from God, he will receive much; to anyone who doesn't, he will end up with naught." Basically, it comes down to how open we are to the Lord.

***God Cannot Be Fooled*

         If you think you can serve the Lord by doing some good works and gain entry into heaven, but still haven't gotten all your sins removed yet, you are only fooling yourself. Your good may outweigh the bad, but the former cannot cancel the latter. God does not judge us with a balance, but by our purity alone.

**A Top Priority**

        Most of us feel it's OK to go ahead and do whatever we'd like to do if it's not something bad. Strictly speaking, this is still self-serving. While what we want to do seems OK, it may not be God's will, at least not yet. For example, I get an idea of spreading the gospel and am excited about it, but I could be rushing ahead of the Spirit or the Lord might want me to do it some other way. So it's best to let him motivate us and show us the way in everything we do. This takes patience and self-effacement, but follow the Lord we must.

**Awesome Communion Experience

        The Most Perfect Infinite One melds with an imperfect finite one. It was overwhelming and most gratifying at the same time!

**Serving Self vs. Serving God**

         If we just do whatever we feel like doing without considering whether it's in conformity with God's will or not, we essentially serve Satan, for it's self-serving—and we'll never experience true peace. On the other hand, even if we always follow God's will, disturbing thoughts can still pop up. But we now know that they're not from the Lord and dismiss them right off the bat.