***Face of Our Lady of Guadalupe***

        The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a miraculous image that appeared on a cactus-fiber cloak (tilma). If you are not familiar with the story, you can easily find it online. Why it's considered miraculous is also worth knowing. You can pull up quite a number of my thoughts involving her on this blog. I'll just conclude this year's blogging by posting this AI-generated image of her which is well done and quite beautiful. To see it, just click here.

***Our Only Source of Peace***

        My last declaration of 2025: True peace, external or internal, can only come from remaining in Christ and keeping his word.

*****The Only One*****

         Today's Communion antiphon, 1 John 4:9—God sent his Only Begotten Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. On this last day of 2025, let me declare that Christ is our Savior, the only one through whom we may have life for all eternity! There is absolutely not another one to whom we can go to get all our sins removed. Lose him now and you lose your way forever.

*****God Can Make You Perfect*****

         Communion experience. In union with God, you are in union with the one who can make you perfect for you to get along with him perfectly.

**Don't Forget Prayer "

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 2,  we heard read that when Mary and Joseph brought the Child Jesus to the temple for presentation, a prophetess, Anna, who never left the temple, was worshipping night and day with fasting and prayer. She csme forward to the Holy Family, gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem. We usually try to serve the Lord by helping someone directly and forget that to worship with fasting and prayer can do as much good if not more. Look at prayer alone, we can reach God instantly to get him to release his power to do good. So never rule out prayer. For some, this is their only way, and that's just fine. The best way is to do the best in whatever way that suits you best.

***Living the Joyful Life***

        Today's Responsorial Psalm Refrain, Ps 96:11a—Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice! Believing and following Christ is living a life of rejoicing in the Savior! This joy is unstoppable, turning all our tears into tears of pure joy.

***Simplify Following God***

         From today's first reading, 1 John 2:17b—Those who do the will of God remain forever. Such a clear, simple statement! Obey God and we have eternal life. Why do we always make following the Lord so hard for ourselves?

***Only Way to Fulfillment***

        People are constantly looking for "fun" things to do to fill the emptiness they feel in their hearts, not realizing that basically, they are looking for God, the God of Christ. Those who have found Christ are completely satisfied, overjoyed, and lacking nothing. We'll all face God in the end. The sooner we turn to him, the sooner we get fulfilled by him.

**Balanced Response to God**

        Christ, our Lord and God, has redeemed us with his Most Precious Blood; this shows how much he loves us. So we should be humbly grateful to him and at the same time not undervalue ourselves.

***Ready to Go in Peace***

       Today's Gospel reading from Luke 2 tells the Presentation of the Child Jesus. Simeon, a righteous and devout man awaiting the consolation of Israel, came into the temple. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: "Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation, the light and the glory." We have not seen Jesus in person yet. But for us who already know him intimately and even consume his flesh and blood regularly, we definitely are ready to go in peace also.

**Our Guiding Light**

        In today's first reading from 1 John 2, we learn from the Apostle that whoever loves his brother remains in the light and whoever hates his brother is in darkness. So we see that the light dispels darkness and makes us love others—that light is Christ! Remain in his light and we'll never lose my way.

**Another Reason for Not Judging**

         Do not judge anyone, for if you had gone thru and experienced what that person did, you might not come out a better person than he is.

*****Most Beautiful Relationship*****

         The Lord's holy presence is fragrant and his love most sweet. Enjoy him to the fullest as your heavenly Father so that he may enjoy you to the fullest as his most beloved child!

***True Wisdom***

        Today is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. The Offertory Antiphon from Psalm 31 reads: I trust in you, O Lord; I say, "You are my God." My life is in your hands. Our life is truly in God's hands. Anytime he calls us to leave the world and go to him, we just have to go. Realizing this should make us put ourselves completely in his hands if we are wise.

***Only God Matters, Not Us***

        Anytime we do something and lose our peace, it's a sign we have sinned. Say we are being unkind to someones in presence of others and feel bad about it afterwards. If it's because we realize that we have hurt the Lord, then it is all proper and good! But if it's because we feel that we have looked bad in the eyes of others, then it shows that we still have that ugly ego in us. Now we have another sin on us! In sum, we should only feel bad for having offended God and never mind what others think of us. If they think of us poorly, we deserve that.  

**Getting Our Pass to Heaven**

        Today's Gospel account of the empty tomb from John 20: On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning and saw the stone removed from Jesus' tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and John, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb." Then the two went out and ran to the tomb. When John saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered the head all rolled up in a separate place, he believed. So John saw and believed. We can assuredly believe too. When we believe, faith is born. We now get our pass to heaven.

**Trustworthy Gospel**

         Today is the Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist. Here's the Entrance Antiphon taken from 1 John 1:3—What we have seen and heard, we proclaim now to you. Know that John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was an eyewitness at the transfiguration and crucifixion of Jesus and also saw the Risen Lord, so we can fully trust all his accounts in the book of John.

***In Gratitude to God's Love***

        Remain in union with Christ, learn everything from him, and let him shape and polish us in every way so that we may become even more pleasing and beautiful to him. Our reward will be great joy beginning now to eternity!