Those who do not know Christ have no idea how sad life would be without him. But those who know Christ realize this most keenly, for life would be meaningless without him, which is saying that life is completely fulfilled with him.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
In God's Good Hands
One day last month, I got sick and wondered how I was going to perform all the things that had been scheduled for the day after the next. So I placed myself completely at God's mercy. Knowing that I was in the best possible hands, I felt at peace. I did recover well enough the next day to perform all the tasks scheduled for the following day. It's best to trust in God and not worry, and he delivers.
Urgency for Salvation!
We are living in an imperfect, sinful world, facing tests every moment to see how perfect and holy we are. To fail these tests continuously is to invite self-condemnation at the end. How urgently we need Christ, the light of the world, the resurrection and the life, to save us for all eternity!
*Most Foolish Game
Also most common Game in town. You are so self-centered that you play God yourself, even though deep down you know you cannot save your own soul.
Sad Questions
Our God the Father and our creator deservers all our trust and love, yet how many of his children truly know him and how many of those who know him truly love him?
Ideal Living
Today I'll share thoughts that came to me within the last 5 weeks or so.
God can easily make us holy so that no evil dare touch or influence us anymore. Let him so transform you that you might enjoy living with inner peace.
Monday, September 10, 2018
**Best Soulmate*
Do you realize that when you are in union with God, he is your soulmate? [Note: Again, this month will be a short month of blogging, for circumstances will prevent me from attending daily Mass and having access to a computer. Please check back after Oct. 16. Of course, your are welcome to read my old posts. More to the point, I pray that you will truly seek union with God, making him your soulmate – the purpose of this blog. Once you attain union, God will speak directly to your heart and you won't need to read me anymore, for whatever you get from me is only second-hand information. God bless you all abundantly.]
Good vs Evil
An evil person is one who is sole interested in his own preservation and welfare. He is self-centered, has no conscience, and no tolerance for anyone who disagrees with him, and is therefore a hypocrite. If cornered or exposed, he lashes out even more with lies and hatred. Sadly, you can see many such examples today in our world. On the other hand, a holy person is one who remains humble, loving, and peaceful, condemning never the sinner, only the sins. He prays to God to crush evil, but still save all the souls. In sum, he is Christlike. The good certainly make the bad look worse, while the bad make the good look even better. To be evil is surely to be a loser.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
*Intoxicated With God
Communion experience. It was sweet, exhilarating, completely satisfying, yet feeling deeply peaceful to be drunk with the Lord. The soul experienced him and was made whole.
Most Memorable Visit From God
Decades ago I had an emergency and ended up in a hospital. While I was still feeling weak and helpless, a lady entered my room to ask me if I would like to receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist, for she was a Eucharistic minister visiting the sick from the neighborhood church to which I now belong. I was surprised and overjoyed that the Lord should visit me at this crucial time to bolster my strength and spirit. A day I shall always remember.
A Lament
Great crowds pack the great churches such as the Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Paris, St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Sadly, they are mostly curious tourists admiring the interior and the architecture, not there to worship or even seek Christ.
***Perfect Prayer***
I went to the first morning Mass at church on this Sunday. When you go before the Lord, what do you have to say to him? What are you going to ask from him? It seems that a good way of praying is to go before him, say nothing, not ask for anything, but submit yourself completely to him. This is perfect obedience to let the Lord do whatever he wants with you, setting you free. Just imagine, if everyone does this, we'd certainly have instant peace and total salvation! And rejoicing can begin now and last through eternity! Saying nothing but submitting totally to God has to be one perfect prayer.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Why Not Be Holy?
If you let God take away your sins, why not follow up by asking him to make you holy? People don't do that because they know they would sin again, which is sad. Here's why you should seek union with God. In union, the Lord removes your desire to sin and at the same time inspires you to remain holy. This is how inner peace is born.
Jesus Our Treasure
For all of us, Jesus should be our most precious treasure. For he is the only one who can liberate us spiritually, and as our creator, mold and shape us into a new being, beautiful for him to behold. Now, to love becomes our vocation and heaven our final destination.
*Intuitive Proof God Created Us
It amazes me that we all know that the heart handles our feelings and emotions, and our brain does the thinking and reasoning, while both are merely organs of our physical body. And we all have an inborn conscience too. Intuitively, I clearly sense that God must have created us.
***My Proof That God Is Real***
I have mentioned that the joy of Christ comes when it comes. You never know when the Holy Spirit is going to surprise you, and what a beautiful, sensational surprise it is! It's as if the Lord ignites that joy within your heart, and it bursts forth instantly, seizing your entire being. It's so powerful that you willingly let yourself be crushed by this sweet love. You just know that it's the Lord. Truly I can say that God is my joy!
Thursday, September 6, 2018
***Unbelievable Experience
Communion experience. I didn't need to enter the Holy of Holies; rather, the Lord God came and enter to dwell in me! Unbelievable, but his infinite love had made it happen.
***Most Fundamental Commitment & Call
Chastity, poverty, and obedience make up the three vows for men and women religious. A more fundamental commitment for all of us who love the Lord to make is to abandon ourselves in him, more important than any vow. Broadly speaking, one's vocation call is to be a religious or to remain a layperson. The most fundamental call for a Christian is to be holy, underlying any other call.
Choosing Your Path
Follow Jesus faithfully and you cannot help but end up in heaven. Follow yourself and you'll invariably end up being lost forever. There may be other ways to follow, but there can be only one true path.
**Solid Link to God
Because Jesus has come to us as God the Son, we can now be solidly linked to God. Jesus has said to all, "If you knew me, you would know my Father also." We can no longer say we don't see or hear God or we cannot get to know him. In fact, we can receive his body and blood in the Holy Eucharist and attain union with him! God is now all ours for the asking.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Liberated From the Self
Communion experience. One who lives a self-centered life is not free. Receiving the Lord and being liberated by him is all about forgetting about yourself and living for him alone.
**Our Key Revelation
The Apostles (Judas Iscariot excepted) knew that Jesus was the Christ. That was a tremendous revelation (gift) from God. If we also recognize and believe that Jesus is our Savior, then we have also been chosen. Now we are God's own.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
**Most Exciting Living*
Life becomes most exciting and rewarding when you go all out for God. For your discover that you can attain union with the Almighty and be transformed by him into a creature delightful to him! You can't help but be delighted about yourself too.
*Obedience Makes Perfection
The Lord is perfect. On earth with his help, we can grow to be more perfect. But compared to him, we'll always be imperfect. How perfect we can be depends upon how much we are obedient to him.
**The God Who Is Love
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus taught the people and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority. As a matter of fact, he spoke throughout his ministry with authority and power, yet he is never authoritarian. He is the Lord, but never lord it over us. He is truly the God who is love.
**How to Love Right
To truly show your love for someone is to respect that person's wish and not do to him what you think might make him happy. For example, my son gives me a nice gift on Father's day. I appreciate that. But I would be so much happier if he would watch some videos I sincerely wish he'd watch instead. In other words, you take into consideration of what your loved one desires. It's the same way to love God. We simply obey him, not doing what we think might please him, which, of course, could turn out to be the same thing, but the motivation is different.
Monday, September 3, 2018
**Important & Not So Important Things
I was weeding in my yard early this morning when it was still cool. It may still take a few more mornings to finish weeding all around the house. The Lord made me see that weeding wasn't such an important task, for if I die today, leaving it unfinished would be just fine. So what is important? Let me use an example. Suppose you feel that you should forgive someone, but somehow you keep putting it off. Then you are dying and regret that you haven't let that person know of your intent – that is important. Right now I feel called to share some spiritual insights with someone, I know I should do it ASAP (definitely before I die). As for the weeds, one day they might get all wiped out or get to grow madly – who cares? So you see, anything you do for the sake of the Lord then is important.
*One Reason We Need God
We cannot cleanse ourselves of sins, so we cannot become holy on our own. Only God can take sins away from us, so only he can make us holy. We absolutely need him.
**Your Lord and Your Teacher
God is our absolute standard. The saints are great, but not perfect. Anyone one, no matter how holy he might be, pales to nothing when measured against the Lord. Therefore, you may bypass all the saints and look up to the Lord only for inspiration and guidance. The Lord is your only master. Let him be your only teacher too.
**True Love, Fake Love
God loves us with a pure, unconditional love. Whether you are a sinner or saint, an unbeliever or a devout Christian, he loves you just the same. This is loving by will, unaffected by feelings or emotions – the way he wants us to love others. It makes loving the unlovable or our enemies possible. The is true love. As for fake love, the best example is provided by some of today's crooked politicians, not much different from the scribes and Pharisees of the days of Jesus. They promise to fight for you, but after securing your votes, never do anything for you. It's like giving you a rope to hang on, never intending to pull you all the way up. This is fake love, which the hypocrites promise but never intend to deliver.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
To Be Unstained by the World
In today's second reading from James 1, the Apostle advised his readers to keep themselves unstained by the world. I say amen to that because the secular, ungodly world is much like a huge mud pond – it's just so easy to get stained by it. But Christ can keep us pure and clean if we'll abandon ourselves in him. For he is our one and only Savior!
*To Forgive Is Divine Indeed
A prominent politician has just passed away and had a most prominent funeral service held for him. He had planned it to make sure that some of his political enemies wouldn't be invited to attend his funeral. He had the right to do so, but my thought is that if you are already on your way to meet your Maker, shouldn't you at least make sure that you no longer hold any grudge against anyone anymore?
Saturday, September 1, 2018
***God Forever Our Hope
God is our great hope. With God our Father, you can alway start afresh – no matter what your past is like – it's never too late – the past is gone, let it go – now you can start with God again with a clean slate – he always waits for you – you are now the prodigal son returning home – get ready for the welcome party – rejoice! – he's ready to cleanse you of your sins and make you holy – amen, now you are set to enjoy heaven in your Father's house for all eternity!
Connecting With God Intimately
Communion experience. I connected with my God most intimately, at the heart, soul, and spirit levels through the Holy Eucharist.
How do We Serve the Lord?
The Gospel reading from Matthew 26 today gave us the parable of talents. Three servants all received talents from their master. Two of them traded with their talents and doubled their money, while the third one just buried his one talent in a hole. On the master's return, the two productive servants were given great responsibilities, while the nonproductive one not only had his talent taken away from him, but also got thrown into the darkness outside. For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
It so happened that early this morning before Mass, the Lord got me thinking about how we serve him at different levels. At the highest level, we do everything for the sake of glorifying him. Then we also do things indirectly to serve him better, such as exercising our body, enjoying certain recreation to get us recharged, etc. Descending lower, we do nothing for the Lord nor anything bad. At the lowest lever, we simply go against him in all things. A productive Christian will grow rich (spiritually), while a lazy Christian will lose everything at the end.
Friday, August 31, 2018
**Free and Content
Communion experience. I experienced true freedom in the Lord, having been liberated by him in spirit. I was content, having seen his unique beauty with my heart.
***Real Flesh and Blood
Today's Communion antiphon, John 6.54: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, says the Lord, and I will raise him up on the last day. If Jesus had said, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, I mean symbolically, of course, would have eternal life . . ." – anyone could have picked up some bread to eat and some wine to drink anywhere anytime and have eternal life.
Being Extremely Foolish or Wise
Today's Gospel reading from Matthew 25 is on the parable of the ten virgins. The five foolish ones were not ready when the bridegroom showed up, while the five wise ones were all prepared to meet him. So we have the foolish and the wise. We'll all fall into one of the two categories when Christ comes next.
**Which Possession for You?
When you are possessed by the devil, you become totally enslaved and can only be delivered by God. On the other hand, when God possesses you, it means that you now belong to him completely. Since God never violates your free will, his gift for you, it means you must have wanted to belong to him, which means you've been liberated from yourself. Of course, you are still free to leave the Lord anytime you wish to, but why would you, now that God also belongs to you?
**Question for Thought
If Jesus comes right now, what would you like him to find you doing? Watching an R-rated movie? Quarreling with someone? Thinking about taking revenge on someone? Not liking yourself? Feeling down or upset? I hope not.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
*Protection of the Soul
Communion thoughts. The Holy Spirit protects us by purifying our soul. Once the soul is clean and made whole, it is safeguarded for eternity.
*Power of the Spirit of God
During the liturgy of the Eucharist, the Spirit of the Lord descends upon the bread and wine, transforming them into the Body and Blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ. As we receive the Eucharist, we may ask the same Spirit to descend upon us to transform us into new, clean and undefiled souls.
***Temptation to Be Avoided
The current movie Crazy Rich Asians is a box office hit. It's a romantic comedy rated PG-13, but reviews do mention sexual and drinking scenes in it. No doubt, it's a film made to appeal to the world to make a lot of money. Seriously, if you do say the Lord's Prayer and ask him not to lead you into temptation, then avoid seeing it. In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 24, Jesus said to his disciples, "Stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come." How would you feel if he comes and find you watching a worldly, impure movie in a theater?
Union Begets Peace
There will be no peace in any house if there is no unity among the residents of the house. To dwell in the house of the Lord, we must surrender ourselves to be in union with him, thus remaining obedient and pure. And we'll have peace in our lives.
Wednesday, August 29, 2018
***Key to Spiritual Success
We are told to love God and be holy over and again, and find the going hard. The secret of achieving the goal is again to yield to God, allowing him to love us and make us holy. It's being passive to God, with us out of the way. You can't get away from the truth that surrendering to God is the key to any spiritual success.
**Following God the Smart Way
To follow God on your own is hard because you are involved in fighting yourself all the time. The smart way is to open yourself up to God to let him draw you to him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)