Following God in Faith

        To put our faith in God means to wait patiently for him to prompt us, lead us, and guide us. Getting anxious about what we can do for him is rushing ahead of the Holy Spirit. The Lord knows our intention to serve him and will show the way in his time. We simply follow and not question when he reveals the whole plan to us or just the next single little step for us to take. 

*Greatest Possible Intimacy

        Communion experience. I experienced the greatest possible intimacy with the Lord to date, making me realize that he is with all of us always. 

Saving Faith

        To believe in God is to believe in his love for us. It is this faith that has the power to save us.

**Best Way to Live*

        You've heard said that we should live each day as if it is the first day of our life. This is good, for it makes us look forward to discovering new things every day. Then it's also been said that we should live as if today is the last day of our life. This is better, for now we are being farsighted. Unfortunately though, many miss the point and start to enjoy the pleasures of the world as much as they can. Personally, I see that the best way for us is to live as if the Second Coming of Christ is going to happen anytime now, which is true. This is being most realistic. Realizing this, we can still continue to store up treasures in heaven in the meantime.    

Joy of Success

        I have tried hard to come up with a drain connecting the pipe on the house to the underground pipe. Previous installations had never lasted long. Finally, I stumbled upon a downspout extender that could work with some modification. I tested it and I was right! It was a good feeling that I solved the problem satisfactorily. I thought of how happy we and God would feel when he succeeds in making us perfect. 

*God Full of Surprises

        God has an amazing way of answering prayers. When my heart is burdened and I pray to him, I have no idea how he is going to help me. But help does come at the appropriate time in an unexpected way. His latest response to me came when I was listening to a talk online on a subject totally unrelated to my issue, yet what I heard illuminated me. It's a matter of correcting my perception to see the overall picture and it took someone else to make me see it. Our God is full of delightful surprises, making my journey of following him truly exciting.

***Enjoying God

        I had enjoyed doing many things in life. Listening to good music whether it be classical, jazz, vocals, or other instrumentals was one big enjoyment. Driving a sports car on a winding road was also fun. And there were others. Now I no longer get carried away by any of these things, so you might think that I have no more fun in life. Certainly, all the things remain the same; what had happened was that Christ had become so dazzling and attractive that everything else just faded away, you might say. It's like the shining sun standing out more than anything else you can see. I finally realized that no created thing can be more beautiful than its creator. Being with my Lord is now my greatest enjoyment, and fun.

***A Jewish Convert Story

        This is the amazing, beautiful testimony of Roy Schoeman which I just came across unexpectedly on YouTube. I know there is a purpose here for me. May you profit from watching it. (A footnote. Roy is the author of the book Salvation is from the Jews and also published the book Honey from the Rock, a compilation of stories by 16 Jews who have found the sweetness of Christ.)

*Most Important Freedom*

        You can have the freedom to get the best medical care, to accumulate great material wealth, and to earn highest possible honors, but if you do not have the freedom to believe in your God, then you are not free at all.

**Repent First of All

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 15, Jesus told the Pharisees and scribes the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin. He let them know that "there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance, and there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents." It shows how incredibly important we are to God our Father and how necessary it is for us to repent! If you haven't repented yet, the whole heaven is waiting to cheer for you. So get off your high horse and stop being a kill-joy.

Letting God Strengthen You

        This morning's entrance antiphon from Psalm 38: Forsake me not, O Lord, my God; be not far from me! Make haste and come to my help, O Lord, my strong salvation! This is the timely prayer for me to hear. Since the Lord is the infinite wellspring of anything we need, we can derive infinite strength from him. Be weak in God and he'll make your strong. Be in union with him and he'll fight all the battles for you.

**The Lost Generation

        I have come to see that if you know the Lord well, you'll see and understand clearly what life and this world is all about. If you don't see good against evil going on at all times and that the soul lives on forever and will face final judgment after we die, then you are essentially living in darkness. Christ is the only shining light that can make us see and understand the reality and truth. But tragically, many are so lost that instead of seeing themselves as obstacles in God's way, they do not see him at all or even see him as an obstacle in their way. How I wish that they realize that there is not a time in life that we don't need to repent of our sins.  

Letting God Condition Your Heart

        Communion experience. Jesus not only can purify our heart, but also heal its wounds. Once the heart is cleansed, healed, and made whole, it is ready to receive the peace and joy of the Lord.

Seeing the Light of Salvation

        My spirit gets depressed when I see so many people in the world suffering persecution and injustice. Then I see how Christ suffered the worst persecution and injustice of all and the best good news came out of it – our salvation! My spirit now is uplifted, seeing Christ as our bright hope. We must never forget that God is our light and salvation (Psalm 27:1). 

***Best and Right Way to Live

        From time to time, I have to give up doing certain things I enjoy doing because of old age or other reasons; but the Lord compensates me by letting me feel even more joy in him. Seeing how the world is becoming so godless in so many ways often places a heavy burden on my heart. Again, I find relief and consolation in Christ the Lord. We can decide to fight all the problems on our own our whole life, and then die. What do we accomplish then? It becomes crystal clear to me that the best and right way for us to live is trust fully in God, obey him in all things, and grow holier each day. (Obviously, God has no use for anyone unholy.) As one of the lines of Mother Teresa's poem "Do It Anyway" reads: For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. 

Do You See Clearly?

        If you see that you owe your whole existence to God and that he loves you, then you should also see that it's time for you to submit yourself totally to him. 

**God's Preferences

        God desires mercy, not sacrifice (Hosea 6.6, Matthew 9.13 & 12.7). He also prefers to see the interior of our hearts rather than the exterior of any ceremony we conduct.

**To Be Fair to Christ

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the great feast. In the story, a man gave a great dinner to which he invited many. But one by one, those invited all began to excuse themselves. We see the same phenomenon today. Christ is patiently waiting, hoping that anyone would even glance in his direction, yet people do not pay the slightest attention to him. I truly feel sorry for the Lord, although I know that he would want me to feel more sorry for them. My message is this: To be fair to the Lord, if you ignore him, you should at the least examine yourself to know what your true reason is.

*Imitate Christ and Be Exalted

      Paul wrote in today's first reading, Philippians 2.5-11 – Brothers and sisters: Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and, found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that 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.      

          We too should empty ourselves so that we may obey and serve the Lord humbly with all our heart. Then God will also exalt us. It is absolutely appropriate for us to want the Lord to exalt us, for this is his wish. And it is also appropriate for us to desire to go to heaven, for nothing pleases the Lord more than our wanting to be with him forever.   

*How God Understands Us

        God knows us so well that he has devised the sacraments of Penance and Eucharist ingeniously. In confession, when you hear the priest absolve your sins, you know that they are being absolved. In receiving the Holy Eucharist, the physical contact just makes you realize that the Lord is inviting you to spiritual union with him.  

**Why No Inner Peace

         Here's the very reason. We lose peace because things do not always turn out the way we want them to turn out. We are in effect spoiled, rebellious children of God, not letting him be our Lord. It come down to the lack of humility. Don't expect to enter God's kingdom when you are still full of pride. 

Life Is All About . . .

how much you are willing to let the Lord change you.       

*Freedom in Christ

        Communion experience. I felt free that I could abandon myself to Christ in him as much as I wished. This itself is freedom.

**To Love God Perfectly

        Today's readings at Mass were all about loving the Lord, the first of all the commandments. It is true that we shall all be measured by how much we love him. If we do not surrender ourselves totally to God, we shall always fall short of loving him with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, an with all our strength. It stands to reason that if we can give ourselves up to God, then we can give everything else up to God too, and we thus become free. 

***We Can Be Limitless!

        I want to be able to play the piano well; but physically, I lack the necessary facility. Now with memory getting weaker and finger joints less flexible, the goal becomes even more difficult to reach. I used to play basketball and table tennis quite well, but there were always others who played better. I was pretty good in mathematics too, again I sensed that some others just thought and caught on faster. What I want to say is that we all have our physical or intellectual limitations. We are finite, period. But there is one thing that can be infinite with us, that is on opening ourselves up to God. When we do open ourselves up, the infinite God enters to do what he pleases, and there will be no limit to how holy he can make us! This is truly exciting when we see that we can grow spiritually as much as we desire. 

***To Be Living Happily Ever After

        Today's Gospel reading came from Luke 14. Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees. Noticing how the invited guests were choosing the places of honor at the table, he told them a parable. The moral of the story is that "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Therefore, let's humble ourselves until we forget that we even exist, then the Lord will exalt us to his level, that is, he'll truly be with us and in us. This is living happily ever after! To give God the Father joy is to be joy-filled ourselves.

***Our Foremost Concern

      Trusting in God with all our heart to precede all other concerns.        

*Home Sweet Home to God

       Communion experience. We all know that home sweet home feeling, especially after you've been away for some time. Once you know the Lord intimately, you'll know that your true home is where he is and that you'll have the greatest home sweet home feeling when you return to him. This time you'll get a most warm and joyful welcome too, from the Lord himself. After I received Jesus this morning, I was filled with sweet joy and felt that I was almost home.  

*Christ's Assurance

        Today is All Souls Day. In the Gospel reading from John 6, Jesus said, "This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day." For those who follow Christ faithfully, it's good is to know that their salvation and resurrection are assured, as the Lord can only speak the truth.

Fear of God

        The fear of God can be good or bad. It is bad if you know that you have sinned and you try to hide from God, while your sins remain. It is good if you know that you have sinned, but are aware that God knows all your sins and decide to confess them to get them removed by him. Turn your bad fear into good fear and you'll be filled with joy.

God Giving Himself Up for Me

        Communion experience. When the bread and wine were transformed into the body and blood of The Lord during consecration, he was giving himself up for me once again. And I praise and thank him for that.

***God's Amazing Power

        If you find something unique in the world that you can greatly treasure, you'll want to keep it for yourself entirely for your own enjoyment. Christ is the only object that is different. After you find him to be your greatest treasure and satisfaction of your life, you'll want to share him with everyone else, for the joy is that great! It just shows that he has the profound power to free you and transform you into a selfless being – this is how amazing our God is! Pity the one who does not know him to have such life-changing power. 

***Features of Christ

        The Lord is thorough with us – he wants to save our souls for all eternity! He never gives up on us and will always remain faithful to us, for he loves us. All we need to do to let him be my Lord and everything is accomplished for him and for us! Don't you see?       

**Guide to Living as Christians

       Today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5 was Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, giving us the Beatitudes. The 6th, 7th, and 8th Beatitudes also made up the Communion antiphon. Here they are.

          Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.

          Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

          Blesses are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, 

          for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

        Just these three declarations of blessedness alone show how we are to live and what our rewards will be. We must be solely concerned about living for the sake of God and not about whether we go against the world or not.

*The Best Is Yet to Come

        1 John 3.2 from Reading 2: We are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. My thought was that for the Christian, it just gets better and better with the very best coming at the very end.

Rest From the Lord

        On this All Saints day, the Gospel acclamation came from Matthew 11.28: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest, says the Lord. I know all about this rest. It is not physical and goes beyond temporary mental relief – it is enjoying permanent spiritual peace, knowing that the Lord has settled your eternal destiny. How can you not rest in joy when the Lord has now removed your most urgent concern about your existence?

Renewal Time

        Communion experience. God renews me each time I receive him in the Holy Eucharist.

Only Way to Deal With God

        How do you deal with God, the God of Christ? You either submit yourself to him or you don't. If you think clearly, you'll see clearly that submitting yourself to him is the logical choice. You try it and experience peace, freedom, and joy, confirming that you've made the right choice. (Should you choose not to submit yourself to God, your will never receive any such positive confirmation.) 

*What We Know and Must Do

       In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, someone asked Jesus, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" Jesus did not answer the question directly, but made it clear that the gate through which we must enter to be saved is narrow and that many would not be strong enough to enter through it. He said that the evildoers would one day find the door locked and hear the Lord say to them, "I do not know you. Depart from me." When they found themselves cast out of the kingdom of God, there would be wailing and grinding of teeth. 

        We do not know who will or will not be saved for sure, but this much we know: Hell exists and will not be empty. Therefore, know God as intimately as possible now to avoid being cast out later. It's such a serious matter that we must absolutely pay serious attention.

***Possessing the Kingdom of God

        This is today's Gospel reading from Luke 13: Jesus said, "What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches." Again he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened." 

       This tells me that the kingdom of God is to let God completely fill us so that we bear fruit to the max. This is to be in union with him. When we let God do whatever he wishes with us, we are free! And the kingdom of God now belongs to us.

Most Treasurable Moment

        Communion experience. Receiving my Lord in the Holy Eucharist is the most treasurable moment of my day, for it's the moment he heals my soul again.

***Wise Advice!

        Do not let your trials and tribulations bother you, for they will all pass. But be on guard for the safety of your soul, for it lives on forever. 

Power of God's Holiness

        Because God is holy, he can make all of us, you and me, holy too!

To Be Like God

        Today's Response to reading from Psalm 1: Behave like God as his very dear children. This is a lovely verse. If we obey God in every way, then we become his dear children and become like him. To get there, seek union with God.

**How to Know God

        Since God is greater than us, for he is our creator, we are incapable of proving that he exists; only he can prove to us that he is real by revealing himself to us. This is exactly what happens when we surrender and open ourselves up to him. As a corollary, I can say that our eternal destiny is also totally dependent upon how each of us responds to his love and mercy. In the final analysis, it's always between you and God. (Read Mother Teresa's "Do It Anyway" poem.)

The Never-Quit Spirit

        Many prominent world leaders and figures attribute their success to never quitting on what they wish to accomplish. This dominant spirit is laudable, for it does increase anyone's chances of success. My thought is that if you never quit believing in Christ with all your heart, you will be 100%-sure rewarded with eternal life, for the Lord is 100% trustworthy. 

Rules of Life

        When I was very young, my grandfather already started telling me some of the rules of life he had learned which he thought would benefit me too in my life. As I grew up, I began to learn many more rules from my own life experiences. Later, after I came to know Christ, I had to discard or modify many of them. I now see one rule that a Christian must follow, that is, no matter what I contemplate doing, it must be according to God's will. Naturally, I am excluding the usual routine chores; I am talking about the more unusual ideas that pop into my mind. It is easy to brush God aside and follow your own intention. Therefore, the rule is to make sure that whatever we attempt to do, we are prompted by the Holy Spirit. The sign that we are following God's will is that we'll have inner peace.

Being One With God

        Communion experience. I already have the Lord, so I am back to my creator, the only Creator of the universe and all other things. With him, I am at the center of all creation.

To Be Assured of Salvation

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 13, Jesus tells the need to repent and to bear fruit to be assured of salvation. So, essentially we have three requirements to fulfill: accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior, repent, and bear fruit. Actually, if we fulfill the first requirement faithfully, the other two will automatically be fulfilled too. But there are Christians who slack off and think that their sins are OK, thus putting off repentance, and easily fall into living a more self-centered life, no longer bearing any fruit for the Lord. Their salvation is now no longer assured. It comes down to following the Lord closely to remain vigilant. 

**Knowing Yourself

        Communion experience. I was shaken, not our of fear, but because I was awed by the fact that the Almighty One should love and care for me so much. Who am I? Now I know.