***What Matters More*

         It's a happy day, for I finally got my laptop back and can start blogging again. The computer now works flawlessly. For months I had been getting double letters when I typed some of the single letters. Now I know that was caused by the swollen battery pushing on the keyboard from underneath. I shall date each posting as of the day I received the thoughts, so it may take me three days or longer to catch up totally.
        (1) How much you love God matters more than how you love God. (2) How willingly you accept suffering for God's sake matters more than how you suffer. (3) How much your heart is involved in praying to God matters more than how much you pray.

**Secure Your Soul First

        In Matthew 10:28, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." If you have already secured you soul with Christ, then there is absolutely nothing for you to fear anymore. [I'll have to take my laptop into a shop to get its swollen battery replaced. I do not know yet how much time this repair will take. If you don't see me blogging, you'll know why.]

*Wise Move as You Age

        Do you get busier when you get older? Some old folks feel that there isn't much they can do and simply wait for death. This is rather sad. Others see that their time is limited and hustle to do all the things they enjoy doing. This is better but not necessarily profitable, depending upon their motivation. The wisest choice as you age is to serve God as best as you can in every way in the remaining time you still have left. This last effort may very well put you comfortably across the finish line to heaven.

**Death Is No End of Life

        If I die right now, how would I feel? This thought came to me this morning. I would feel all right because I see life continuing on. One difference would be the change of environment. When I leave this world, I simply let everything in it go. As for those for whom I am praying, I'll just continue praying for them from heaven if necessary. Of course, the environment up there will now be divine! So dying does affect serving the Lord; only your environment becomes infinitely better. Now you are in union with the Lord God more than ever. 

**Persevering to the End

        Encouraging, consoling words from the Holy Mother. She said, "Those who remain faithful to the end will receive great reward." Let's remember that!

*****Awesome Power of God's Will

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 6, on a certain sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. The scribes and the Pharisees watched him closely to see if he would cure on the sabbath so that they might discover a reason to accuse him. But he realized their intentions and said to the man with the withered hand, “Come up and stand before us.” And he rose and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” Looking around at them all, he then said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so and his hand was restored. It's awesome to see that when we let the Lord do what he wills, all that's good for us is done.

***Only Way to Live

        Our first duty is to love God. And it's perfectly all right to let your desire to get to heaven motivate you to love him, for it is exactly his desire for you too. He treasures you, so you should treasure yourself. This is how you can live a fruitful, rewarding life. Living without love for God is no living at all.

*Elementary Formula for Peace

        We want to change the world to make it better, right? But when the world is filled with self-centered sinners, there's no chance it can happen. Let's get right down to the fact that only God can make the world better, for he can change us. So the only way improve the world is for each of us to trust in and follow God, the God of Christ, to let him change us first. This is so clear and simple. Obey Good and we'll have peace and salvation. Ignore him and we'll have continuing chaos and damnation of many. We must work everything thru our God for his glory and our good.

*"Fear" of God

         When a righteous person "fears" God, he loses all his fears. When an evil person does not "fear" God, he'll end up in fear of God for all eternity.

***Holiness Starts with Us

        The supplications to God we make in public always seem to be prayers for the Pope and the bishop, our government officials, and others in needs, rarely for ourselves. Perhaps we pray for ourselves in private only? I hope so. Praying for others is always easier than praying for ourselves, as many of us have not completely discarded our pride yet. The truth is we need prayer as much as others. Indeed we should humbly pray for our perfection first so we can become more effective in praying for others. We say charity begins at home; we could also say holiness starts with oneself. We won't get far if we pray for others to become holy, while we remain poor examples.

***How We Should See Sinners

         It's in current news that the defrocked Cardinal McCarrick has finally been brought to court to face sexual assault charges. So far, he has pleaded not guilty. To me, if one is guilty, it would be do much better for him to repent and suffer public humiliation than not to repent and suffer eternal punishment later. Therefore, I urge you all to pray for the salvation of this former cardinal.
         How we see other sinners genuinely shows how much we know Jesus. In general, we don't like evildoers and often wish literally that they go to hell. But this is pure human thinking, no at all in line with what the Lord wishes. God loves the evildoers as much as the righteous ones. In fact, it's specifically for their salvation that he came to us from heaven. If any one of them goes to hell, Satan wins. Which side are you really on?  Next time you wish someone to go to hell, recall how Jesus rebuked Peter in Matthew 16:23, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

***Easiest Person to Get Along With***

         On earth we all have family members and/or friends, and not everyone we know we can get along with easily. Even with our most loved ones or best friends, we can misunderstand each other at times. Personally, I've found Jesus to be the easiest person to get along with. How so? First of all, he understands you perfectly, knowing all your weaknesses and imperfections. And he's most forgiving; once you admit you're wrong, he forgives you totally. Of course, he never holds grudges against you. And he's most patient, for he always listens to you. If you fall short of loving him, he helps you there too. You can trust in him completely, as he is completely reliable. He's indeed the easiest person to get along with because he doesn't mind your mistakes, imperfections, failures, as long as you trust in him. Besides, he can make you so perfect as to get along with him swimmingly. Now he and you become soulmates. Once you have the Lord as your most beloved lord and friend, you have all the people you need to know in life.

**Reacting to Any Situation

         I have an earwax buildup in my right ear, affecting its hearing. So I started putting a few drops of mineral oil in it a couple of days ago to soften the wax. This had worked in the past for me. But this morning as I tried to dab my ear to get the excess oil out with a paper tissue, I found blood stains on the tissue. Two possible extreme scenarios of how one can react in such a situation. First scenario, you become alarmed, panic, and rush to see your doctor, thinking that you may have a serious infection and lose your hearing in that ear. Second scenario, you remain calm, knowing that panic or worry will not help you a bit. You don't need negative thoughts to cloud your thinking. Mostly likely, there's nothing to be alarmed about. You should wait and not jump into any conclusion.
          I am sure that you would agree with me objectively that the second reaction is the right one. But we do know that reacting the first way comes more naturally to us and reacting the second way is difficult or nigh impossible for many of us. This is where God comes in. By trusting in him, we should be able to remain in peace under any circumstances. This is not just a theory, but a fact. Here's the Lord ready to take you to heaven—how can he possibly not take care of you on earth? (As for my ear bleed, I think I've figured out the cause. I just cut my fingernails. Earlier they were a bit long and I did try to get some of the wax out of the right ear with my index finger. Very possibly, the nail had scratched the outer ear and caused some bleeding. In that case, I should be all well in a few days.)

*****Most Serious Reality***

        Life is our big test. At some time early in our life, perhaps around the time we started elementary school, we became aware of the existence of good and evil. Since man disobeyed God at the beginning, we all inherited the original sin. God can just pardon us all, but that would be going against his principle. So in this life, we must choose to repent and return to God or not to repent and remain in sin. This is what the test is all about, and it's absolutely critical, for the consequences of our choice will affect our eternity.

*How to Feel Good

        Just serve the Lord with your whole heart. 

*To Be Taken Care of by God . . .

we only need to obey him (keep his word).        

**Simple Way to Become a Saint

        This is the Little Way of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. We do everything little thing for God with great love, and we become saints. So, just do everything for God to show that we love him and let him take care of the rest.

*Ready to Meet God

          When we are ready to go to God at any time, we are ready for him to come at any time. 

***How to know God Fast*

        Plunge yourself directly into the God of Christ, cry out to him from your heart, and asking anything you want to know from him. This takes courage and may not be easy for you right new, but if you remain timid, you won't get anywhere. If you do that, the Lord would be overjoyed, this I can tell you! What can you possibly lose? Would he strike you dead? Of course not! On the contrary, he most ardently desires that you live happily in heaven with him in the end! Go to him boldly and you'll experience a breakthrough. It is truly exciting to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You want to enjoy peace, freedom, and joy now and forever.

***Beautiful Truth***

        A slave of God is the freest person ever. 

***A Denial We Must Not Deny*

          Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) Today, we not only do not wish to carry our own crosse, we create crosses for others. This goes directly against following the Lord. We are no better than the Pharisees to whom Jesus had said "Woe to you" on many occasions. Despising carrying our own cross is despising the Lord carrying his cross for us now. 

***Present State of the World

        Today I feel that the Lord wants me to go over the basics of following him. He has already revealed to us all we need to know to be saved for all eternity. It's now up to us to carry out what he has commanded of us. If we have no faith, we won't witness any miracles. If we do not pray, we won't ever hear his voice. We then simply remain where we are and wither spiritually. While we continue thus, the Lord suffers horribly. This is the sad state of our present world, self-centered with hardened hearts.

***"Challenging" God

         The Lord God challenges us. He promises that if we do what he tells us, he'll give us many good things, including eternal life. Our heavenly Mother promises to save us from the fires of hell if we faithfully wear the brown scapular. So it strikes me that we can "challenge" the Lord and the Holy Mother to fulfill their promises by doing exactly what they ask us to do. Since the Lord God can never make empty promises, we can be sure that we'll receive all the blessings as promised, including eternal life.          

***Knowing God Is Pivotal

        If there were no God nor heaven, then life wouldn't be worth living. If you still think that you can do good and live happily sans God, you are simply trying to make yourself feel good. It won't work, for you don't have anything solid to back you up. Knowing God changes everything, as I've been testifying to you on this blog all these years. He becomes your rock solid foundation, your source of guidance and inspiration, and your eternal hope. Now you are wide awake, living in the most beautiful reality.

***Joy of Following Jesus!

           In today's Gospel reading from Luke 5, Jesus taught the crowds by the Lake of Gennesaret from Simon Peter's boat a short distance from the shore. After he had finished speaking, he asked Simon to put out into deep water and lower his nets for a catch. Simon had worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Jesus' command he lowered the nets. When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish that their nets were tearing. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that the boats were in danger of sinking. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him, and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
           Earlier, right after I read that Simon Peter fell at the knees of Jesus and said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man," the Lord right then filled me with unspeakable joy because he made me feel the joy of following him. An unforgettable moment of the Holy Spirit in action.

**Either Saved or Lost*

        Today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 98, tells us that the Lord has made his salvation known to us. Is there anyone who really believes that he doesn't need salvation? If you do not know where you'll be going after you die, then you are lost and need salvation! We are either saved or lost. To me, the feeling of being lost would be unbearable. I believe this is how God has made us so that we may look for him. And I praise and thank God that I've found Christ to be precisely the Savior I need to make my existence both meaningful and glorious!

**Pray, Pray, and Pray

        Another sensible talk on prayer and the hour of our death by the speaker of the previous post on purgatory.

***Purgatory Made Clear

        A good video on learning more about purgatory.

***Reason for Prayer

         We pray to God for various reasons. Many prayer are supplications, for we need his help. Then I also pray the Holy Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, etc. simply because the Lord wants us to pray them now to help him save souls. Whatever he wants us to do for whatever reason, we should comply gladly. Obedience to God in all things is the best way to show our love for him. 

*****Remaining New Forever (Most Exciting Living)

        We all like new things. Living in a new house, wearing new clothes, visiting a new country, beginning a new year...all such experiences are exciting. Now, do you know that the Lord God can make you new continuously? Remain in him and he cleanses you and refreshes you at all times, and you remain new. All new things get old, but God can keep you new forever! Is there another way of living that's more exciting and delightful? I don't think so.

**To Be in Tune with God

        Today is September 1; we are entering the last third of the year already. Ever since the pandemic started, most of us have spent much time staying home. If we became more aware of God's presence, that would be time well spent. To be attuned to what God is telling or showing us is central to our spiritual well-being. God shapes all things and there is always a message in whatever we experience. Tuning the Lord out is to be lost forever. The more attentive you are, the more he helps you understand. The ultimate is for us to attain union with him, then we'd be completely in tune with him. 

*Good Knowing Where We Are

        In today's first reading from 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul writes, "For all of you are children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him." Amen. It's good to be reminded that we are in the light, wide awake, know what's going on and what's to come, and are not destined for God's wrath. Most of all, that Christ is with us! 

***Amidst Your Most Beloved***

        Jesus is the Most Beloved Son of the Father. When the Father loved us so much that he gave his Most Beloved Son so that we who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life, we are most beloved by the Father too. This love of the Father that can save us surely can transform us. It is this love we want to be immersed in forever. With your most beloved all around you, there's nothing more you can ask for.

***Letting God Alone Be Judge***

        At Fatima, the Holy Mother gave us this prayer to add to the Rosary: O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the the fires of hell; lead all soul to heaven, especially those who are in most need of your mercy. Note that God wants us to pray for the worst evildoers. Christ came to us precisely to save those who needed his mercy. So what we are asked to pray is completely in line with his teaching: "Do not judge," "Forgive others," "Love your enemies." Any of us who wish that all evildoers go to hell, instead of praying for their salvation, forgets that God's mercy is for all. Therefore, repent to let God alone be our judge.

***Most Beautiful Bonding***

        People say that a good marriage happens between two people who are different from each other, but can complement each other. This doesn't sound quite right to me. Then you hear said that a happy marriage happens when the couple share the same interest in many things. There's more truth in that. Let me say that the best and most beautiful bonding between any two people, in marriage of not, whether they are different or share the same interests, takes place when both of them surrender themselves to God. When you become one with the Lord, you truly become one with each other. Thru God, all barriers are overcome. Any bond God has created, no one will be able to break. 

**What Matters and What Doesn't*

        Suppose you know that you'll be entering heaven tomorrow, I am sure you would feel so happy and forget all the troubles you have now on earth. On the other hand, suppose you know that the world will end tomorrow, depending upon the state of your soul, you'd either welcome or be terrified of that, but all the troubles you have now would likewise be forgotten. Both our death and the end of the world will happen. Looking at them in advance can help us see what truly matters and what doesn't.

*Two Modes of Living

        For those who live for themselves, they work hard to achieve their goals, doing what they want to do. Of course, they'll have setbacks and get frustrated. This is not exactly happy living. In the end, they'll find no treasure stored up in heaven. It's is a life laboring for nothing. On the other hand, we have those who live for the heavenly Father alone, following only his will. Whatever happens to them in this life they know will be taken care of by him. They simply delight in trusting in him. And it's just a matter of time that they'll soon be with all the treasures they have stored up in heaven.

**Continuing Spiritual Warfare

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 4, Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing." All were amazed at his words. They also asked, "Is this not the son of Joseph?" Then he told them that no prophet was accepted in his own native place. When they heard it, they all got furious, rose up and drove him out of the town. Fast forward to the present and we see that people are trying to keep Jesus out of their lives, despite the fact that he has come and given us the best possible news. It shows that people haven't "improved" after two thousand years. The spiritual warfare rages on and it'll have to come to a resolution. I believe that we are entering that final phase now.

***Jesus Will Always Be Around

        I like good music and the works of the greatest composers are still being listened to today after a couple of centuries or so. Of course, the works of the lesser ones are heard less often. And there are so many other composers completely forgotten. Now, Jesus will always be remembered, for he has always existed and cannot go away. Without him, nothing would have come into being. Dismissing him is impossible and will make you look like that you are the one who should be dismissed.

**What's Moments Away from You?

        Fr. Goring said one thing in his video Eternity Is Moments Away today that was poignant to me. He said "heaven is just moments away." It's true and if this makes you happy, you are on the right track. Happy is the one who dies and sees heaven right there. Of course, hell can be moments away too. Make absolutely sure that your are only moments away from heaven!

*Happy with My God

        Today's Communion experience. When I saw that the bread was consecrated to become the body of the Lord, I knew that this transformation could transform me into a new creature in him. I was totally happy with my God. 

***God Has Made Us Worthy!

        During the liturgy of the Eucharist, when the wine was being transformed into the blood of our Lord, I realized that I had been redeemed with His Most Precious Blood! So I am loved and treasured by the Lord and I must love and treasure myself too. He's the One who deems that I am worthy to be saved! And he deems the same about everyone of you who read here. God bless you all most abundantly.

*Not Wanting to Sin at Any Time

        When I used to serve in the homebound ministry and carried the Holy Eucharist on me periodically to visit the homebound to give them Communion, the awesome feeling that the Lord was with me made me not want to sin. Today at Mass I realize that even though I no longer carry the Lord on me, he is ever present before me, actually dwelling within me, so I really should not want to sin at any time. Good thing is that the Lord has already taken away my tendency to sin; for that I am most grateful.  

*Our Perfect Response to God

        God is precise, never vague, for truth remains the same forever. He asks us to do what we should do; no more, no less. So we should be precise too and be perfectly obedient to him. By the way, this is how we gain inner peace.

**To be Ready and Perfect

        The Lord wants us to be ready when he comes. Today I see that to be ready is to be perfect. So he want us to be perfect when he shows up. Come to thing of it, he did ask his disciples to be perfect just as the heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

***Learning from the Lord a Joy!

      Learning truth from the Lord has always been refreshing and enlightening. Today I see that all this learning is God's way of making you perfect and there's still so much, much more we can learn! This is getting really exciting! What a privilege and a joy it is to let Almighty God mold and shape you to his heart's content!

***To Be Prepared or Not, Our Choice

        Jesus wants us to remain vigilant and be prepared, for at an hour we don't expect, he will come. This applies to all the current prophesied warnings too. Naturally, for those who are always ready, there'll be nothing to fear. But for those who do not heed his advice, whatever is to come will come at an hour they do not expect and it'll be too late from them. We've been thus warned since Christ came two thousand years ago. So if we get stricken unexpectedly, we truly asked for it.

***It Is Interesting that . . .

Satan is now fiercely attacking the Catholic Church and not any other religion. The reason should be obvious.         

*****IMPORTANT INFORMATION

        Jesus is the only one who can save us from damnation, and for that matter, make us perfect now and forever.

***How to Defeat Evil***

        These are evil times for sure. One indication is the number of phone calls I get at home obviously from scammers. Receiving at least half a dozen such calls a day is not uncommon. I believe that most people are aware of the prevalence of evil, but they talk or worry about it, wondering what they can do. I think this is the perfect time for us to wake up spiritually, realizing that only God can help us overcome evil. When Mary in the first video of my last post asks us to settle things as soon as possible, she doesn't mean settling earthly things. Instead she wants us to settle our relationship with God. This is most important. When evil is widespread, it's the perfect time to seek union with God to get our soul secured. When Satan cannot touch our soul, he's already beaten. So, seek refuge in the Lord right now.