Complete Integration

       A Catholic must completely let Jesus into his life ~ just believing in him is not enough. Only by being completely open to him as the Lord will he see that accepting all the teachings of the Church is inseparable from believing in Christ.  

Common Courtesy

        Before talking to or petitioning the Lord, always repent and ask him to forgive you any sin you are aware of first. This is to show that you respect him as your Lord and appreciate his great love for you.  

Only Eternity Counts

        It was Jesus who said, "The last will be first, and the first will be last." (Matthew 20.16.) How can this be fair? Though life truly seems unfair, eternal life and eternal condemnation will set everything straight in the end. The short span of our earthly life is nothing (zero) when compared to timeless eternity. In heaven, all sufferings we endured on earth will have been forgotten. In hell, all pleasures we enjoyed on earth will have meant nothing. Be wise and live for eternity, never for our earthly life.

Know Satan

        When Satan tempts you to sin, he couldn't care less about you, for his goal is to attack the Lord. Therefore, if you cooperate with Satan, you are his accomplice! 

What the World Lacks

        Compassion, which is the love of God.        

A Most Beautiful Thing

        It's Christ drawing you to him. So, be ready to go to him.  

Only Jesus

        Communion experience. Jesus is my beginning and my end. With him, everything except for enjoying him can be forgotten.

Greatest Lesson

        The Apostles followed Jesus, saw the wonderful, miraculous works he did, and believed in him as the Messiah. Then they watched him being killed mercilessly ~ it must have come as a terrific blow. With their hopes all dashed, they must be completely at a loss. Then Resurrection took place and reversed everything. The Church was born. 

Beauty of Christ

        Since I am on the road again, I won't be able to attend daily Mass regularly and posting on this blog will necessarily be sporadic too. Yesterday I attended Sunday Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church in a little city where I spent the previous night. It was a beautiful church and I felt right at home. I sensed the overwhelming beauty of Christ and felt pity for those who are not aware of it. My first prayer was that the Lord would be worshiped, praised, treasured, and loved by all.     

Praising God

        Today I feel blessed and elated that among all God's creations, I as a human being was made in his image so that I may return to him in the end. God is to be praised! 

Yearning for the Lord

        Communion experience. The Holy Eucharist only intensified my yearning for the Lord further. I wished to be aware of his existence only and not my own. I suppose this would only be possible when you are in heaven.

Deaf-Blind Generation

        The current big scandal is that Planned Parenthood has been caught selling aborted babies' body parts. The crowd in today's Gospel reading from Matthew 13 reminded me of those PP people. The disciples asked Jesus why he speaks to the crowd in parables, he answered, "This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand." This pretty much describes our generation and I am sure that we've all personally known people like that.   

Being Impelled by Christ

        Today's Communion antiphon, 2 Corinthians 5.14, 15: The love of Christ impels us, so that those who live may live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised. Indeed, his love has impelled me to want to love him and die in him.       

Secret Joy

        This is the joy of living secretly in Christ.        

Joy of Union

        One great joy of union with Christ is that you and the Lord share the same joys and sorrows.

Jesus Dispenses Joy

        Today is the memorial of St. Mary Magdalene. In the Gospel reading from John 20, Jesus after his Resurrection appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the empty tomb and said to her, "Go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Hearing this and what Mary Magdalen had said earlier in the reading, I was moved to tears. I knew then that Jesus, being always loving and gentle, could only give us joy.

The Ultimate Survivalist

        Just last Wednesday, I posted about the TV show Doomsday Preppers on various survivalists preparing for the end of civilization. If we truly want to survive, we must go beyond driving a safer car, installing a burglar alarm system in the house, taking the flu shot before flu season starts, etc. We all are going to die, so the focus should shift to survival of the soul which is eternal. Since the world we live in is a sinner's paradise, we must be sure that we don't get defiled by all the sins that surround us. Therefore, the ultimate survivalist aims at safeguarding the soul, letting heaven, never this world, be his paradise.

Letting God Set Us Free

        It's essential that we spend quiet time to commune with God regularly so that we may get to know him and have him reveal our true self to us. If we do not know ourselves, we won't know how to become holy. Self-knowledge is the key to letting God set us free.