God Came to Us in Person!

         In today's Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus told his disciples that he came from God the Father. He had also said that he and God the Father are in each other and that to have seen him is to have seen the Father. Therefore, to know him is to know God. That's right, if you know him, you know God! It follows that to love him is to love God too.

**No One But You

         I know someone who complains a lot, often about someone else complaining. You give him some good, sound advice and he responds as if he avoids responding to you directly as if he hasn't heard you at all. This has happened numerous times. I can only conclude that we can tell someone all about how good God is and if that person does not open up, you can not make him believe. That person is the only one who can let God into his heart and his life. We each hold the key to open the door to let God in.

**Freedom Test*

        If you can always control all you actions effortlessly, you are free. And only God can set you free.

**Precious Freedom

        Communion time thoughts. Perfect abandonment to God is letting God have complete freedom to do whatever he wants with you. This is how you become truly free. Try as you may, you cannot achieve this kind of freedom on your own. It can only come from God.

Mastering Our Thoughts

        When we cannot let the past go, we are not free. When we worry about the future, we are not free. In the meantime, we are easily enslaved by thinking all kinds of thoughts that do not draw us any closer to God. These are generally self-centered thoughts that can waste a lot of our precious time. So give your heart and mind to God that he might give you good and right thoughts always. To master your thoughts, let the Lord master you first. 

**Battling Evil

        Two weeks ago on May 18, Italy's conservative and Catholic interior minister, Matteo Salvini, publicly commended his party's work to the six patron saints of Europe and then, holding up a rosary, publicly entrusted his life and work to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the mother of Jesus, for help and protection. On May 21 in Brazil inside the presidential palace, government leaders and two bishops in a ceremony signed off on a consecration of the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Many movements have also sprung up worldwide to fight suppression, corruption, and godlessness in general. In the US, we have the #WalkAway movement, Turning Point USA, Young Americans for Freedom, Blexit for blacks, and Jexit for Jews (the last two names both mimicking Brexit). When the world is in dire need of warding off evil, God does raise leaders and call his people into action.

*Going the Right Way

        I went to FedEx to pick up a parcel. Driving home on a six-lane boulevard, I saw cars all around me with every driver going somewhere. This thought came to me. We are always going somewhere, but will all end up before God. And afterwards some will go one way and others the opposite way – this is where the great split takes place. It made me realize that we'd better negotiate all the right routes on earth so that we'll continue go in the right direction afterwards.

*Reason We're Unhappy*

        We are not happy usually because things do not turn out the way we've wished. We don't always realize that we are unhappy because we are self-centered. In fact, every time we sin, we get bothered and lose peace, albeit to various degrees depending upon the clarity of your conscience. If you stop sinning and maintain a clear conscience, you will enjoy peace and joy. Union with God is what we all need.  

**God Leads Us to Joy

        Consider the Holy Rosary. Those 20 decades of mysteries we meditate upon pretty much cover all the major events in the life of Christ. Every single one of them, including the Sorrowful Mysteries, leads us to final joy. It's inevitable that this should happen to all faithful Christians in the end. So what's living a hundred years of a happy or not so happy life on earth? It's eternal joy alone that counts!
         I blogged the above and went to Mass. It turned out that in the Gospel reading from John 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me." The disciples did not quite understand what Jesus meant. Of course, the Lord was talking about his coming Crucifixion and appearing to them after his Resurrection. And he added, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy." 

**Have No Enemies?

        You can have no enemies – all you have to do to love everyone and treat your enemies not as enemies. If that's hard for you to do, just let God do it for you through you.

*Knowing the Truth

        I was late for Mass this morning and did not hear the entire Gospel from John 16 read. I just looked it up and would totally agree with what Jesus said to his disciples here, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth." When God speaks to you in guiding or teaching you, you just know you are hearing the truth. For when you know this without a doubt, it has to be from the Lord.

Concrete Feeling

        Communion experience. I got the concrete feeling of being one with my Lord.

*Secure Your Eternity First

        If you know that you'll be going to the heavenly Father after you leave this world, your entire outlook will change. Whether you are aware of not, we all want to know where we are going and if our future is secure. This is how God has made us, don't you see? Don't fight it. God wants all of us to be saved, so do not turn him down! Without him, you are doomed to live a miserable life of uncertainty.

*Deliverance by God

        In today's Gospel reading from Acts 16, the Lord delivered Paul and Silas from prison. It happened like this. The two had their feet secured to a stake in an innermost cell. About midnight, there was suddenly a severe earthquake; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. It was a dramatic occurrence. I was lead to ask if we are free. Physically we may be, but are we also mentally and most importantly, spiritually free? If not, the Lord can surely deliver us from the world that holds us as prisoners.

**A Story of Love*

        Watch this 14-minute long video and you can't help feeling sorry for those who choose to abort their own babies.

*What Ultimately Matters

        Today is Memorial Day, a national holiday, and we sang America the Beautiful to conclude the Mass. I felt proud of being patriotic, but I also realized instantly that what ultimately matters the most to us individually or as a nation is our trust in God. It is this faith that can make or break each one of us or the whole nation. 

Law of Reality

        We will worsen spiritually until we open up to God to let him improve us.

**Testifying for God

        We must testify, proclaiming the glory of God. It is the Spirit of God who sets our heart afire to want the whole world to know that God is love and that he wishes to save us. As Jesus said to the Pharisees, "If his disciples keep silent, the stones will cry out!" (Luke 19.40), and we are certainly more sensitive than stones. We must never stifle the Holy Spirit, but respond to his every prompting. 

*No Love, No Peace

        World peace must start with inner peace within each one of us. And we shall not have inner peace until we have surrendered ourselves to the God of Christ, the God who is love. It is love that begets peace.

***Life Begins at Conception

Watch how Dinesh D'Souza's makes an eye-opening argument for the case.

 

What Christians Must Be Aware of

        If loving God is our top priority, its flip side, fighting evil, becomes equally important. They are not the same, but they are the same in the sense that you cannot love God if you don't fight evil and vice versa. A Christian must be acutely aware that he is engaged in fighting an enraged war against evil if he loves God. There is no time to waste in fighting for all the souls. 

**Perfect Match

        Becoming one with God absolutely makes our life beautiful, for God has made us for himself. When one sinner repents, the whole heaven rejoices. When we follow God, his joy is complete (John 15.11) and our life fulfilled.  

***Knowing God the Expedient Way*

        When we join a pilgrimage, attend a conferences, go on a retreat, or participate in any other spiritual activity, our goal is to know Christ. Of course, these experiences can all be helpful, but I have never heard anyone say that the best way to know the Lord is to go directly to him, for he is instantly accessible to all of us. You can talk to him all you want and he knows all your problems and desires. In no time, you can develop a most intimate relationship. It seems almost common sense, yet people attempt to know him through others who are doing exactly what they are doing. Thus, any progress made is slow. It must be that it's not easy to abandon oneself to God. If you can let yourself go, you can let everything else go too. Then you are free.

What Christians Lack

        The willingness to let Christ change them. Could the reason be what Jesus said in Matthew 26.41: "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak"? 

***Our Most Beloved Teacher

        In today's Gospel reading from John 14, Jesus said to his disciples, "The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything." I can testify to you that the Holy Spirit will indeed teach us God's ways, his wisdom, and how to live and keep his word. You do hear firsthand from the Lord when you are in union with him.

***Right Approach to God

        At Sunday Mass this morning, I saw clearly the right, logical approach to God – open your heart completely to God and surrender yourself unconditionally to him. This leads you straight to union with God, with you enjoying freedom and peace, and joy as icing on the cake.

To Be Rewarded Now or Later

        If you seek your reward only from the world, you will have them. Then there will be no more reward for you after you leave this world. If you do not care about receiving any reward now but concentrate upon storing up treasures in heaven, you'll be rewarded amply later in your next life. 

*Cause of Christian Joy

        True Christians are joyful because they are in love with Christ the Lord, not even thinking about going to heaven.  

"Chain of Command"

        Just watch someone (maybe yourself). The person is physically active at all times . . . getting up, sitting down, eating, talking to someone, sending an email, cooking a meal, driving to work, and so on. All these physical activities are motivated at the mental level by the brain. That is, you do what you think of doing. To do the right things, you need to have the right thoughts. And you are sure to have right thoughts when you have a heart that's been purified by God. Therefore, know the Lord well and you'll be blameless in whatever you do.

**We Are No God

        Everything God does for our salvation will be known forever in heaven. What God does in saving each of us will be remembered by us forever too. What we do to glorify God will be known to him always, but what we do to serve ourselves will all be dismissed after our judgment. God forbid that we should ever think and act as if we are God.

*Only One Who Matters

        What's great with the God of Christ is that in him, we can forget everything else and start anew. So there is always hope for us. Knowing that we are going to him, there is no point in looking back ever. When you have the good Lord, nothing else matters.

*God to Be Experienced

        Communion experience. When I received the Holy Eucharist, I knew that the Lord wished me to experience him, for he understands our nature and needs. He gave us the sacrament of reconciliation for the same reason. We need concrete assurance that he is with us or that we've been forgiven. The Holy Eucharist is also our solid invitation to seek union with him.

How God Perfects Us

        We are capable of doing both good as well as doing evil. When we surrender ourselves to God, he perfects us by preserving our good part and taking away the bad part.

**Achieving Your Full Potential

        To achieve your full potential as God's creature, let God your creator do whatever he wants with you and he'll shape and mold you into the most perfect being with you enjoying full freedom in him. The corollary paradox: The more you give God your freedom, the more you are free.

**Know God and Be Holy First

       The Church convokes meetings, conferences, etc., to deal with the various problems, currently, the abuse crisis. But until we address and solve our own personal spiritual problems first, these various problems will persist as they have persisted throughout the past centuries. If we do not know the Lord well enough and are therefore causing problems ourselves, how can we expect the Church and the world to get better? Know God thoroughly first and you'll know his will and how to deal with any problem what comes up. Therefore, seek union with God without delay.

**About Becoming a Saint

        A saint is someone in union with God. He is completely obedient to the Lord and thus free of the world. We may not be saints yet, but it does't mean we cannot become saints. Surely God would never tell us that we are holy enough for him now nor that we are not good enough to become saints. The fact that Jesus tells us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect shows that he wants us to be saintly and that it's totally within our reach. To succeed in becoming a saint, we need to know in theory that we must let God truly be our God and follow in practice by yielding ourselves to God. The sooner we do it, the greater our reward in heaven will be. 

Letting God Completely into Your Life

        We should allow God into every aspect and facet of our lives so that he is never off-limits to us. This is to welcome him completely into our hearts. The reward for us will be peace, freedom, and joy. Not hiding from the one who knows all about us is truly being wise.

*Being Nourished and Pruned by God

        In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit." I feel that I am a branch of the vine that's Jesus, receiving all the nourishment from him to bear fruit for the glory of the Father. It also feels so good to be pruned by him to make me more fruitful. These are two great satisfying feelings.

**Who Has the Right of Way?

        God is never a barrier in our way, but we are always barriers in his way. Remember too that he was here first long before we came along.

*Start Everything with God

        Whatever you wish to accomplish, go to the Lord God first, for nothing is impossible with him. Especially, when you wish to be holy to love him more, telling yourself to do so is useless. Going straight to God for help is the smart way to go. Only God can draw you to union with him, and he can make you holy in a jiffy.

Bold Living

        You abandon yourself totally in God. Now you live securely above the world, for nothing in the world can take you down anymore.

God Refreshing Us

        First thought at morning Mass. I am making a new start today. With Christ, you can do this at any time. Repent, get all your sins forgiven, and you are clean again. You now start afresh. God gives us continuously the opportunity to be saved.

Good Awareness

        God knows every single thought, word, and deed of ours. This is good news, for knowing this can keep us from destroying ourselves.

Secure in Christ

        Communion experience. Life is like riding in a boat sailing on the sea. When you don't have Jesus with you, you are completely at the mercy of the weather and the waves. But the Lord is with me in my boat and I feel completely secure, for the winds and the sea all obey him (Matthew 8, Mark 4, Luke 8).   

**Hallmark of Christianity

        Today's entrance antiphon: The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep and willingly died for his flock. Christ did willingly lay down his life for us. If you pause and think about it, it is truly an amazing act and fact. This is the beautiful hallmark of Christianity.

*Honest View of Dishonesty

        If we have not totally submitted ourselves to God yet, then we are not being totally honest with God yet, don't you agree? 

***Desiring What God Desires

        Communion experience. My sole desire was to be one with the Lord. This desire met his desire to be one with me and both our desires were instantly fulfilled! It's certainly a wow moment. While the church musicians and singers were performing nicely, I realized then that it's always our own desire that matters, not anything external.

**God Shapes His Servants

        When you pray sincerely, you shape yourself too. Saying the Our Prayer from your heart makes you aware of your place before God. When the Holy Spirit leads you to share all the good thoughts with others, you are shaped by him too. As you teach others, the Lord teaches you. Serve God faithfully and he makes you holy. 

**Glorifying God Nonstop

        In today's first reading from Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas exhorted their disciples to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." In the Gospel reading from John 13, at the Last Supper after Judas had left, Jesus said to the rest of his disciples, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Jesus meant that he was to glorify God by letting himself be killed. Must we undergo hardships or die to glorify God? The fact is that we can glorify God at any time in every way. Celebrating Mass is a happy way of doing it. If I do dishes or take out garbage willingly for the sake of God, I glorify him too. Life provides a big opportunity of glorifying God in every way and we should appreciate that. Yes, keep glorifying God to store up treasures in heaven and we are bound to end up there.

*In Spiritual Doldrums

        The God of Christ has given us clear, simple instructions on how to enter heaven after we leave this world after sacrificing his Son on a cross for us, yet we hem and haw, drag my feet, or pretend that we don't know a thing. It shows how dull-witted we are and how badly we need to be saved!