In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus and called out, "Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is tormented by a demon." He said in reply, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed from that hour. The lesson here: The Lord tests us. If we always keep our faith, we "win" each time.
Wednesday, August 5, 2026
**God, the Sun**
This morning I woke up and watched the sunlight streaming through the window, hitting the white bedroom wall, and making it glow with warmth. I realized how the Lord created the sun to keep us alive on Earth. Then I understood that the Lord himself is the sun that can keep us alive spiritually forever.
Tuesday, August 4, 2026
**Patience Pays Off**
Patience as a virtue is also a great strategy for accomplishing many goals in life. Impatient people rush and make mistakes because they lose their peace and no longer think clearly. To achieve maximum success, we must wait for the right time to make the right move. Realizing the following can help: There will always be unfinished business until the day we die, so do what is necessary when you can. What's unnecessary can wait. Basically, impatience stems from a lack of trust in God. Let his infinite patience be our inspiration.
***Self-Degradation***
When we offend God, he remains as holy as ever, while we succeed in degrading ourselves.
****How to have an ultimately Better Life****
As an older individual, I see firsthand how many seniors face incredibly difficult lives. Many struggle with severe health issues, including high blood pressure, heart failure, terminal cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease. Others endure the pain of major surgeries—like shoulder, hip, or knee replacements—or suffer from the lingering effects of accidental falls and dementia. Beyond physical illness, many also face loneliness and financial anxiety over the cost of their care. This leads to a crucial question: After this life ends, would you want to experience an even worse existence? The answer should be a resounding "no!" If you agree, then place your faith in Jesus Christ today to receive eternal life in heaven. Otherwise, the life to come may be far more miserable than this one.
Monday, August 3, 2026
***Doubt Is Our Enemy*
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 14, during the fourth watch of the night, Jesus walked on the sea toward his disciples, who were already in a boat a few miles offshore. When the disciples saw him, they were terrified. "It is a ghost," they said. At once Jesus spoke to them: "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid." Peter said to him in reply, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water." He said, "Come." Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand, caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" We see that doubt is our enemy. In following the Lord, we must trust in him and never doubt in the slightest. This is how we can make great spiritual progress.
***The Wise and the Foolish**
The wise see everything that happens to them as a blessing, learning from it to become more Christlike, whereas the foolish ignore that they need the Lord and choose to live their own way, leading to self-destruction.
***The Lord Fulfilling His Promise***
I usually share my Communion experience here. If you have not read any over the last three months, that is because I suffered a fall last April 26 and had to remain home since then. I do expect to be able to resume attending Mass to receive the Lord again in a month or two. That will sure be one of the happiest days of my life. Even though I am not receiving this Most Holy Sacrament for the time being, I feel his holy presence every single moment—the Lord is fulfilling his final promise to his disciples: "Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20)
Sunday, August 2, 2026
**No Time to Squander**
After supper, I watched some news on YouTube. As you know, there are so many other videos on various interesting subjects. I was tempted to watch one (I don't even remember what), but I hesitated. While it's not harmful, neither was it spiritually beneficial. That was a gentle prod from the Spirit. So I skipped watching it and felt peaceful. We do what we feel like doing most of the time, but there are times we question if we should go ahead and do something or not; this is the time to make the right decision. We are living on borrowed time; every moment we have is God's—Christians really don't have any time to kill. So we ought to spend every moment serving and honoring God. Then our rewards will be great in heaven.
**Physical vs. Spiritual Death**
Today's Gospel Acclamation, Matthew 4:4b, reads, "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." This is true because of a simple fact: If we have no bread to eat, we die physically, which happens to everyone eventually. But if we have no word coming from God to nourish us, we face spiritual death forever!
*****ABSOLUTE SECURITY*****
In today's Second Reading from Romans 8, Paul writes: "Brothers and sisters: What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." I am overjoyed that I am now absolutely secure in the love of Christ forever! Amen.
**God to Be Experienced with Faith**
Today's reading of Psalm 145, a psalm of David, includes these verses: "The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works. The LORD is just in all his ways and holy in all his works. The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth." All the psalmists show great faith in God. Since the God we believe in is the living God, the greater our faith, the more wonderful our experience with him!
***Our Foremost Calling***
Our only calling is to love and serve God alone. In fact, I can be more precise by saying the Lord called us foremost to achieve union with him through the Holy Eucharist. We commonly search for the exact vocation the Lord wants for us, but once we attain union with him, we will automatically know it.
***Ave Maria by V. Vavilov*
I have posted the song Ave Maria attributed to the Italian Baroque composer Giulio Caccini (1551-1618), which you can find under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos . . . listed in the right sidebar. Today I found out that it was misattributed—the piece was actually composed around 1970 by Vladimir Vavilov (1925-1973, a Soviet guitarist and composer. Here is this song sung beautifully by the Dutch soprano Tineke Roseboom.
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