On Converting Others

        Jesus conquers us with love. He is Lord, but serves us at the same time. We must do likewise in converting others.

We Are the Fools

        Today is the Solemnity of Christ the King. The Gospel reading from Luke 23 shows how great the mercy of God is. Two criminals were crucified alongside Jesus. Now one of them reviled Jesus, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us." The other, however, rebuking him said in reply, "Have you no fear of God, for you are subject to the same condemnation? And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

        I can't help being greatly impressed by the Lord's mercy. Here a criminal expressed his fear of God, acknowledged that he's justly condemned, and asked Jesus to remember him in the last minute of his life, and Jesus saved him without the slightest hesitation. We are the ones, not God, making it hard for ourselves to be saved.

Being Fair to God

        Asking for God's mercy requires our surrendering to God. Think about it.

Bold Humility

        True humility is accompanied by boldness, made possible by God's love. Witness Jesus in action. Without boldness, we have only timidity.  

Levels of Achievement

        I met a billionaire who started out as a dishwasher. He is indeed a business genius greatly admired many in the world, but such achievement does not lift him above the world. On the other hand, union with God is an "achievement" on a higher level, so much higher that one is lifted to the level of the Divine. 

In God's Hands

        If you believe that it is God who is keeping your heart beating and alive, then you know that he is completely holding you in his hands. 

Levels of Humility

        Humility calls for hiding even facts. Suppose there are things that can make me look good. If I have ego, I will want to tell them. Without ego, I probably don't have the urge to bring them up. But if I have humility, I would want to make sure that I do not reveal them.

To Be Pure...

we need to keep all our thoughts and motives pure. This is only possible when God makes it possible. Hence we need to seek union with God.

Most Precious Moments

        The most precious moments of life are those moments when you are aware that you and God are one. You will treasure your life when every moment of your life is precious. 

Life's Purpose

        Life must have its purpose. For life to be meaningful, it has to be loving God. Loving God prepares us for returning to him in heaven, completing our journey. The greatest tragedy is to not complete our journey, leading to eternal separation from God. All the saints saw this clearly. Nothing new is said here, only the same thing said a little differently. 

True Charity

        To want to make more money so that you can give more money away sounds good, but the thinking is wrong. What matters is not how much you can give, but how willing you are to give whether you make any money or not.

A Sensible Decision

        God sustains everything in the universe, myself included. My soul will leave my body anytime he wills. Therefore, the sensible choice for me is to acknowledge that I depend upon him completely and to let him do whatever he wishes with me.

Jesus Consoles the Humble

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 8, Jesus said, "All those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humbled themselves will be exalted." We've all been humbled at one time or another. If we accept those humbling experiences, we should find great consolation in the Lord's saying. 

No Judging of Others

        The saying "The Last will be first and the first will be last" of Jesus should teach us not to judge others.

Genuine Love for God...

remains constant whether life is sweet or goes sour.

Living Blindly

        In our consumerist societies today, people buy what they want now and not worry about whether they can afford it or not. Then they run out of money and end up in deep water. With this same mentality, people seek worldly pleasures first without worrying about any possible consequences. This time the soul can end up in deep water.

Self-Deception

       We are nothing, but all our material aids that make our life comfortable, convenient, and conceited have deluded us into believing that we are important. 

To Have or Not to Have God

        Travel thought. If I shut God out of my heart, he becomes easily nonexistent. If I treasure him in my heart, then he is with me always no matter where I go in this universe. To not have God is to doom myself for all eternity. To have God is to never be alone again. The difference is tremendous!  

Waiting for God

          Timeout is over and I am back to blogging. Today is already November 27, but I shall date each entry as of the day the thoughts first came to me.    

       Communion experience. I wanted the love of God to consume me, Jesus to possessive me, and the Holy Spirit to slay me. I felt that to die in Christ would be pure bliss! He is not taking me yet, but for complete union with my most beloved, what's waiting for a few more days or years?    

Timeout

        Within the next month or more, I won't be able to blog much because a life event requires my time and attention. If the Holy Spirit does place thoughts in my heart, I shall write them down first and post them later whenever possible. All is in God's good hands. May he bless us all! And may we praise and adore him forever!

Our Second Childhood

        We all remember the carefree days when we were young and dependent entirely upon our parents ~ we played most of the time, not worrying much about anything else. Then we grew older and realized that life was not always easy with its ups and downs, and all kinds of problems. How many of you can truly say that you've had more happy times than rough ones as adults? But this is the perfect time to regain that old (young) joy by realizing that we are and will always be the children of God the Father! He asks us to be childlike in believing and obeying him so that he can again make us worry-free, rejoicing in our existence. 

Christ Essential

       On driving back from morning Mass, I noticed that the foliage of some of the trees had already changed to the colors of fall. Shortly next, winter will be here. Time marches on and we along with everything else are passing. The important question is "passing to where?" Do we pass into nothingness or arrive at some eternal destination? For those who know Christ, everything is made clear. There are God and Satan, good and evil, love and hatred, salvation and damnation, heaven and hell. Without this dichotomy, life cannot have meaning ~ everything becomes vague, uncertain, unknown, and ultimately empty.

Jesus Worthy to Be Trusted

        I remember that many years ago when I took a course in using the computer with Windows, I was struck by what the instructor said ~ he told the class that Windows was capable of performing so many more tasks he didn't even know. I suppose you have to talk to the designers to find out all its capabilities. Even though I know so little about the computer, I trust in using it for various purposes, such as blogging I am doing now. By contrast, people are not ready to believe in God until they know everything about him. Naturally, this is impossible even if you have all the time in the world. The fact that Jesus had come and revealed God's love to us by performing miracles, dying on the Cross, and ascending into heaven should be more than sufficient for us to trust in him.

Union with God a Must

        After Communion. Jesus wants us to be perfect and desires to be one with us; therefore, union with God is the least we can do. To be one with God is the most we can give of ourselves; therefore, union with God is the most we can do. Being both, union with God is what we must do.

Jesus' Other Cross

        When we who live in the world are no longer of the world, we feel uncomfortable among any worldly crowd. This can be a heavy cross to carry. Now, Christ from heaven came down to live in an ungodly world ~ imagine how much he must have had to endure. But because of his great love for us, he completely overcame that cross. 

How We Live Matters

        In all three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." This is the same as saying that whoever lives for himself will not inherit eternal life, but whoever lives for God will.

Secret of the Greatest Commandment

        Today I realize that when Jesus gave us the greatest commandment: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, he gave us the formula to attain freedom, peace, and deep joy!      

Mary and the Holy Spirit

        Today is the Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary. Two thoughts came to my mind during Mass. (1) God chose Mary to bear his Son our Savior, so how could any Christian neglect or even dismiss her? From the Cross, Jesus made her John's mother and John, her son ~ surely she is good enough for all of us. (2) It was the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary who made it possible for her to conceive Jesus. Surely we can call upon this same Holy Spirit to make it possible for us to accommodate Jesus fully in our hearts.

Right on Course

        I only know that I came into the world and am now here. Before, I knew nothing because I was nothing. Realizing that I owe all my existence to God my creator, I must stay close to him for without him I'd be lost, not knowing where I'm going ~ just like not knowing how I came into being previously. Jesus showed up and clarified everything. Now I am on course to where I came from. This has to be the most exciting going home trip I'll ever have!

The Lord's Call

        Morning Mass Communion experience. I heard the Lord say, "Be engulfed by me and I'll make you holy." Let's take the plunge and immerse ourselves in his love. 

"Defending" the Lord

        Willing to suffer for God is willing to "defend" him from sinners' assaults. Although we are powerless to shield him from all harms, the least we could do is to stand by him and suffer along with him. 

Telling Sign You Need God

        You may enjoy driving fast cars, partying, fishing, playing the piano, or being an atheist (to do what you feel like doing), but if you really don't want to do any of these things for all eternity, then you need God.

Faith in God Justified

        God, being infinite, has to be all-knowing. Therefore, he sees, hears, and knows all about us. This realization should help us put all our faith in him. Not doing so is virtually denying his existence or saying that he is not all-knowing, which is impossible and illogical.

We Are What We Think

        We won't have inner peace if our mind is filled with improper, sinful, and wasteful thoughts. When Christ makes us new, all these thoughts are replaced by holy ones and we enjoy inner peace. Such is the gentle power of God.

Jesus Our Best Friend

        Jesus, being love so tender, is the gentlest friend you can ever have. As Lord, he will never lord it over you. So relax and make him your best friend.

Concern About God's Indwelling

        Today I sensed that there were still some conditioned responses or reactions to certain people or things in me. I must ask the Lord to eradicate them if I want him to indwell me fully. 

Ways of Serving God

        Letting God do everything through you is the right way, whereas wanting to do everything for God on your own is definitely misguided.       

Simple Logic

        Jesus willingly gave himself to us through the Cross; surely he'd be eager to give us everything he has for our good. Ask.

Resigned to God

        You may feel that you can never do enough good for God. In that case, you might as well surrender to him and let him do everything through you, with you, and for you. What a golden opportunity!        

Inadequacy Is Adequate

        See your inadequacy as a blessing because it makes you dependent upon God.

Wonderful God

        This is the first Friday of the month and we had the usual morning exposition of the Blessed Sacrament after Mass. I adored, praised, and petitioned the Lord. I felt that he was there for me, all for me, and the Holy Spirit filled me to overflowing ~ the Lord is just too much, too much. 

Generous God Simplifies Life

        Two of the many things I've so far learned halfway through reading Garbrielle Bossis' He and I: (1) God wants us to "go higher and higher" because what he can give us is inexhaustible! What is his is all ours for the asking! This is most encouraging. (2) The Lord used the word "at-oneness" with Gabrielle. He wants us to be at one with him so that we don't just do things for him, we do it with him! It's as if when I go buy a gift for him, he goes with me to pick out the gift. I love at-oneness because it greatly simplifies our life.

Big Risk Gambling

        Gamblers playing at casinos lose most of the time. If you don't think that they are being smart, then how about the atheists? The most a casinos player can lose is all his money, but an atheist risks losing his soul if he turns out to be wrong!    

Spiritual Discrimination

        The law of the country prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Yet in praying to God, we freely discriminate against people we don't like. Do we ever pray for those we cannot forgive? for all our enemies? How can we not care about anyone whom God loves?" How can we ask the Father to love us while we don't love our brothers and sisters? This is hypocrisy at its worst because we also tried to "limit" the mercy of God.    

Realistic Living

        Live with the belief that God is infinitely more awesome in every way than we can possibly imagine. This is being realistic because God is infinitely more awesome in every way than we can possibly imagine.  

Centering on God

        We must center on God and never on ourselves. Even when we ask for things for ourselves, we must not think that we deserve anything, but focus upon his love, mercy, and generosity. 

God and Devil Exist

        Two stories hit the headlines today. On this Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Francis lays flowers and prays at his namesake's shrine, urging the Church to strip itself of all "vanity, arrogance, and pride" and humbly serve the poor in society. At the other end of the news spectrum, pop icons Miley Cyrus and Sinead O'Connor mock and accuse each other through the media, escalating their ongoing row. Everyday the news shows clearly that both God and the devil exist.

Seeing Others Correctly

        When we see someone, we instantly get an impression and form certain ideas, often negative without any basis, about the person. In a way, we are judging already. The right way is to see each person through the eyes of Jesus. He would only see a being he deeply loves and wants to save at all costs. 

Loving God Thoroughly

        At Communion time, I realized that the closest parts of us are our soul, our heart, our mind and our body, in descending order of importance. Then I remembered Jesus' first commandment for us: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength" ~ he covered it all!

A Trusty Recipe

        Put no trust in yourself and all your trust in God, then God is greatly pleased and makes you super strong.