**Gratification Now or Delayed

        In this life, many worldlings do their utmost to earn admiration and praises from other worldlings, while some followers of Christ focus upon pleasing the Lord God only. Your get rewarded in either this life or the next.

*The Way Is All Clear for Us!

        Today is the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle. In the first reading from Romans 10, Paul writes, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." If you believe that Jesus is Lord and ask him to save you from your heart, he cannot possibly say no! Never forget that he has already died in our place to save us. Be grateful and rejoice, for you are now free to return to the heavenly Father!

**Becoming Beautiful to God

        As you know, I understand music quite a bit, especially classical piano music. When a pianist learns a new composition, there are so many aspects of it to explore. A good pianist finds all sorts of nuances in a score, and as a result he brings them out and makes the music sound beautiful. As disciples of Christ, the Holy Spirit makes us aware of the many spiritual nuances as we follow the Lord. As we let the Lord perfect us, we become more beautiful to him.

***Our Most Crucial Choice***

         Today is already the last day of November, 2021. As long as I continue growing closer to the Lord, I don't mind how time flies. The Lord God is everlasting, the Alpha and the Omega, and remains the same forever. Everything in the universe depends upon him. Our existence and all-around well-being depend upon him. We must know, love, and hold onto him! If you miss him, you lose your freedom forever!  

***Liberated from the Earth

        Way back when I was in Honolulu on the island of Oahu, I felt that my physical freedom was somewhat restricted, since I wasn't able to drive as fast as I could back home in California and I couldn't go as far away as possible either, as you just go around an island. Since then, I had traveled around the whole country and abroad, but I still felt the restriction imposed on me by the gravitational force—not being able leave the earth for good. After knowing Christ the Lord most intimately, these restrictions no longer bother me, as I am now with him at all times. So there is no desire for me to go anywhere anymore. When I leave this world, my spirit will be ready to soar to wherever he is. Yes, I've been totally liberated from this globe. And it's a joy!

*God's Holiness Purifies Us

        Today is the First Sunday of Advent. Here's my Communion experience. Where Jesus dwells, no evil can exist. The Lord entered me and I became clean and blameless. 

**Letting God Change You

        The Lord can overcome any obstacle in our way. If you put your trust in him, he can change you and/or things for you. More often than not, we are the obstacle. If you have trouble getting along with someone, let the Lord change you first. Should the problem persist, let him take care of the rest. Yes, he can make us new. Let him do that every chance you get and you grow holier and happier.

**How to Eradicate Divisions

        There are divisions everywhere. Among Christians, we have the Catholics, the Orthodox Christians, and the Protestants. Take the Catholics of whom I am one, there are traditional Catholics, more liberal ones, cafeteria Catholics, lapsed Catholics, and totally hypocritical Catholics. Even among all devout ones, some are more on fire than others. You can almost say that no two Christians are exactly the same. Of course, such divisions greatly weaken the Church. But by bonding ourselves to Christ, we can become one and be strong. I am talking about attaining union with the Lord so that we become just like him. This is the only way we can wipe out the divisions among us. This is also another reason why we should seek to attain union with God.

***How to Remain Pure

        Just make sure that every motivation you have is pure. That is, in whatever you do, you aim to please God and never yourself. This may sound harsh, but the peace you experience definitely makes it worthwhile! Besides, when you retain peace, you know you are doing God's will!

**Holy Greed

        When you petition the Lord, ask for as many favors and blessings as possible for you to become holy, fruitful, and be filled with joy, for his riches are infinite and will gladly give you whatever you need for your sake and his glory. How can a Father who loves you to death be otherwise?

**To Be Super Ready

        Today's Gospel acclamation from Luke 21:36 Jesus said to his disciples, "Be vigilant at all times and pray that you may have the strength to stand before the Son of Man." It means to me that we should pray that we may have the strength to stand before the Lord not only when we see him after we die or at his next coming, but also right now.

*** Holy Spirit's Gentle Test***

        The Holy Spirit is a most gentle spirit and his word to you can be a mere whisper. As a result, his voice is easily squelched by anyone without a sharp conscience. Therefore, we know that those who hear his voice and respond are truly being called by God. This is somewhat similar to the fact that someone who believes in God like a child becomes a true disciple of the Lord.

***Staying on the Right Path

         To believe in Christ as your Lord is one thing, but to follow him correctly is another thing altogether. For in today's world, there are myriad gurus spreading diverse messages every which way according to their own interpretation, and great confusion has also arisen from within the Church. As a result, one can easily be lead to false beliefs. For Catholics, we need to seek to attain union with the Lord thru the Holy Eucharist and adhere to the catechism of the Church—this is the safe way of securing our soul.

*****Time to Choose Sides

        In these end times, it is so urgent that we choose to follow Christ. If we don't, we risk being swept away by Satan in the end. I see divisions everywhere: divisions among both those who follow Christ and those who don't, divisions in our government, our society, and each family. Evil has infiltrated not only the largest corporations, but also some of the well-known charity organizations. The Church no longer listens to the Holy Spirit. Humanity is totally fractured! There is only unity among those who hold fast to the Lord in all circumstances. Belong to this remnant group to let the Lord protect you from all evil and keep your soul safe!

****God Not for Emergency Only****

        We meet various people in life and what we see, even within our own families, is often a microcosm of our society, our own country, or even the whole world. A lot of people, Christians not excepted, are interested mainly in things and affairs of the world, are concerned about their physical health much more than their spiritual wellbeing, get stressed out by what they try to achieve in this life, and do not seem to realize that they will die and have a soul to take care of. Here's the only thing you need to do to correct all these issues. It is that you surrender yourselves to God to let him take complete care of you, beginning with your soul. Many people may laugh at me. Laugh all you want, but you really shouldn't until you have tried it to see if what I've said is true or not. 

*Our No. 1 Concern

         Communion experience. How can I possibly not submit to the Lord to have him make me become like him? It should be our #1 goal that we be like him so that he may be pleased and glorified.

***Most Intimately Related to God

      Not only has God created us in his own image, he has also redeemed us with his own blood! Imagine how closely and intimately we must be related to him.

**Clinching Eternal Life

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 17, ten lepers met Jesus and raised their voice, saying, "Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!" He said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests." As they were going they were cleansed. And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned to Jesus, fell at his feet and thanked him. Jesus said to him, "Stand up and go; your faith has saved you." We see that faith is essential to being saved. Then if you continue remaining humble, your salvation is assured. Faith and humility are the one-two that can clinch eternal life for us.