***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)

**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.

***My View of Mary***

        As a former Protestant, I found that changing my view of Mary was not easy. After I became a Catholic, I finally fell head over heels in love with Jesus, and through him, with Mary too. Jesus and his Mother are inseparable. Since our earthly parents are never perfect, we all yearn for an ideal father and an ideal mother in our hearts. The Lord God, who is the Father of Jesus, is, of course, also our perfect Father. When Christ on the cross gave his mother to be our mother, our yearning was fulfilled. Since Jesus is divine, God would never have him born through an ordinary, sinful woman. Therefore, I believe in the Church's doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, declaring that she was conceived without sin. That appropriately made her the greatest saint of all. I believe that she is the woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, as depicted in Revelation 12. The miraculous Our Lady of Guadalupe image preserved in Mexico shows exactly that. In 1917, Mary, during her apparitions at Fatima, promised that in the end, her Immaculate Heart would triumph over evil. Today, the Lord is using her to battle evil around the world through many apparitions. To me now, she is the most beautiful mother there is. I see her helping me do God's will always. When you love her, you end up loving Jesus even more.

***Chastisement Warning**

        Here is a new inspirational video posted by Jerome Chong. While reading some of the messages Mary gave to the Italian visionary, Rosario Toscano, I caught these beautiful words: "Sufferings are thorns, but if offered to Jesus, they are roses."

**Only the Lord Can Convert us**

        I came across this video with the headline, "Convince Me to Become a Christian." We can witness for Christ, but only he can change a person's heart. For it to happen, that person must first turn to the Lord. All of us are merely messengers. I have testified to many about Christ, but until they turn to him themselves, they will remain unchanged.

**Only Ourselves to Blame**

        Jesus came and gave us the good news of salvation. He loves us always, never wishing to condemn any of us. So if we get condemned in the end, we have only ourselves to blame. We must bear the consequences of how we respond to him.

*********OUR GREATEST MIRACLE*********

        To me, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is most impressive and awesome in loving us, and is also the only one who can make us holy and heaven-bound! What more can I say?

**Know Your Future**

        While we are still alive on earth, we know what life is like. We also know for sure that we shall die one day. If death is an unknown to you, then you've a big problem. Since I already belong to Christ, I know that death will begin my eternal life with the Lord in heaven. This completely eradicates the fear of death. You can make the choice now to avoid facing any shock death might bring.

**Our Duty**

        Today is the Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus is not honored in his native place and his own house. This happens to us too. Know that we are to serve and honor God alone, not to seek approval from others.

**A Truth**

        Today's Entrance Antiphon, Philippians 2:10-11, reads: "At the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." If Saint Paul, who once was the most feared persecutor of those who followed Christ, finally came around to see this truth, who are we to refute it?

**The Biggest Fools**

        If being righteous for the sake of loving God, who can lead us to eternal life, is being extremely wise, then the evildoers have to be the biggest fools!