Living or Dying Again

        When Jesus said "You will have life," he meant we should have life in heaven for all eternity. In today's first reading from Revelation 20 at morning Mass, eternal punishment for the dead was referred to as the second death. So if we live right this time, we die only once and shall live again. But if we do not get it right this time, we live only once and shall die again.  

Joy of Life

        Communion experience at Thanksgiving Day Mass. I received sweet joy from Christ, the joy of my life.

Sole Beneficiaries

        Since God does not lack anything, in any dealing with him, we are the sole beneficiaries.

Becoming Christlike

        We attain perfection by imitating Christ. God has created us in his image and is most happy if we become like him. Seeking union with him is the excellent way to reach that goal, for there cannot be oneness if we differ with Christ

God's Greatness

        God underwent the greatest sacrifice on the cross as demanded by his greatest love for us. 

*Fast Track to God

        How do you get to know God intimately to be effectively transformed by him? Or, going one step beyond, how do you attain union with God? It does not work if you just read an author or listen to a speaker who tells you how to do it without involving your own heart. To succeed, start with your heart and go straight to God, bypassing all that's in-between. Seek him directly from your heart and he will guide you directly. This is the fast track.

Who Can Satisfy Us?

        Only God can completely satisfy us by quenching our thirst and filling the void in our life. Not even the greatest saints can do that. If you feel satisfied without God, your have set your standard too low.

Enjoy God Too

        As God's creatures, we praise him, bless him, adore him, glorify him, and thank him. Let's not forget that we are to enjoy him too, for he gives us heavenly joy.

*Most Effective Praying (Earning God's Trust)

        Pouring everything straight out from your heart to God your Father. If you trust in him completely, he will trust in you completely!

*Keeping Motives Pure

        I've been praying for someone who can be considered an enemy to me. What motivates me to pray for him? Perhaps his conversion or change of heart would stop him from giving me more trouble? Perhaps I am afraid of him? Perhaps I want the Lord to teach and crush him? The answer could be yes to any of these questions. Then I can pray for him because I feel sorry for him and want him to be saved for the glory of God. And the Lord shows me that this is the only motive that pleases him.

Being Thankful

        It's the day before Thanksgiving. I am so many things to be thankful for because of God, my loving creator and Father. Of course, I thank him first of all for his unconditional love and mercy. And I thank him for being my shining hope always. I thank him for sustaining my life not only physically, but most of all spiritually. I thank him especially for taking away all my sins, making me feel refreshingly clean, a feeling only he can give. I also want to thank him for helping me transcend the sufferings of life. I must not forget his important call for me to let all know that he desires intimate union with all of us through the Holy Eucharist. I owe all I am and have to the Lord. 😊 

Overwhelmed

        Communion experience. The infinite God is beyond my comprehension in every aspect. He is infinite in knowledge, wisdom, and creativity as well as in mercy, love, and understanding. I can spend eternity exploring his ways and learning from him. God is absolutely exciting to know!

Being Unworldly With God

        I remain with (in) Jesus because first, he is my God and Savior, and second, I greatly enjoy and want to preserve his peace in my heart, the peace no amount of money can possibly buy in this world.  

What Life Is About

        Life is not about all the things we can see, hear, or touch, but about knowing good from evil and ultimately about believing in God or not. (I am specifically referring to the God of Christ here.) 

Giving All to God

        Of course, we should love God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. By giving our all to God, we are saved and become free. This is correct in theory and putting it into practice is completely possible. As always, we only need to remain passive and open, revealing our desire from the heart, and the Lord will take over from here. Now, after giving our all to him, all things become possible for us.

*Vain Union

        The physical union with Christ in the Holy Eucharist will be in vain if there is no union of the wills and hearts between you and the Lord.

What You Believe

        You can believe if God exists or not. You can believe if Christ is your Savior or not. You can believe if heaven and hell are real or not. You can even believe if there is life after death or not. This I know: what you believe now shall shape your eternity. 

Head and Heart

        When we think thoughts, we automatically know that the brain in our head is working and when we feel emotions, we feel it in our heart. I marvel at how God has made us thus. Of the two, the heart occupies a more central spot, for it is the heart that communes with God. Giving the heart to God is the ultimate giving of oneself. Our first priority, more than to keep the heart healthy, is to keep it pure and undefiled for the glory of God. 

*Food of Immortality

        After Communion, I heard the priest in prayer referring to the Holy Eucharist as the food of immortality. In John 6, Jesus referred to himself as the living bread that came down from heaven and that whoever eats it will live forever. In the old days, kings and emperors searched for the fountain of youth or tried to come up with the formula for making the elixir of life to prolong living in this world. Here we have Christ himself for us to partake so that we might live forever! How can we be so foolish as not to appreciate such a gift? 

God's Deep Joy

        Communion experience. I felt great joy and realized that with Christ, even our great sorrows are always lined with joy, hope, and sweetness.

Uniting Power of God

        Yesterday I posted about how we can belong to the greatest family of God. Today on this Solemnity of Christ the King, again I am deeply impressed that through Christ, we can all become one with each other, with God, and with all the saints and angels in heaven. We will surely feel at home in heaven! Let us rejoice unceasingly.

Under Rule of Love

        If God chooses to rule us with fear (which is impossible, of course), clearly, he won't gain any true believers. The truth is that the Lord "rules" us with the greatest possible love. Now, all believers have genuine faith and become true believers, and nonbelievers by their own choice separate themselves from the rest. This is a most logical reality that makes perfect sense.

Saving Power of Christ

        Today is Solemnity of Christ the King. The Gospel reading from Luke 23 tells us that Jesus and two criminals were crucified, with one on his right and the other on his left. One criminal hanging there reviled Jesus, but the other rebuked him, saying, "Have you no fear of God? We have been condemned justly, but this man has done nothing criminal." Then he turned to Jesus and said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And Jesus replied to him, "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Here Jesus struck me as one with infinite mercy and saving power. All the sinner did was to beg for his mercy and he was saved. Jesus is our Savior par excellence!

First and Final Joys

        At the beginning, I experienced joy when I first received Jesus as my Lord and Savior. This joy stemmed from believing that I had been washed clean of sin and was now heaven bound, so it' was centered on me. Now finally, my joy is centered on God, for I experienced great joy in him alone.

Securing God's Dwelling

        Communion experience. Each time I receive Christ, he firms up the foundation he has built in my heart, making his dwelling in me more secure.

On Finding God

        There are many truths, but only one that's absolutely and forever true ~ this is the God of Holy Trinity as revealed to us through Jesus the Christ. I am stating what I have come to know with no intention of getting anyone to agree with me. I have no proof in my head, only knowledge deposited in my heart by God. All I can say is "I know." No one can find God for anyone else, for one must search with his heart on his own.

*Tragic Absence of Humility

        Without humility, God becomes unknowable. In our nation today, too many people play God and blame those who disagree with them. For one example, look at the politicians and their protestors. Remember what Jesus said to the scribes and the Pharisees who were ready to stone the woman caught in the act of committing adultery: "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her" (John 8.7). Jesus is the Lamb of God and we have turned into wolves! Without humility, we have created a tragic situation for humanity ~ the ignorance of our creator. 

Greatest Family

        It feels great to belong to a loving family on earth, but even if you don't have that, you can belong to the loving family of God in heaven, including the Father, Jesus your brother, the Holy Spirit your teacher, the Holy Mother, and all the angles and saints ~ an infinitely greater family than any family on earth and for all eternity too.

*God's Joy

        Communion thoughts. The Lord God created us in his image for his own joy. When we sin, we let him down. Let's be aware that he has also provided us the way to restore ourselves to become his joy again through Christ the Son.

Beating Suffering

        Whatever you suffer in whatever way, don't feel down, for it will pass, especially if you know that your'll go to the Father in heaven after this life. See that each suffering provides an opportunity for you to enter God even deeper.

Piece of Wisdom

        Since God is all-knowing, we'd better not sin.

Ready and Willing

        I've met so many people whose lives are "messed up" with personal problems, bad relationships with others ~ not always their fault, etc. They definitely need help. I am thinking of the Lord God awaiting, eager to lend help, only if they would turn to him and cry out for his help. It comes down to "God is ready, but are you willing?" By the way, God's help is always permanent, never a temporary patch-up.

Our Greatest Gift

        Christ from heaven (thus making the Holy Eucharist our most beneficial food).

Most Beautiful Desire:

To be in union with God to elevate the soul to its highest possible level.

Greatest Common Tragedy

        We become so immersed in living our earthly life that we forget all about God.

Most Appropriate 1st Prayer

        God wants us to remain humble like himself. Therefore, before we worship him by praising and thanking him, the most appropriate prayer would be to ask for his mercy on all of us.

*How to Live Happily

        Do everything the best you can with love for the sake of pleasing God.

*Perfector

        Communion experience. Only Jesus, the perfect one, can make us perfect.

*Faith Transformation

        I still remember when I first believed in Christ a long time ago, I was somewhat intellectually convinced that he is God. Once in a long while for a very brief moment, I did sense God's presence. But now he is as real to me as my own existence! The sun may not rise tomorrow, but Christ will be there. How did I get to this stage? Ask God, for all I know is that he knows.      

Difference in Seeing

        When we see others, we only see their outward appearance and if they move away from us, we lose sight of them eventually altogether. Besides, we can never know everything about those we see. But God sees us no matter where we are and he knows us inside out.

Haves and Have-Nots

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 19, Jesus told the parable of the ten gold coins. His message was that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This sounds like a law. It's true in the case that the one who has faith will continue to grow stronger in faith and the one who has little faith will lose it altogether. Seek union with God to continually receive more and more from him.

Joy of Worshipping God

        In today's first reading from Revelation 4, John saw that day and night the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to the Lord our God who sits on the throne. To an ordinary human, it might seem boring to do such a thing, but do you know that it is the great joy they experience that makes them worship God?

Path to Order

        There will be harmony and order in our universe when we subject ourselves completely to the Lord God of Christ.

*True Sorrow, True Joy*

        Weep only for your sins (Luke 23.28) and rejoice only that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10.20). 

Prayer Key

        Today one of the Communion antiphon was based upon Mark 11.24, in which Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours." This is the key to having your prayer answered. Of course, what you ask for must be something you truly need or what your heart desires and not unreasonable or offensive to God. For example, I would not ask God to heal me instantly if I accidentally cut my finger a little bit. He handles cases that are too tough for us! Also, God may not answer you right away. If I pray for a loved one to return to the Catholic faith, it may not happen in my lifetime, but happen it shall.

No Loving Deed Goes Unrewarded

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 19, Zacchaeus the tax collector sought to see Jesus, but he could not see him because he was short in stature among the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a tree to see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When Jesus reached the place, he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house." And he came down quickly and received him with joy. The lesson for me here is this: The Lord knows everything we perform out of love for him and he will reward us for it. 

*Reason to Believe

        It's easy not to pay much attention to all the sayings of Jesus you read in the Gospels ~ after all, they are 2,000 years old. But it would be most difficult ~ impossible, I'd say ~ to say that they are all false. If you agree with me, then you have no choice but to believe in Christ. 

Root of All Evil

        We are all familiar with the saying: "Money is the root of all evil." To be more accurate, we must read 1 Timothy 6.10 in which Paul wrote "The Love of money is the root of all evils." Of course, the love of money is greed, a cardinal sin; so it comes down to "Sin is the root of all evil."

God's Will Must Prevail

        When Jesus began to show his disciples that he must suffer greatly, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise on the third day, Peter rebuked him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." This shows that we must absolutely get out of God's way and follow his will, no matter what we think might happen under all circumstances.

*What Truly Matters

        In the final analysis, it's not what happens to you in this life that matters, but how you follow and obey God under all circumstances.