**Evil Is Real

        Good advice from our good Mother. 

The Perfect Prayer Again

        I have posted about the Lord's Prayer as the most perfect prayer, for it defines our relationship with God and saying it with all your heart and soul can transform you into a saint! Listen to Fr. Goring's take on this prayer in today's video of his. 

***Most Unfairly Rejected One***

        God loves us to death and wants us to love him so that we may receive even more blessings from him. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Yet we find it hard to love him because to love him, we need to obey him. Setting pride aside, can you think of one good reason we should not obey him? God wants to embrace us only, so rejecting him can only come from us! I am speaking out for the One who is being most unfairly rejected by the most number of those who were supposed to have been created in his image.

***We Are Here for a Purpose

        With so many prophecies coming from heaven nowadays, warning us about what's going to come, it becomes increasingly clear that God cares about us and wants us to be ready for it. I definitely see the purpose why we are here. We can no longer say that we happen to be here and don't know what's going to become of us. Good and evil are engaged in a fearsome spiritual battle fighting for our souls, and we are to choose sides. The earth is our testing ground. Our final destination will depend upon what we do on earth, and all that will be revealed when we answer to God. Yes, our whole life is purposeful.

**Moving Toward God*

        To obey God.we must disobey ourselves. These two efforts are to be carried out at the same time, for we must give ourselves up to surrender ourselves to God. Depending upon how much humility you have, you can accomplish this instantly or not even your whole lifetime will be enough for you. You get to make your liberation instant, prolonged, or delayed for ever. This is the challenge. Imagine that heaven is right there before your eyes, would you still hesitate and not move toward God? The truth that heaven is there, except that you are not able to see it yet. People say seeing is believing. For those who have faith, believing is all they need and God lets them know that they got it right.

*****Reviewing Reality Once More

        All the posts I've done on this blog have been to glorify God, the God of Christ, by letting you know that he is the true God and how good he is! What we need to know is simple if we believe. There's good and there's evil. We all have a soul that lasts forever. But man has sinned from the beginning and needs salvation, and Christ has come and shown that we can have eternal life if we believe in him to have all our sins taken away by him. It turns out that we make things hard for the Lord and ourselves, for our pride stands in the way. Jesus has already told us that we need to be humble to be exalted. If we let him be our Lord, we become free. But we still prefer to be in charge of ourselves and the struggle against submission to God continues on. It's been like that generation after generation and will most likely continue on to the day of our final judgment. Man has fallen once and is falling again, forever this time, if it doesn't wise up. Again, for whose who believe, especially like a child, they already have their eternity taken care of and are just waiting for the finest day of their whole existence. The disparity between the believers and nonbelievers is as great as that between heaven and earth. I'd cast aside my pride and listen to God for both his and my own sake. The clocks keeps ticking, so we have little time to waste.

***Garabandal Prophecies

         Once more it's good to hear these messages. Of course, to believe or not is all up to you. To believe in Christ or not is up to you too. For me, since I already believe fully in Christ, I don't have a thing to worry about anymore. No matter what happens, my eternity is absolutely secure in him.

***Dying in Order to Live

        In today's Gospel reading from John 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." To be fruitful, we must die in Christ first. Otherwise, we remain our old selves, still disconnected from the Lord. To be truly born again, we need to believe in the Lord and die in him first. So die in Christ before we die and we'll have life abundantly.

***Doing All for God Only

        Today is Feast of St. Lawrence. In reading I from 2 Corinthians 9, Paul writes, "Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Moreover, God is able to make every grace abundant for you, so that in all things, always having all you need, you may have an abundance for every good work." This is great encouragement for me, for the Lord at times seems to want me to do things going against my grain. But obey I must. To make it easy, I need to realize that I am to do whatever for the Lord and not for anyone else or myself. I am merely his instrument. He'll always be with me if I stay with him.

**Preparing for the Inevitable

         The Lord also made me see that I was on my way going to him and now was the time to prepare myself for the best possible meeting with him. All of us should be doing this on earth now. What's inevitable should always be of foremost importance to us.

*****Feeling Free with God

       It's 2:53 AM now. I feel the Lord is really drawing me close to him and I can't sleep. I know that he's right with me, feeling the intimacy only possible with God. There is absolutely no barrier between him and me. He made me see that when we feel absolutely free to know him, we are free. It's good to know.

**Urgent Call to Prayer

         This is calling those who are not strong in the Lord yet. Only submission and prayer to God can secure our eternal future. Otherwise, we may be easily deceived. The time to realize this is now, more urgent than ever.

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***The Definitive Prayer

        Today as I was praying the Our Father, I saw that if you truly meant every line you said, you would be acknowledging your total dependence upon the Lord and abandoning yourself completely to him. This is as it should be, as we also leave judgment entirely to him. We submit ourselves to God the Father and answer to him alone. This is the prayer that defines our relationship to God. 

***Most Fulfilling Expeience

         Communion experience. The intimacy and union is so fulfilling that I was ready to rest in the Lord forever.

***The Bread of Life Truth

        In today's Gospel reading from John 6, Jesus proclaimed, "I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." In Jesus' days, he multiplied loaves of bread and fish to feed the multitudes. Today he has made this living bread available to all at Mass. I wish that Protestant will study John 6 head-on to see that Jesus really meant that to have eternal life, we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood. If Jesus had meant it symbolically, then receiving the Holy Eucharist would be no better than eating manna which fulfilled only physical hunger. (If you search this blog by typing in the word Eucharistic, you can pull up quite a number of posts on Eucharistic miracles.) 

***Avoid Becoming an Antichrist

       In today's reading II from Ephesians 4, Paul writes: "Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ." Of course, Christ had already taught us to pray "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Therefore, if we do not forgive others, we become antichrists. St. John in his first epistle writes: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' but hates his brother, he is a liar." Anyone who wishes someone to go to hell is therefore an antichrist. To love means you love everyone without exception. 

***Do It For Your Soul's Sake

        We all have a soul. We can take care of our own souls, but can only help others to take care of theirs. Taking care of your own soul is all God asks of us, for if we all do that, there'll be heaven on earth. Of course, to get the best care for your soul, you would put your soul under God's care. So for the sake your soul, abandon yourself to God totally. 

*****Source of All Beauty

        Here's the Russian pianist Arcadi Volodos playing a Rachmaninoff song. He is a master at making the melody sound achingly beautiful. Anytime I see or hear something beautiful, I think of the source of all beauty, our Lord, who holiness is the most beautiful of all beauties.

**Hoping to Become Perfect

        God can transform us into a new creature when we are on earth. What I look forward to is that once we are in heaven, God will completely renew us, wiping out even all our inappropriate involuntary reactions that have been ingrained in our nature while we're on earth so that we'll become perfect like the Lord.

**Preparing for Meeting God

        Think of it, we are always in our last days on earth. So what should we do with the time we still have on earth? Do we want to show up before the Lord God empty-handed? I think not. This is what we want to hear him say when we see him: Well done, my good and faithful servant. Come, share your master's joy (Matthew 25:21). If you long to see the Lord, you are probably ready. 

**To Be Free of Nonessentials

       This early morning I dreamed that I walk by a room in a large building, entered it and found a box on a bookshelf that contained something I knew would be useful to me. I learned that the room would be emptied and everything in it discarded. Since I had to do something, I thought I would come back a little later to get that box. When I returned, that box was not there anymore, and I felt distressed. Then I realized that all along I never had that box and I got along fine. I saw that we all accumulated things that may be useful, but not essential. So we needed to learn to detach ourselves from all nonessentials. That was the lesson I learned. It comes down to that only God is essential, the only one to whom we need to attach ourselves.

***How to Love God More

         If you love the Lord, do you best to glorify him, and still feel that you fall short, your can always surrender yourself to him more perfectly to strengthen your union with him. That would be most pleasing to him and beneficial to you too.

***Saddest Day of Our Existence

        When we no longer hope in God, that would be the saddest day of our existence! 

**Loss of Respect for Life

         Today's biggest crimes committed against humanity are abortion, human trafficking, and suicide. The sanctity of life is no longer upheld by many. Human life is most precious to God our creator. Only by believing in God and knowing his love for us can we hope to treasure life. Those who know Christ the Lord are never lonely and rejoice about their existence always.

**Prayer Intentions

        We pray to show that we not only trust in God, but also are obedient to him. 

***Most Soul-Shaking Events***

        There have been many earthing-shaking events happening throughout history, most of which are pretty horrible. But there are two events that are most relevant and critically important to the whole human race we may not realize, but ought to. They are (1) the coming of Jesus into our world to save us from sin and (2) his Cruxifixction on the cross to complete the work for our salvation. This makes all the difference to us. Because of it, our eternal life is now assured. 

***We Can Be Talented and Amazing!

         As you know, I have an interest in piano music, although much less now than before. Currently, two talented pianists are most amazing. It's as if the piano was invented just for them. One is Japan's Hayato Sumino. He plays the piano as naturally as a duck swims on water. The other is Russia's Zlata Chochieva. Playing the difficult Chopin and Rachmaninoff etudes looks like child's play for her. So what are my thoughts? Well, we can be equally talented and amazing in living for Christ. Even better, we don't ever need to practice hard on any instrument—we simply remain in the Lord and let him make things happen! When you have Christ, you get the best of everything! 

***We'll Never Die!

        Looking out of my bedroom window, I can see the wild buckeye tree behind the huge boulder. Not receiving any irrigation, all its leaves turn brown every year about this time in the summer, then it comes back in the spring with even more fresh growth. So it's half of the year alive and half of the year looking dead—pretty amazing. My thoughts are that when we live in Christ, we can die on earth, but we'll never really die and will live forever with him in heaven. God takes care of the trees; so much more will he take care of us!

**Food for Thought*

        To know God is to know yourself.

***To Think As God Thinks

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 16, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly, and be killed and on the third be raised. Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you." Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." To think as God does, we must know God first and learn from him. This is where seeking union with God can precisely help. Surrender to him to become one with the him first. Then you'll know how he thinks and understand everything he says to you! Now you are completely in tune with the Lord. What a great joy!

**Christ in Our Insane World

       Fo those of us who follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin living our heavenly joy right now on earth, for our journey to paradise has begun and the best is yet to come. In this insane world on earth, Christ is the only one who can keep us sane and safe from all evil. You can't be sane if you believe that you can find happiness in this sinful world without him. If you are lost, you need to find him and he'll save you forever. He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), our only bright hope in this insane world. 

*Happy and Grateful

        Today I am so happy and grateful that I have Christ to lead me. By following him, I know I'll do everything right, and get to heaven. You can never trust anyone with a big ego, but Jesus you can totally trust because he is forever meek and humble despite being Almighty God.

***The Lord Doing What We Wish!

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman came to Jesus to beg him to heal her daughter tormented by a demon. Jesus tested her first, but she persisted. Jesus then said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." Her daughter was healed from that hour. It just shows that if we have faith and persist, the Lord hears us. "Let it be done for you as you wish" has to be one of most comforting sayings filled with love you can hear coming from the Lord.

***How to Follow Christ*****

        To follow Christ, you are given so many rules. I wouldn't be surprised if you can come up with a list showing hundreds of these rules. Anyway, it'd be impossible to remember and practice them all. So how do we get around this? My answer: ignore all of them an go straight to the Lord himself to learn from him. Once you attain union with him, he'll shows you what to do and what not to do at any time, without a single rule to memorize. The Lord always makes things easy for us to understand when we go to him with an open empty heart and and open empty mind, ready to absorb whatever he wishes to reveals to us.

**Pray for Spiritual Awakening

        Spiritual awakening do not happen easily in this day and age, for the material world has attracted and snared so many souls. Evil forces operate efficiently under present circumstances. We can only turn to God to awaken those who are spiritually dead. So be alive and awake yourself first and pray hard for the world, including all the countries, our Church, our government, out families, and our own selves. (I recently read that Thailand has an extremely high suicide rate among its people, so pray for that country.)

*****Discover Your Unique Gem*****

        We have only limited time on earth and a lot of us keep busy by doing all kinds of things. May I ask what you are trying to accomplish? If you just want to live a comfortable life on earth, then, well, to be blunt about it, you are wasting your whole lifetime. Our life time is so short that compared to our life eternal after death, it's not even a drop in the ocean! So be smart and look beyond this life. Maybe you are not sure that there is life after death, then you should at least look into it, for you have nothing to lose. Not to think about it is being plain dumb (just stating the fact, not meaning to insult anyone, for once I was dumb myself). If I am somewhat credible to you, then follow my advice and look seriously into Christ. (For a start, you can watch the move The Case for Christ.) Everything I say on this blog is based upon genuine personal experience. Christ is our treasure so perfect and beautiful that once you find him, you'll want to keep him all to yourself.  Yet at the same time you want everyone else to enjoy him too. It just shows how the love of the Lord can truly liberate us from being selfish, and perfect us. The Lord is absolutely a unique gem! 

***Minding God's Business OK

        We are always told to mind our own business, but we must always mind God's business, for he's the one we need to follow and know what he wills us to do every moment in our life. God would welcome that we attend to his business, for only in sharing everything between him and us can we attain union with him.

*What's Not a Bona Fide Catholic

        We can believe in God, attend Mass regularly, and be as nice as we can to everyone, but still not follow the teachings of the Church thoroughly or be aware of the urgency of following the Lord during these dark times. A casual Catholic is not a bona fide Catholic. Go all out for the Lord to receive fully what he has in store for us. 

***Aiming for Heaven Only

        We want to aim as high as possible, for God deserves our highest esteem and love. Some people are resigned to going through purgatory first, but I say we aim for going to heaven directly, bypassing purgatory altogether. We want to honor and please the Lord as much as we can by being as holy as we can. That's going all out for him as he had for us when he died on the cross for our sins!  

**Precarious Situation We Are In

        We naturally like to do what we want to do without anyone telling us what we should do. In other words, we tend to be self-centered, despite having a conscience. It's always easy to follow the easy way, and Satan knows and takes advantage of that. To capture you, he makes you believe that you are on the right path and he's with you. Of course, once he has influenced you, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to think of God. This is exactly the situation we're in. The illumination of conscience warning will be a drastic measure taken by the merciful Lord to steer us back to him. What we should do is to wake up and turn to him now rather than risk reaching the point of no return before that warning comes.

**Decluttering the Mind for Peace

       People in general are interested in what's going on around them. When they meet each other, they talk about what's happening with their family or someone else's. They talk about current events and share their views. Sometimes we just like to talk, even about trivial stuff. One reason I have peace is because I don't waste any time thinking about things that would draw me away from God or won't do me any good. Even if I hear something that needs help, if it's a situation that I cannot directly help except through prayer, I just pray and not let it weigh me down in any way. Although this can give the impression that I am not a very sociable or caring person, to preserve my peace in the Lord is the best part for me and I must not lose it. Actually, I don't have to try hard at all, for I automatically know what to pay attention to and what to tune out. We should always do our best in what we should and can do, but not waste any time thinking about things extraneous to our spiritual life.

*****God's Foremost Desire Is . . .

to save us from our sins so that we can go to heaven. I hope you realize and believe in it.

***Riddle of Life

         It's all about us and God. We have strayed away from God and he wants us to return to him. The way has been all paved, but we resist going back. We think we can be free on our own, not realizing that freedom is born the moment we let the Lord fully "capture" us. Those who see this truth are few. The war is really between us and God. Once we surrender and reconcile ourselves to him, order is restored and we are set free forever. Life is no longer a riddle.  

**Duped and Becoming Heartless

       Psalm 51 is today's responsorial psalm. From verse 5 and 6, we have "For I acknowledge my offense; and my sin is before me always. Against you only have I sinned; and done what is evil in your sight." We need to be aware of the fact that every time we sin, we hurt the Lord, and ourselves: we cause him great sorrow and stray further away from him ourselves. He has made us in his image so that we can become like him, but we just go the opposite way. We've been duped by the world and become heartless. 

**Force That Makes Us Grow

        I look out the window and see the dragon fruit cactus my wife has recently transplanted into a large pot. Its growth is quite amazing, for it's noticeable daily. Two small segments that sprouted just a few weeks ago are now over a foot long. There is a force behind it which is of course the Lord. Then I see that we have a powerful force behind us too—it's God the Holy Spirit who can help us grow amazingly spiritually, if we, like that dragon fruit, do not resist the Lord.

*Decision You Must Not Delay

        Turning to God to convert yourself is a decision you must not delay making. Putting it off is like not getting ready for evacuation when you know that a fire is approaching and could make you lose everything, including your own life. Even after our conversion the Lord wants us to remain awake, vigilant and alert for his next coming. So burying your head in the sand is never the smart thing to do. 

**Who Can Save Us?

        If you don't think you need to be saved, you don't need to read on. I know that I am a sinner and can't get into heaven without having my sins removed. Who can save us? Buddha can't. Neither Muhammad nor any self-proclaimed prophet can. For they are all human beings created by God. Only God himself can forgive our sins and save us. That leaves Christ alone as our Savior. His Resurrection is solid proof that he is the creator of all life. It is he or no one.

***My Warning to the World!

         I really feel bad about how we have caused God our Father so much sorrow, placing him in a most difficult situation. This is how I see it. Our Father loves us and wants to save us, yet so many of us reject him and continue offending him. All his calls for us to pray, repent, and convert pretty much get ignored. We have reached the point of deserving punishment, yet the Father continues to hold off, for that would cause him immense pain. So he still waits in agony. I believe that if things continue to get worse, he will warn us with the illumination of conscience which is like a mini-judgment. That would be a special act of mercy on his part. Hopefully most of us will then turn to God and change their sinful ways. Of course, if we all do that now, we can change our whole destiny now. If not, we'll be pushing the Father closer the point of no return. If that point is reached, we'd have the saddest day in our whole existence. This is my big warning to the world now.

***Top Priority in Fighting Evil

         It just seems that the evildoers are more united in attacking the righteous ones, who appear more divided in defending themselves. I think you can see all evildoers to be in darkness, and the righteous ones in various degrees of light and shade. To become united and strong in fighting evil, every righteous one needs to be in full light. This means that they become holy and be fully united with the Lord. Thus, seeking to attain union with God becomes the top priority. The best way to overcome evil is to be holy.

**Prerequisite for Receiving Favors from God

        To receive whatever we need to become holy or obedient to the Lord, we must become empty first. If we are not completely open to him, then we are not quite empty yet. Once we are empty, we can ask for whatever we need, or better yet, whatever he wishes to grant us.