To hear the Lord speaking to us, we need also to go limp so as not to offer any resistance. To go limp is to open up ourselves to God completely, to abandon ourselves in him totally. It's letting the Lord take over, do whatever pleases him the most with us. This is the ideal perfect state for us to be in, with us "vanishing" in him and all set to spend eternity in heaven.
Tuesday, March 3, 2020
*Good Intentions Matter
God reads our hearts and minds. We may not succeed in doing something good, but if our intention is good, God values that. We try to imitate the Lord to become like him. Of course, we'll never be as perfect as he is, but he would still appreciate our intention. Always have good intentions and do your best, and the Lord will not blame you.
***Like Getting Up in the Morning
Abandoning yourself to God is like trying to get up in the morning. We all want to sleep or relax some more in our comfortable bed. To get up requires making an effort. But once you are up and see what a beautiful day it is out there, you are glad that you are up. Not to deal with God may make you feel guilty, but it's a "comfort" you enjoy after all. So to abandon yourself to God would require a great deal of effort on your part. But once you've done it, you would never want to go back again, for you feel and know that you've been liberated. The truth is that as long as we play God even for a tiny bit, we are not free. Let God be God and we are finally set completely free.
Monday, March 2, 2020
*No Longer Afraid of Death
When you attain union with God, you no longer fear death, for (1) God is so real that you know the eternal life he promised is real, (2) you are so in love with him that you long to see him in person, (3) experiencing the freedom in the Lord, you become detached to all things of the world, (4) you already possess the Lord and lack nothing anymore.
*For Me Alone
Communion experience. The Lord is so personal that he would have died for me alone to save me. Now he enters me just to feed me and to be one with me alone.
**How to Appear Before God
It it better for us to remain on the timid side or be bold when we go before the Lord? Neither! Just know that he is your most loving Father who desires ardently to be one with you, and act naturally.
*To Be Blessed or Accursed by God
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 25, Jesus talks about The Judgment of the Nations at his Second Coming. Two things are made clear. (1) The Lord will separate all, one from another, into just two groups. There will be (a) the righteous blessed by the Father to inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world and (b) the accursed to be sent off to eternal punishment prepared for the Devil and his angles. (2) It is the presence or absence of love in our heart that determines if we'll be blessed or accursed. To make sure that we would be considered righteous by the Lord, love all others not on our own, but for his sake alone.
***Best Rewards for Now & for Later*
Know that God wants to reward you in your next life. That can only mean one thing: he wants you to have eternal life! But if he only wants to reward you in this life, that would be horrible news, for it can only mean that you will lose your life forever after death. My advice is that you seek to attain union with him now. Then not only you will have eternal life guaranteed, you'll also receive the best possible reward you can have on earth, the joy of knowing God as your soulmate!
Sunday, March 1, 2020
***Be Out of God's Way First
If you have not surrendered yourself to the Lord completely yet and ask him to help you grow spiritually, he won't be able to accomplish what you ask for freely. Surrender and get yourself out of his way before asking him for help, then you'll make rapid progress. (In theory, you can become a saint instantly.)
*God's Solid Promise
Communion experience. I receive the Lord and know without a doubt that my soul is now safe. This is no magic. It is based upon his ironclad promise that whoever believes in him and eats his flesh and drinks his blood will have eternal life. (John 3.16 & John 6.54.)
Saturday, February 29, 2020
**Guardian of My Soul
Communion experience. Jesus is the only one who can touch, cleanse, heal, and save my soul. I entrust my soul entirely to him for safekeeping.
***No Longer Lost
We are here in this world, wondering where we came from, why we are here, and where we'll be going. So we need directions. On our own, we are definitely lost. Should we follow some other fellow being? But we are all in the same boat! Our clearcut dream answer: Christ the Lord. Being our creator, he is greater than us, and happens to love us—the perfect fulfillment. Following him is more satisfying than anything else we can possibly experience, for he solves all our mysteries for all eternity!
**Jesus' Sole Intention
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus said, "I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners." Do you know Jesus' intention yet? His sole purpose is do us good by saving us from our sins so that we might enjoy eternal life in heaven! There's zero malice, only pure love! If you still ignore or reject him, I am sorry that I would see you as a quite thickheaded person.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Joy Outweighing Sorrow
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, Jesus explained why his disciples did not fast: "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from therm, and then they will fast." We are happy because the Lord is always with us. At the same time, we are sorry because the world continues to sin against him. So we experience both joy and sorrow at the same time. By offering up our sorrows to the Lord, the joy outweighs the sorrow always.
*To Be Alert Always
Jesus said to his disciples, "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the Lord will come." (Mark 13.33.) While waiting for his coming, we must also be watchful and alert to discern and do his will at all times.
*More Important Concern than Money
Under the current threat that the coronavirus might become pandemic, stock prices have plunged daily. Many investors are worried or even panic. So they are all getting out of the market. This is understandable. But more difficult for me to understand is why so few are concerned about where their souls are heading right now. This is so much more important than whether you make or loose money in this life—there is no comparison! As Jesus asked in yesterday's Gospel reading from Luke 9: "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?"
Thursday, February 27, 2020
*Denying God?
If you haven't surrendered yourself to the Lord God yet, then you are still denying him. God is our most fundamental reality and facing up to reality is always the best policy.
*Letting God Be Our Lord
In today's Gospel reading from Luke 9, Jesus said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." If you believe that Jesus was of sound mind, then he must have spoken as the Lord God. Essentially, he's saying that he should be the Lord of our life. I'd like to add that the more we let him be our Lord and God, the easier it becomes to take up our cross. When we are able to completely submit ourselves to him, he becomes the one to bear all our crosses. Following Christ is the only way to true freedom.
*Clear- or Muddy-Headed
To me, a clear-headed person is one who knows that he is a sinner, that he needs to have his sins removed in order in be saved, and that Jesus Christ is exactly the Savior he needs to believe in and follow. Otherwise, he is muddy-headed.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
***Ash-Wednesday Wake-Up Reminder
We shall all die; but we don't really die, since our soul lives on forever. And how we live on earth will determine how our soul shall live for all eternity.
**Extraordinary Union!
Communion experience. What a momentous, memorable occasion! We have a most wretched sinner uniting with the Most Holy One!
*Humility, Key to Sainthood
In today's Gospel reading of Matthew 6.1-6, 16-18, Jesus teaches that when we give alms, pray, and fast, we should do it all in secret for only the Father to see. In essence, we must not be egotistic, for to be so is to be hypocritical. It becomes clear to me that if we can completely shed our ego, we are well on the way to becoming saints.
*Thankful for God's Mercy
Today is Ash Wednesday. I thought about the mercy of God. Psalm 30.3: If you, LORD, keep account of sins, Lord, who can stand? Without mercy, we could be struck dead the moment we sin. But God takes our sinful nature into account and is infinitely merciful. Even if we sin all our lives and repent just before we die, we are saved. (Of course, I am not advocating that you go ahead sin and delay repenting until the last moment, for you cannot fool God.) So, on this Ash Wednesday, I thank my God for his great mercy.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
**Avoiding the Lord?
Christ is ever present, waiting to receive us. Yet many who wish to know him better do not readily approach him. Instead, they choose to learn more about him via reading books or listening to others speak about him. Is it because they are not ready to expose themselves to the Lord yet? If you do not go straight to him directly with an open heart, how are you ever going to know him personally?
Monday, February 24, 2020
***Intimacy Most Desired
Communion experience. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured before their eyes on Mount Tabor. That must have been an awesome experience. Later, the disciples saw Jesus being taken up to heaven—what an inspiring sight it must have been! But I would rather receive the Lord in the Holy Eucharist than witness anything as beautiful and amazing as the Transfiguration or the Ascension—that's because in receiving the Holy Eucharist, I get to experience great intimacy with the Lord.
***Single Step to Capturing God
With a beautiful, perfect, and holy Lord like Jesus, it is not good enough to take a thousand little steps trying to get closer to him. Instead, we need to go all out to achieve union with him by letting him do whatever he wishes with us. This is total obedience, the single giant step we need to take to "capture" our beautiful, perfect, and holy Lord.
**Faith Most Beautiful
In today's Gospel reading from Mark 9, a man whose son was possessed by a mute spirit pleaded with Jesus, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Jesus said to him, "'If you can!' Everything is possible to one who has faith." It is so good to hear the Lord say this. Faith in God is such a beautiful thing! Achieve union with the Lord and you'll be able to trust in him completely.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
***Believe in the Holy Eucharist!
Most timely video to watch. If you still have doubts about the real presence of Christ in this sacrament, check out the three videos listed under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos . . . in the right column.
***Squaring with Jesus' Teachings*
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 5, Jesus continued to teach his disciples. Here are some of the things he said I am grouping together. "Offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn back on one who wants to borrow. You have heard said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies that you may be children of your heavenly Father. So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Jesus indeed practiced what he taught here to the letter when he was on earth. But how can we possibly be so perfect as he is? I do have many questions, for today's evils are quite more sophisticated. There are so many scams out there: are we supposed to let them scam us? People who beg money from you cannot always be trusted, for they fake poverty or work for some crime boss: should we always give or even give more than what they ask for? What if the beggar is actually a drug addict who needs the money to buy his substance? Should we donate to charities that pay their CEOs lavishly? If people want to abort all the babies, should we not resist them? Today, many Catholics have stopped giving money to the Church because they found out how millions and millions of dollars have been paid out to abused victims and for legal defense fees: are they all wrong? Last, if some country decides to take over our country, do we just surrender? The big question: how do we square these teachings of Jesus with the fact that we need to stop and defeat evil? Of course, we need to love everyone and help those who truly need help. At the same time, we don't want to be deceived by evil. I do not have the answer; I only know that the Lord is right. Let's just trust in his mercy and pray that he will not put us to the test.
***Our Worst Enemy
The worst enemy is one who can endanger your soul. So who is he? Satan? No, because he is powerless if you remain humble in God. Someone in the world? Well, you may have many of them all fighting you in various ways, but they cannot harm your soul if you don't do anything wrong or bad. In reality, your worst enemy is yourself, since only you can choose to stay away from God or to obey or follow him. It's also your choice to let Satan or others influence you or not. Conquer yourself and you'll have conquered all your enemies with God becoming your friend.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
*Extreme Feelings
There is no feeling more torturous than realizing that Satan has ensnared you and you feel powerless to escape. And there is no feeling more consoling than realizing that God is in union with you and your soul now rests securely in him.
**Mary and the Miraculous Medal*
We all feel a special love for our own mother. But our mothers are not perfect. I believe that God has made us so that we yearn for a perfect mother to love. And that mother is Mary, the Mother of Christ our Lord. She has revealed to us that her favorite prayer is the one she instructed St. Catherine Labouré to inscribe on the front of the Miraculous Medal. It reads: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The Holy Mother promised to obtain many graces for those who wear the medal and request them. You can search for "Miraculous Medal" online and read all about it. How Mary appeared to St. Catherine to ask her to get the medal struck is a beautiful story in itself.
*All Fair and Square
If you judge others, God will judge you. If you forgive others, he will forgive you. If you do not acknowledge the Lord, he will not acknowledge you either. If you believe in him, he hears you. If you have no faith, he does not hear you.
One More Big Deal
Communion experience. The Lord can actually remove my sins from my soul! Another big deal.
***God's Awesome Holiness*
You become aware of God's holy presence, once you attain union with him. So do not ever claim that he is not present. It's not just his presence, it's his holiness that impresses. Being aware of this holiness is sufficient to keep you from sinning, for it is the Lord.
**Undeserving Fools
God has made simple and clear the way for us to get to heaven, but we pretend that we don't even hear or understand it. Who are the fools? How undeserving we can be!
***To Know Jesus Thoroughly
How well do you know Jesus? How personal is your relationship with him? Do you only know him at the intellectual level? To know the Lord well, we need to know him at all levels. We need to understand him, to feel him, and to experience him. Then we'll have a warm, comfortable, and intimate relationship with him. Believe that he is present, body and soul, in the Holy Eucharist, open up and receive him to become one with him. Now you should know the Lord.
*Big Deals All Around
Today is the Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter. In the first reading from 1 Peter 5, Peter gave good advice to the presbyters. He then told them, "When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the unfading crown of glory." It made me see that when God rewards us, it is a big deal! Now, the Lord also loves us, appreciates us when we are faithful to him, and gives what's best for us and promises us life eternal when we love him . . . these are all big deals. It's also a big deal to see that he treats us as VIPs.
***Most Violated Commandment
The 8th of the Ten Commandments: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Very sadly, this is the commandment the mainstream media have been violating for many years, much more so since Trump got elected. As the MSM pretty much align themselves with the liberals on the left, they shamelessly make up stories, spread lies, show false pictures, ignore all the news that would make Trump look good and report anything that could make him look bad, aiming to spin their viewers and audiences. Unfortunately, there are always those who watch and listen exclusively to the fake news, and they get "brainwashed" and become intolerant of anyone who might disagree with them. The leftists even hope that the country will have a recession to make Trump look bad! This is wishing ill of all others for the sake of regaining control and power! Such continuing bearing false witness has succeeded in polarizing our entire country. I truly pity the people of MSM for spewing falsehoods and hate, not realizing that they are playing with fire, for by knowingly violating any of God's commandments you can lose your soul.
Friday, February 21, 2020
**Our First Order of Business
Communion thoughts. If our relationship with the Lord is perfect, we shouldn't let how all other things turn out bother us anymore. This is not being cold or selfish; this is what the Lord desires from us. He always wants us to have faith in him and not be anxious about or afraid of anything. Our first order of business is to obey him.
**Doing the Opposite to Succeed
In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, Jesus said to the crowd, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." Jesus had also said, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted." It seems that we need to do the exact opposite to achieve what we want. It's the same with making spiritual progress. Instead of struggling hard, we simply abandon ourselves to God. It all comes down to letting God be God.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
***Liberation in Two Parts***
Communion experience. The Lord liberated me! This is how it came about. (1) It's all up to me—I let the Lord do whatever he wanted with me. (2) It's all up to God—he liberated me. That is, I gave him the OK and he finished the job. Simple and cool!
••Lessons from Gospel Reading
In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" Peter got it right, for he replied, "You are the Christ." Our duty and goal is precisely to make this truth known to all!
Right after Peter said the right thing, he blundered. Jesus told the disciples that he must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. At this Jesus turned around and, looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." We are very much like Peter, following our emotion and not discerning the will of God. So, be aware that Satan is always there, prompting us to go against the Lord. And to know God's thoughts, seek to attain union with him.
**Abandonment Time
When we come to say "Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" in praying the Our Prayer, it is time to abandon ourselves totally to God!
Worldly Pleasure vs. Heavenly Joy
When we pursue pleasure in the world, we are being self-centered. Whereas, when we receive joy from God, both he and we are pleased.
*Learning to Love Others
Learn how to love others from the God of Christ first, then you'll know how to love everyone properly. So get to know the Lord well and you'll love all others as he loves them.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
**Overcoming Our Weaknesses
How do we overcome temptations, our ego, our fixations or obsessions, our hang-ups, and other human weaknesses? Should we resolve to face them and fight hard by whatever means available? On the contrary, we should not even worry about them. Instead, we should go before the Lord with all the above and rest ourselves in him with great confidence. Again, we go limp in God to let him restore and transform us completely.
*****Be a Saint Please
From today's Communion antiphon from Psalm 78: They ate and had their fill, and what they craved the Lord gave them. Do you know that if you crave for spiritual food, the Lord will always give it to you without fail? Should you wish to become a saint, it is inconceivable that he would not comply! In fact, he would be so pleased that he'll readily fulfill your wish. After all, nothing is impossible with God, right? By the way, to want to be a saint has nothing to do with pride, for you realize that a saint must remain most humble. So, do not shortchange yourself. Do not miss glorifying God. Crave for the very best spiritually and God shall give it to you without fail!
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