**God Is Waiting

        To let God draw us deep into him is the same as letting him enter deep into us, as either way results in union. Since the Lord longs to become one with us, it is inconceivable that he would refuse our invitation for him to enter us. The ball is now in our court.

Trembling Before the Lord

        Communion experience. I trembled upon approaching the Lord to receive him, not because I fear him, for he loves me, nor because I fear the evil one, for he absolutely has no power over me when I am with the Lord; I trembled because the Most Holy One was about to enter me, still a most wretched sinner.

Another Critical Realization

        Today is the Feast of Holy Innocents. Evil is real. King Herod, attempting to destroy the child Jesus, the prophesied king of the Jews, ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under. Today's Response from Psalm 124: Our soul has ben rescued like a bird from the fowler's snare. Has your soul already been snared by the evil one? Is it in danger of being snared by him? We must be aware that evil snares are all around us at all times, so that if we do not remain vigilant and watchful, we can easily lose our soul. 

*Thinking Simply to the Point

        It may be difficult to believe in Christ, but it is practically impossible to prove that he never existed, that he never told the truth, or that he never rose from the dead. To believe in him only requires stopping playing God yourself, but people choose to ignore and not to resolve this issue as long as possible. So we see that Christ has to be our Lord and God. Then he must come again to judge us or our whole existence would be meaningless. Whether his Second Coming will happen in our lifetime or not, we must be ready for it, and this is my final point. 

**God Completes Us

        We all have our own shortcomings, but God can heal us spiritually, fill our hearts with joy, and make us whole so that we no longer see them as obstacles. In fact, they now make us even more dependent upon him in all things. The Lord always completes us where we fall short.

**God Is All We Need to Desire

        Communion experience. The Lord is holy and can make us holy. The Lord is perfect and can make us perfect. The Lord is also eternal and can give us eternal life. Desire all these things and they are yours. Desire to be like him and he'll fulfill you desire by becoming one with you. 

Entrusting Our Spirit

        Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, first martyr. As he was being stoned to death, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Before Jesus breathed his last on the cross, he cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit." As disciples of Christ, we must also be ready and willing to entrust our spirit to God's care, even if we are not under any threat of death.

*My Sane Advice*

      Seek to please God alone who can truly fill you with peace and joy. Do not seek anything else just to please yourself.

What Our Generation Is like

        Once you are in union with God, his values are yours and you see the world as he sees it. The people of our generation are now like kids keeping themselves entertained with whatever they can find, not knowing what they are doing nor where they are going. Unavoidably, some of them become badly spoiled and start to bully and beat up on others, creating chaos and disorder throughout the world.

***Key to Salvation

        The holier you are, the more God is pleased with you. But the key to salvation, no matter how unholy you might be, is repentance. No repentance, no salvation.

*Saddened at Christmas Time

        I attended the 4:00 p.m. Christmas Mass yesterday. I never saw my church this packed. The adjacent ministry center had to be used to offer a second Mass for those who could not fit into the main church. The spacious parking lots were full of parked cars overflowing onto unpaved areas and the roads. And there was another Vigil Mass scheduled for 7 p.m. later too. Would that all regular Sunday Masses get flooded like this! I felt sad for those Catholics who only show up at Christmas and Easter times. I was at the ministry center and the crowd there was relatively quiet, not in any celebratory mood. All this somewhat dampened my Christmas spirits. Back to praying hard.

*Christmas Advice

        You may cast many things out of your life or treat something lightly in your life, but there is one you must never shut the door on and must, in fact, take most seriously – that is the God of Christ. He has come, is here with us, and will come again. A most blessed Christmas to you all! 

*Our Best Plan

        To be in union with God is to be solidly embedded in God. It's like having an indestructible temple built within your heart for the Lord to dwell in. There is no better plan to secure your future for all eternity. 

Jesus My Greatest Joy

        Photography, music, and mathematics have been my favorite subjects. I enjoy talking about them, but you do not often meet people who share the same interest. Now, my greatest joy is to talk about Jesus, for he has given me the greatest joy in my life, but meeting people who are excited about him is even rarer.

Ceaseless Praying

        Even if we don't see all our prayers answered in this life, we can continue to pray in heaven. Never lose hope.

**Thoughts and Intention

        Being human, our thoughts dart around involuntarily, even in our dream. But as long as our intention remains pure, we commit no sin. Therefore, be rooted in the Lord, be one with him, so that no evil, impure, or inappropriate thought will ever cross your mind, then you'll be OK with the Lord, for he is most understanding.       

Another Folly

        Time belongs absolutely to God too. Our time on earth is simply borrowed time from God. We sense only the present instant, but for the eternal God, time stands still with the past, the present, and the future all rolled into one. Therefore, it would be utter folly to think that we can escape from God for a single moment.

Another Critical Realization

        Everything comes from the Lord God our creator. When we create something, we simply make something out of what has already been created. And we do not own anything either. It is important to realize that everything belongs to God, including ourselves. So it is outrageous and even outlandish to think that we do not need God anymore. In today's 1st reading from 1 Samuel 1, Hannah, the mother of Samson, dedicated her son to the Lord. It would be entirely proper for us to consecrate ourselves, our families, and all that we have to God, acknowledging that he is the creator to whom we belong. Then order will be restored in the universe.

*Christ Our Ultimate Rest

        Communion experience. Most of us labor, and in receiving Christ, we experience true rest.  In Matthew 11.28, Jesus promises: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest."

***Our Greatest Deficiency

        Probably John 3.16 is the best known verse of the New Testament: "God so loved the world that he gave his own Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life." God is infinitely deep and profound, yet he reveals his love for us in such a simple straight way. Are we so dense that we don't even get it? I think it's more that we do not really want to get it.

**God Our Peace

        Let God initiate all your thoughts, words, and actions, and you'll experience great peace. As long as we still rebel against the Lord, there will be no peace within our hearts. This is how he has made us! It only shows how much he loves us and wants us to return to him to enjoy his holy presence for ever. 

*Most Sweet Feeling

        Letting the love of God melt your heart.

**Formula for Peace

        To let God be our Lord and King, all we need to to do is to not stand in his way. Let God have his way and we would have instant peace on earth and in our hearts.

*Don't Pass the Buck for Your Sins

        If you sin, don't blame anyone else and take full responsibility for it. For every sinner will have to answer to God on his or her own.

*How to Become Loving

        Care only about loving the Lord and you'll become the most loving person in the world.

***Critical Realization

        It is critical that we realize God and Evil are engaged in a spiritual warfare fighting for our very soul. Without this awareness, we are likely to make many wrong life decisions at the risk of losing our soul. We simply cannot remain as bystanders. This is another wakeup call for all.

Patience Needed to Listen to God

        I have said we Christians do too much talking and not enough listening to God. So I also see that we tend to start a lot of things before we get any clear signal from God. Our intention may be good, but we can get ahead of the Holy Spirit and end up wasting much of our valuable time. Unless we face some urgent issue, the Lord does not rush us; he will let us know what to do at the right time. To be patient and to trust in him are what we need to learn.

***Best Way to Know God

        I watched Ben Shapiro interviewing Bishop Robert Barron on his show and realized that many intellectuals came to know God through studying philosophy, theology, and writings of saints who happened to be great intellectuals. I know each of us Gods leads to him via an individual path. In my own case, the spiritual growth of the past decade or so began after I opened myself up to God, asking no questions, but trusting. And he responded by speaking to me directly from my heart, revealing himself to me in the most intimate way. I really think I have discovered the best way to know God – the childlike approach.

God's Transforming Love

        Jesus is all mine, but I want all others to possess him too. For his love is so great that it removes selfishness and transforms us to become as loving as he. 

Smooth Transition to Next Life

        Communion experience. The Lord already entered me, dwelling within my heart. Therefore, meeting him after I leave this world will be a great joy as anticipated, without any shock.

*To Live in Truth

        If you do not believe in truth, you should be afraid of it, for it will indict you one day. If you believe in truth, you would have no fear of falsehood, for it's simply false and not real. Believe in Christ the Lord to live in truth always.

**Sweet Secret of Knowing God

        Communion experience. Jesus is the light of the world. When I open myself up to him, he makes me see everything in and about me, and at the same time I come to understand and know him intimately. This experience is eyeopening, exhilarating, and endearing. Once you have tasted him, you would want to become one with him for ever. The Lord is that beautiful!

God's Mercy and Peace

        At every Mass, we ask God to have mercy on us and to grant us peace. Of both mercy and peace, the Lord, being love, has an infinite supply to deliver to us. As Christians, we are sustained by his mercy and peace. Knowing this keeps us humble. Without his mercy, we would be doomed. And peace is what he wishes us the most to have. Seek union with him and all his peace will be yours.

A Spiritual Law

        As surely as the righteous will be rewarded, those who are evil will be punished. Our conscience tells us that if good and evil are the same or if there is no heaven or hell, life would be completely meaningless. You may not see the purpose of life yet, but to see without a doubt that life is meaningless when you mind is clear and are not under emotional stress is not possible. 

*Our Amazing Genealogy

        Today's Gospel reading from Matthew gave us the genealogy of Jesus. The total number of generations from Abraham to David is 14; from David to the Babylonian exile, 14; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, 14. All of us can be traced back to Adam and Eve, but what is amazing is that through Christ we are now directly the adopted sons and daughters of the heavenly Father.

**Not Belonging to This World

        John 18.36: Jesus answered (to Pontius Pilate), "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." We who follow the Lord must also realize that we belong to his kingdom and not to this world. Therefore, we won't be troubled when things go against us in this world, knowing that we'll be dwelling in the Father's kingdom later for all eternity. 

***Most Beautiful Human Being

      On November 8, I posted the story of Roy Schoeman to whom the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared. At one point, he asked her what her favorite prayer was. Her answer: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." This is one of the short prayers we recite right after daily Mass at my church. Today I also realize that these are the exact words inscribed on the front side of the Miraculous Medal, a medal I've been wearing around my neck for decades. If you do not know anything about this medal, you can find its extraordinary story online. Briefly, the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Catherine Labouré, at the time a novice in the community of the Daughters of Charity, Paris, in 1830. She instructed Catherine to have the medal struck, paving the way for the Church to declare officially the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary 24 years later. The Blessed Mother told Catherine that those who wear the medal would receive great graces. I believed and still believe in that. The fact that I can know our Lord so intimately today is certainly one of those great graces. I love my Holy Mother, the most beautiful human being God has ever created. (A footnote. You can still see the chair Mary sat in while conversing with Catherine at the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, 140 Rue du Bac, Paris. St. Catherine's incorrupt body can be seen displayed there as well.)

*Happiness That Lasts

        We cannot be happy if we only get to be happy for a short time. All things of the world pass, so there is no point in attaching yourself to any of them. I think of the tsunami that hit Japan suddenly 7 years ago which destroyed so many lives, homes, and buildings. Recently, the whole town of Paradise just 80 miles north of here burned to the ground and practically all the residents became homeless in no time. If we ever have another world war, the extent of destruction of lives and properties would be impossible to estimate. Therefore, get yourself detached from all things of the world and seek eternal security and happiness in heaven, then you'll be truly happy now and forever. No "here today, gone tomorrow"; we demand "here today and here forever"! 

Perfect Union Time

        Communion experience. The Lord entered me, so it was the perfect time to rest myself in him. This means abandoning myself completely to him, putting all my trust in him. And we became one.

Turning Sorrow Into Joy

        Communion experience. If we are willing to suffer with the Lord, God will turn our sorrow into joy. And automatically, we'll taste all his joys. 

***A Great Blessing*

        When you are in union with Christ, you and the Lord share the same joys and sorrows. So carrying a burden in your heart for his sake is simply being with him carrying that burden. This is why for us, his yoke is easy and his burden light (Matthew 11.30). What a blessing it is to experience the same joys and sorrows with the Lord!

**God Is Fire

        God is fire because he illuminates my way, warms my heart, purifies it by burning up all its impurities and dross, and sets it aflame with holy zeal. 

**Do you Realize . . .*

that when you become the master of your own life, you only succeed in becoming your own slave? (No laughing matter.)  

*Who Is Your Center?

        How often do you think of God? Do you ever think about him? How often do you think of yourself? Do you care a lot more about yourself than about God? These questions help us realize how much we know God. The quickest way to know God is to surrender ourselves to him to let him be the center of our life. And he will set us free to enjoy fully our new freedom in him.

*Nation's Woe

        Today is the Memorial of St. John of the Cross. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 11, in speaking to the crowds about John the Baptist, Jesus said, "John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'" This reminds me of the fake news media in this country. They no longer report news objectively; they would twist facts, accentuate the negative, or spread outright lies to spin the public to hate someone they dislike, such as President Donald Trump right now. In general, double standard and hypocrisy exist in many of our nation's places. You have to be totally ignorant of God to not sense the fierce ongoing war between good and evil. 

Complacency, Our Enemy

        We must never remain complacent when our soul is Satan's target in his war waged against God. This is why the Lord wants us to remain alert and be vigilant at all times. Not doing anything bad is not good enough – we must do every little bit we can to help our Lord. Don't commit any sin of omission. And our reward will be great in heaven.

**Ideal Union With God

        We have Christ the Lord dwelling within our heart; we no longer exist independently. When people see us, they would see only the Lord. We glorify God alone, now completely free of ourselves.

**Universal and Personal

        This is our God, the God of Christ. He is universal because he loves every single one of us and wishes that all of us would enter heaven to live happily forever with him. He is personal because he would have died to redeem you even if you were the only one existing. He is so personal that he wishes to be your soulmate even now while you are on earth. 

*Most Urgent Prayer Now*

        "Lord, have mercy on us!"

**Foolish Humans

        Today is the Memorial of St. Lucy. In the Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus said to the crowds: "Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he." So we can say that the least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest on earth. 1 Corinthians 1.25: The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. We humans forget that God who created us is infinitely greater, wiser, and stronger than us finite creatures. Any finite number compared to infinity is essentially zero. Unfortunately, there are many of us who think that they are smart enough not to need God anymore, unaware that they are exhibiting utter foolishness. Know that the smartness of the world is dumbness in the eyes of God.