Setting Lifetime Goal First

        Before morning Mass started, I had time to see that I must in the overall scheme of things set my lifetime goal first and then let all my thoughts, my words, and my actions henceforth manifest that goal. And that goal should be loving God with all my heart, with all my strength, with all my soul, and with all my mind. 

Detachment from the World

        Right now I have a problem with the wall oven at home. After spending time and money on repairs, the problem remains. How should I deal with it? I recall Jesus' counsel to love our enemies, and human enemies have got to be even more annoying than oven problems and such. Therefore, I should "love" my oven problem too, meaning that I should not let it affect me. Another helpful thought: What if today is my last day on earth? Basically, detachment from the world is the answer, and only loving and trusting in God can get me there.

Journeying from Head to Heart

        For most of us who search for God, we start out with a head journey. That is, we read about the Lord, ask questions, etc., until we are more of less convinced that we should believe. Then the heart takes over. In my own conversion story told at the beginning of this blog, I read about Catholicism for over a year before I decided to join the Church. I have seen many whose search journey remained a head one and they never found God. As we fall in love with God more and more, our journey transforms more and more into a heart one. Only when we journey with all of our heart will union with God be within our reach. 

The "In" Feeling

        Today's Communion experience: I am totally in God's hands. I no longer exist on my own ~ I am in Christ. I am "in"!

Responding to God's Call

        I am one of the parishioners in the ministry of visiting homebound elders. Recently, I visited a lady already placed under hospice care. It wasn't a scheduled day of visit, but somehow I felt drawn to go see her. I had a chance to share with her the joy of knowing Jesus and how much he loves us for about half an hour, with her daughter also present. She passed away not very long afterwards. Then I got a call from a friend asking for her mother, also under hospice care, to receive the last rites. I informed my pastor at the next morning Mass and she was taken care of right after Mass. Four days later, she also passed away. What I want to say is that when the Lord calls, even if it's about doing something quite small, we must get going. The small things can be critical and are often very much remembered and/or appreciated by others, in my two cases, the two daughters. When Jesus called those to be his disciples, they dropped everything right away and followed. Every call from the Lord is important ~ it is a call to bring others to him so that they may have eternal life. 

Detaching from One's Self

        It's easier to detach yourself from the world than from yourself. For example, I went to a gym very early this morning to exercise a little bit and found the best parking place right in front of the entrance. It was about 5:30 a.m. Apparently, someone who got there when the gym opened at 4:30 a.m. had just finished exercising and left. When I was leaving about 40 minutes later, another car was arriving and it looked like it's going to take my parking space for sure. As I was about to look in the rear view mirror to see if that's happening, I stopped because I detected that my curiosity was in part prompted by my self-interest in knowing that I gave that person my space. Perhaps I was nitpicking, but I do know that anyone who is completely detached from himself does not look back on himself anymore.   

Sad State of Our Nation

        In the wake of the recent shooting incident at an elementary school in Connecticut in which 20 children and six adults were killed, our government is trying to pass some stricter gun-control laws and pro-gun activists have started staging rallies across the nation. Of course, if there are no more weapons in the world, and that should include guns, rifles, bombs, rockets...even knives and baseball bats, the world would be a safer place. But my point is that controlling weapons and not changing the human hearts will not stop violence. And banning guns and rifles and still letting abortion continue has to be a big joke.

Joy of Following Christ

        When I was an avid photographer, capturing the desired image was extremely important to me. There was great excitement involved because you could come up with some great shots and with luck might even become well-known. But now, I experience even much greater satisfaction in communing with the Lord in private. No one needs to know about it and there is no desire to leave a trace in this world. In other worlds, I am free, no longer chasing after the passing world. The more we give up the world and ourselves, the greater our rewards will be in heaven. But I am not doing it for the reward either...I am doing it for the joy of following Christ (actually, it's all his doing).

On Bearing Our Cross

        As Catholics we learn to offer up our sufferings to God for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sins committed against him. But for me there is one cross that's especially heavy to bear, and that is the pain I feel when I see other Catholics unknowingly hurting the Lord in various ways. Even after I offer up my pain, the cross does not seem to get any lighter because I see hurting continuing. I rather prefer that I be hurt alone and not the Lord. Then I see that when Jesus asked us to take up the cross and follow after him, he clearly meant all crosses. Also, I realize that if I truly trust in him, no cross is too big to offer up. I feel better.  

A Timely Question

        I finished reading Fr. Groeschel's Travelers Along the Way, The Men and Women Who Shaped My Life. I got a glimpse of how those 30+ man and women lived their lives. It made me see that a good question to ask ourselves is: "How do I really want to live my life?" We should not go on living without answering this question first because knowing the answer can save us a lot of life's time. Knowing how we want to live can make our living truly meaningful.

Jesus with Us Always

        Communion experience. I felt that I was at the Last Supper with Jesus himself giving me his body and blood. I knew that his promise "I am with you always, until the end of the age" (Matthew 28.20) was absolutely true.

One Judge Only

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 2, when some Pharisees saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" The Pharisees were being judgmental again. Jesus told us not to judge others. He is right because every single one of us is a sinner and God alone is our judge. Yes, there is only one qualified to be the judge in all of heaven and earth.

A Do-You-Know-God Test

        In today's first reading at Mass from Hebrews 4, Paul wrote: "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account." If you don't feel it that way, then you don't really know the Lord yet. 

One Depiction of Life

        Today I see life as living on top of a precipice. If you strongly believe in God, then he has a strong cord tied around you to keep you safe. If your faith is weak, then the corresponding cord will be weak too. If you don't have any faith, then one careless slip and you fall off the cliff, heading straight toward the bottom, much like what happens to Wile E. Coyote sometimes when he fails to catch up with The Road Runner in one of their cartoon shorts.

God Makes Us Forgetful

        This echoes the post "Power of God's Love" two days ago. When we are fully occupied with or immersed in God, we forget all other things: our past, our enemies, our pains...you name it. You've heard the phrase "Ignorance is bliss." Now we can say that "Forgetfulness in God is bliss" and this is an even better bliss.       

A Law of Spirituality

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 2, it's the familiar story of the paralytic being lowered through the roof to get to Jesus; his faith resulted in being healed by the Lord. We can unequivocally state that the more we lean upon Jesus, the more he's going to prop us up. Like Newton's law of action-reaction in physics, this is a law of spirituality. 

God Uplifts Us

        At church before Mass started this morning, I knew I was going to meet my most beloved, then I realized that he's already dwelling in me, and I felt great joy. I had experienced the crushing weight of sin in the past, but now everything about the Lord, including the crosses he gives me from time to time, was uplifting.  

Another Mark of Truth

        In past posts, I pointed out some of the things that to me mark Christianity as the truth. Here's another feature that came to my mind this morning. 

        Our God is demanding in that we must love him more than anything else, yet he is not demanding in the sense that he has given each one of us a free will to exercise. Thus faith is made fully meaningful. Imagine that you have a tyrannical god who lords it over you or a god or gods who don't challenge you much, making it easy for you to accept or ignore as is the case in some religion ~ neither would be satisfying to me. 

The Right Thing to Do

        Surrendering to God is surrendering to love and truth! It is totally the right thing to do because love shall keep you safe and truth shall set you free. There is nothing more to ask. 

Pleading with God

         In one of the stories in Fr. Groeschel book Travelers Along the Way, he mentions a Sister Mary who quoted something by memory from St. Teresa of Avila. Apparently St. Teresa's brother had been in serious trouble with the law. In desperation the saint prayed: "Dear Lord, if I were You and he were Your brother, I would see to it that he was saved." It would be hard to argue with that.

       I also pray for the salvation of various, specific individuals, some of whom may not be that holy, but I love them and have no problem forgiving them. So I reason (and realize) that the Lord is infinitely more merciful than I, and if I am willing to forgive them, certainly he'd be even more willing to do so. Creative pleading? 

Chosen by the Humility of God

        I've started reading my third book by Fr. Benedict Groeschel titled Travelers Along the Way, in which he wrote about 30+ men and women who shaped his life. One of them was none other than Mother Teresa. Fr. Groeschel was at the time the liaison between Mother and the New York archdiocese in which some houses were opened for her Missionaries of Charity. Once when Fr. Groeschel felt discouraged that he couldn't handle what he was told to do well enough and thought of resigning his post, Mother Teresa asked him pointedly why he thought God had chosen him to be a priest. Father had trouble coming up with a right answer and Mother Teresa looked at him and said, "You are chosen because of the humility of God. God chooses the weakest and the poorest, the most inappropriate persons to use." She followed up with what Fr. Groeschel considered to be extremely revealing, something he would never forget: "I pray that my place will be taken by the most unattractive and ungifted of all the sisters. Then everyone will know that this is not our work but God's work. Don't ever forget that you are chosen by the humility of God." [I hope that Fr. Groeschel wouldn't mind my quoting these sayings directly from his book.]

        It's true that the Holy Mother appeared to the poor and uneducated rather than the strong, rich, wise or gifted. And Jesus called a bunch of fishermen, not any learned scholars, to follow him. The lesson here is that when we are called to serve the Lord in whatever way, we should realize that God has chosen us, no matter how inadequate we might feel. It's an honor and the Lord knows exactly what he is doing.   

God's Will vs. Our Will

         In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1 at morning Mass, Jesus, moved with pity, touched a leper and made him clean. Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed." The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.

       The lesson here is that we can be so much like the healed leper, getting carried away by something exciting happening to us and forget all about obeying God's will ~ we must listen to God first and obey without thinking about anything else. To do God's will, we must ignore our own will.

Nations in Mortal Sin

        The Church teaches that if we are in a state of mortal (serious) sin, then we risk losing our souls. This makes perfect sense. I dare say that practically all of the nations in the world are in the state of mortal sin ~ look at the suicide bombings, killing of innocent civilians, genocides, assassination of political enemies, legalization of abortion, and many others. The nations are definitely risking losing their souls. Only repentance and returning to God can save them. Since only believers pray to God, they bear the responsibility of praying for the world. Therefore, pray hard to the Lord for his mercy.

God Only Knows How to Love

        You can love God or fear God. We should fear him because he is our ultimate judge, but I choose to concentrate on loving him as St. Therese of Lisieux did. Both logic and common sense tell me that if I do this, then I really don't need to be concerned about anything else, including being judged by him. It also simplifies things, perfectly suiting someone simpleminded like me. If you truly love God, you don't care what he's going to do with you ~ what else can Love do besides loving you? The Lord wipes out all my worries ~ how can you not love him?

Following the Sure Way

        I am half way through reading Fr. Groeschel's A Still, Small Voice, A Practical Guide on Reported Revelations. I found out that even saints had misinterpreted or recorded wrongly the revelations they had received, to the point of contradicting the teachings of the Church in one case. Therefore, I am not going to pay much attention to any private apparitions, visions, etc., especially those the Church has not officially approved yet. I already know the sure way, that is, to focus upon Jesus alone who has revealed to us all we need to know and to follow the public teachings of his Church.

My Joy Completed

        Communion experience. Jesus is the Perfect One. He is exactly the one I need to complete my joy.

The Greatest Honor Is...

to be God's lowliest servant.

Power of God's Love

        If you love God, open yourself wide to let his love completely fill your heart to overflowing. This sweet love will heal and delight your soul such that besides the Lord, every problem in your life will seem insignificant to the point of being forgettable. This is one reward you can reap in this life.      

"Love" Defined

        I start to think about the love of God for us. This love is so pure and selfless that in theory, it's not possible for us to love to that degree. Therefore, it is unique with God and strictly speaking, "love" should mean the love of God or God and nothing else.

Hope Ever Present

         To anyone who is aware that he is in a sinful state he should not be in:

        Know that we live in a pretty much secular, hedonistic society populated mostly by other like sinners. Without proper guidance, the rampant, materialistic and immoral influences around us start to shape us the moment we are born. Now imagine that you enter a world of saints filled with love for God, chances are you'll grow up to be a holy person too. But despite the condition of the society or the world, the hope is ever present. Jesus can take away our sins and make us holy if we let him. Just repent and believe that he is your Savior and you are on your way. This is how accessible and amazing our God is ~ always loving us!

Leave the Judging to God

        At church before Mass began this morning, I came to see that it's so easy for us to form opinions of others whether we know them well or not. The danger here is that what we have perceived or observed may not be the truth, especially after the story has been transmitted through others. God is the only one who knows what's in the heart of a person. His command for us not to judge anyone is most wise because we can turn out to be wrong. Let's leave the judging to God and see all others as his loved ones who may turn out to be good. 

Anchored in God

        I have asked the Lord to change me, shape me, mold me ~ and I do not feel any difference until a test comes along. What would normally get me excited, alarmed, or distressed now finds me remaining cool and calm, and I know that he has worked on me. Basically, when I am anchored in God, nothing can upset my equilibrium anymore.

The God Factor in Life

          Without God, you try to manage your own life and you get bogged down by earthly affairs, never feeling free or at peace.

      With God, you place all your trust in him and are extricated from all worldly concerns, knowing now fully what you are doing and where you are heading. Freedom and peace are no longer strangers in your life.        

Power of God's Love

        Communion experience. It was the love of Christ that I felt ~ so powerful, so beautiful, keeping all life going, and giving eternal life to those who respond to his call.

God Does Not Forget

        Do you know that for every sorrow you suffer for the Lord, he will console you a hundredfold or more? And for every thing you do for his glory, he will reward you a hundredfold or more?

God Calling Us

         In today's Gospel from Mark 1 at Mass, we heard that Jesus, passing by the Sea of Galilee, saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fisherman. Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." They left their nets and followed him. He walked along a little farther and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They too were in a boat mending their nets. Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat.

       Although we cannot hear the physical voice of the Lord today; nevertheless, you can be sure that he still calls us through other means. It's the same voice that speaks directly to the heart. Anytime the Lord calls us, he is calling us to live with him for all eternity! Our only right response is to follow him without reservation. 

Best Feeling There Is

        You know that (1) you and God are best friends and you have no sins to worry about, or (2) you are deeply in love with God who loves you, or (3) you're in union with God. [By the same token, the worst possible feeling is knowing that you are in a sinful state and you are afraid to face God ~ this is being extremely unrealistic.]        

To Be with God Always

        When I see or hear something beautiful, I think of God because he is beautiful. When I see or hear something sad, I think of God because he suffered for me. When I feel happy, I think of God because he is the source of all my joy. When I feel sorrowful, I turn to God because he will console me. When I am not occupied with anything, I feel his very presence within me.  

Start Being Ageless

        When people ask a friend of mine how old he is, he always answered, "I am ageless." He is not kidding ~ he is serious and speaks the truth as he loves Jesus. The Lord promised that whoever believed in him would never die. This is saying that if I remain with him, then I'll be with him forever since he lives forever.

Our Sin of Omission

       Fr. Benedict Groeschel, whom I love and respect, unwisely made some controversial comments last year related to the sexual abuse of children by priests and a lot of people out there used the opportunity to degrade him and the Church. A gay, former Catholic priest criticized him on Huffington Post. From most of the comments on his article I read, I could tell that there were lots of people who disliked or even hated the Church. Again, I believe that they never knew the Church and/or Jesus. Judging others without looking at yourself is always the easiest thing to do. If Christ were here today, they would most likely be turned off by what he tells them too.

         The Christians have themselves to blame for not taking stands when morality started eroding. If you go back half a century or so, very few unmarried couples practiced living together. Then abortion got legalized. Over the years various Christian churches have softened their stands on many moral issues, causing further disunity (Satan must love it!) Even though the majority of this country still claims to believe that God exists, they live just as nonbelievers. Today hedonism is the dominant way of our life and atheism continues to rise. We reap what we sow.

Spiritual Burden

        I feel a lot of pain today because I know that God is feeling it too. The BBC News earlier reported that hundreds of thousands of protesters rallied against gay marriage in Paris despite one newspaper poll showing that 56% of the people supported gay marriage. In Italy four topless female activists staged a protest in St. Peter's Square in favor of gay rights. The Church is against the sin and not the sinner. Even in the case of suicide bombers killing innocent people, God's love for the perpetrators never diminishes. The mission of the Church is to save souls, yet she is perceived as being nonprogressive and suppressive. This misunderstanding is causing the present sharp division.      

Getting Along with God

        God loves us as we love others. God forgives us as we forgive others. God becomes ours as we become his.

Ultimate Fulfillment

        Our yearning for God is proof that God is the ultimate fulfillment. To want to possess all of God, all we need to do is to let him possess all of us. Union with God on earth and in heaven then should be our goal.    

How God Has Made Us

        It is St. Augustine who wrote: "O God, Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee." Then once we find God, our hearts start to yearn for him because our God is infinite ~ infinitely beautiful, infinitely lovely, infinitely attractive. We realize that the desire for God can be limitless and we won't be completely satisfied until we are in heaven. That's how God has made us.  

Love and Humility Extraordinaire!

        After morning Mass, there was a brief exposition of the Blessed Sacrament prior to a scheduled mini-retreat. It hit me that what I was looking at on my knees was the Lord! He was not distant ~ in fact, he just entered union with me a while ago. It's hard to get over the extraordinary love and unbelievable humility of my God which I realized! 

For God Alone 2

        In both Matthew and Mark, Jesus said, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Indeed, if we live for Jesus alone and forget all about living for ourselves, we will experience perfect freedom. Therefore, let's worship the Lord, love him, adore him, glorify him, trust in him, follow him, obey him alone.

For God Alone

        The Gospel reading at Mass this morning came from John 3. Both John the Baptist and Jesus were baptizing at different locations and John was informed that everyone was going to Jesus. John answered, "I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease." What I learn here is that I must rejoice, never feel jealous, if God is being served and glorified by others. How gratifying it would be if everyone else loves God more than I do! One who truly loves God does not know jealousy.

On Turning to God

        I hear so often from people that they are so stressed out in their work or because of problems within their own family. I feel bad for them, but I feel worse that they do not know or believe that God can truly take care of their problems or give them peace despite of the existence of problems. It's a sad reality that God, the most loving and powerful one, does not have the trust of his children. See problems as perfect invitations for us to turn to him for help. He's the one who deserves to be given a chance first. Don't wait until you are on your deathbed to turn to him because you may not get that chance. 

Always a Winner with God

        Today's Communion experience. As the bread and wine were consecrated, I was particularly struck by the tenderness and the lovingness of the Lord in calling me to his supper. After I received him, I urgently begged for mercy on my unworthy soul. Yet at the same time, I felt that with him, I was already a winner! 

Waiting for God

        "Waiting for God" was once a regular TV show on PBS. It's a series imported from England, showing the comic side of life of a bunch of old folks living in a retirement mansion. I mention this because the title applies to living the Christian life. Personally, I see living for God as basically remaining passive before God, letting him love us ~ more specifically, waiting for him to lead us in our spiritual journey every step of the way. This calls for great humility before the Lord. Today's Gospel reading from Luke 5 at Mass illustrates this attitude. A leper saw Jesus, fell prostrate, pleaded with him, and said, "Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean." Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, "I will do it. Be made clean." The leper's humble attitude brought forth the touching response from the Lord.