**Peace Extraordinaire

        To me, the peace of the Christ is the greatest peace we can possibly experience on earth. We experience peace in the world when there is nothing to worry about, but this peace is always short-lived. The peace of Christ is permanent, for the Lord takes care your life for all eternity! Besides, you are filled the joy, knowing that you are loved by God.

****Our Greatest Reality!

         People avoid facing God. This is the God who has created all of us in his image, who has existed from the very beginning and will be around forever, who loves us to death, who has done all the work for us to inherit his kingdom, who is sustaining our existence every moment now on earth, who is continually calling us to respond to his love and mercy, who is intent on saving us from damnation, and who has given us all we enjoy now and will give us eternal life in heaven if you believe in him. So why are you avoiding facing this greatest reality? Please answer this question before you lose your body and soul at the same time! 

***Praying for God's Will First

       God knows what we need best. Therefore, pray for his intentions for us. This way we show obedience, trust, and support, and will receive the best from him. Of course, we can pray for what we want for ourselves too, but that should be of secondary importance.   

*****Squaring God's Justice with His Mercy*****

         God's justice is exact and thorough, and he knows every little sin we have committed. At the same time, his mercy is infinite. How do you square these two with each other? Well, we have the key in our hands—it is "repentance." If we do not repent of our sins, his justice takes full control. If we repent of our sins, then his mercy reigns. Now you know which way to turn the key!

***Either God or We***

        To trust in God is to forget ourselves. This is another truth. Since life is all about whether we let the Lord be our Lord or not, if we don't forget ourselves, we stand in God's way. One can't be aware of his own presence and trust in God fully at the same time. 

***With All Our Heart Always

        While our soul is most important to us, our heart is most useful. To do all things with the heart is to be genuine. Unite our heart with his Sacred Heart and we receive wisdom and power. Let him set our heart on fire and it becomes pure and spotless. Have heart-to-hearts with the Lord every moment and we enjoy great intimacy. If we are to love the Lord with all our heart, we must let him have our heart so that we may attain union with him as one forever.

**Honesty in Confession

         Confession is the sacrament of reconciliation given to us by the Lord. It's necessary for Catholics to go to confession if they have committed a serious sin, and, of course, it doesn't hurt to do it even if all your sins are minor. When confessing, we tend not to make ourselves look too bad, but this is dishonesty. True, you don't need to spell out everything in detail, but the gist of your sin must be truthful. If you were not totally honest with God, you may not even be forgiven by him. In addition, you have added the sin of dishonesty to confess. The Lord is always straight forward to us, and we must always be straight forward to him too.

*****Idolatry Warning!*****

        Today I read about the fall of Yundi Li, known as the Piano Prince in China. He won the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2000 at the age of 18. He was caught with a prostitute and the Chinese government arrested him. It looks like his bright careen is over. (In the West, no one would care about any pop star committing many immoral acts, but that's another story.) Anyway, the unfortunate happening is that many of Li's possibly millions of young fans are now devastated by the fall from grace of their idol. Some have given up learning to play the piano altogether and fallen into depression. *This is the time for us all to remember God's first of his Ten Commandments: "I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me." Today the young idolize pop stars and we "worship" material things and even Satan. There is only one God who will never fail or disappoint us: he is the God of Christ, our only Savior. Violate his first commandment and we will surely suffer the consequences.

**How to Have True Life

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 17, Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will have it." To me, the Lord is telling us that if we live for ourselves only, we won't have eternal life. Living for God is the only sure way to salvation.

**A Christian's Primary Mission

        This should be obvious, but it doesn't hurt to state it clearly again. As a Christian, I believe Christ is our Lord and Savior, and every soul enters either heaven of hell after death. Sin is a reality and the spiritual battle between God and Satan is all about saving souls. Therefore, a Christian's primary mission is saving souls, his own foremost, of course. This mission continues even after he enters heaven. At Christ's Second Coming, everything will be wrapped up and earth no longer will be our abode. So as Christians, let us follow Christ by evangelizing and praying for as many souls as possible, and our reward will be great in heaven. 

***Most Humble Miracle

         The last Luminous Mystery of the Rosary for today is The Institution of the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist, the Lord himself, is our greatest gift from God. The changing of the elements of the bread and wine, when they are consecrated in the Eucharist, into the body and blood of Christ has to be one most amazing miracle. Yet this change is physically invisible (although many visible Eucharistic miracles have occurred). The fact that the Lord totally gives himself to us in the Eucharist and the fact that the transformation into his body and blood takes place so unostentatiously strike me that The Institution of the Holy Eucharist is the most humble miracle that God has ever performed. 

***Best Time to Follow Christ

        When you try to convert someone to become a Christian, one common response you get is "I have many things to take care of now, so I am not quite ready yet." This sounds more like an excuse than a valid reason. In Luke 9:62, Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." With the Lord, you always move forward. Not even wanting to move is not wanting to follow him at all. If you do not follow him now, there will never be a better time! You have only your time on earth to decide and you don't know how much time you still have left. Why gamble with your soul? 

*****Secret to Knowing God

        To let the Lord enter our lives and to hear his voice, we must step out of his way. This means we remain passive and not try to accomplish this through our own exertion. We remain wide open to let the Lord reveal himself to us—this is all it takes, for the Lord who loves us wishes ardently to become one with us! Let it all be his doing!

***The Warning According to St. Faustina

 

*Be Grateful to God Always

         1 Thessalonians 5:18, today's Gospel acclamation: In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. Indeed, whenever we realize that we are alive and have been given eternal life, we should give thanks.

*Soul More Important than Body

        Since the everlasting soul is infinitely more important than our perishable body, we should pray harder for all souls than we exercise our bodies. Common sense.

***Re Purgatory and Loving God

        Two older messages from our heavenly Mother, but worth listening to again. 
       

*Wise Advice

         Don't waste time trying to leave a mark on this world or hand down some sort of legacy. Spend your time wisely on storing up your treasure in heaven instead.

***Christ Is Joy!

        Once you know Christ most intimately, joy underlies all your experiences, the sorrowful ones included! For the Lord is joy!

***Jesus' Tremendous Agony

        As I was praying the first sorrowful mystery of the Rosary, Agony in the Garden, I could feel Christ undergoing tremendous mental suffering as a human being. All the sins that have been committed by all sinners are now on him, and he is going to have to pay for that with his own life so that we may be freed from sin. How can we not be grateful and love him?

**Blessing Out of Order?

        Whenever I hear people asking God to bless this country, I cringe a little bit, for our Supreme Court has legalized abortion! If I have done evil, I'd be a hypocrite to go before my father to ask him to bless me. Shouldn't I repent and reform first like the prodigal son before returning to his father? It seems that we should repent and ask for God's forgiveness first before asking him to bless us.

***Only You and God

        There are just you and God. You get to know a lot of people in your short time on earth, but you'll have them for just a short time. Besides, none of them can do a thing when you face the Lord at judgment time. It is he alone that matters to you. Either you'll be with or without him forever. So it comes down to just you and God. Live for him alone and you should do fine.

*****Big No-No for Us!*****

        I have given this warning before. But because it's so important, I'm bringing it up again. All sins we have committed are burdens that weight us down, making it impossible for the soul to soar to God. Therefore, never die in sin. You must get all your sins removed by the Lord before you leave this world. The sacrament of reconciliation was instituted for that purpose. To die in sin is to have your soul commit suicide, so please do not ever let that happen for your own sake and for God's sake. Have mercy on yourself! Repent and let the God of Christ remove all you sins as often as necessary. No one else can make you clean, for everyone must go thru him.

**Liberating Love

        Psalm 136: 1b-10 was today's reading. After reading it, I felt the following. The Lord is all around me. No matter where I go, he is there, and he knows all about me. Yet I experience complete freedom in him. This is amazing! It must be his love that liberates us. In submitting ourselves to him, we become free.

**Mutual Trust Essential

        No matter how you feel about God, he loves you. But if you don't trust in him, how can you expect him to trust in you? So trust in him fully so that he may trust in you fully too. Now you can talk about heaven.

**Heaven-Triggered Sadness

        Yes, I am going to heaven—you have to feel the joy just thinking about it! But you feel the sorrow too, when you realize that many other souls may not ever experience that joy. Sorrow to Christ is sorrow to us.

***First Step to Union

        We all have things about ourselves we do not wish others to know. But these things the Lord God knows thoroughly already. So sharing them with him will be perfectly fine. In fact, you should share all your feelings, thoughts, and inner secrets with him to show that you trust in him. Once he sees that, he knows that he can trust in you too. Now he reveals what you need to know to you from his Most Sacred Heart. The bonding begins. Sharing all that's in your heart freely with the Lord is the first step to attaining union with him. 

***Following Christ Is Exciting . . .

because there is no limit to how much you can love him (and you are on your way to heaven)!        

***Our Fundamental Battle

        It's between God and us. If God wins, we also win. If we win, God loses and we also lose. Simple truth.

**God's Chief Aim

        When you follow the Lord God, he does not aim at making you rich or famous or powerful; he only wants you to receive the greatest possible reward after you leave this world. Is this OK with you?

**Holy Spirit Most Refreshing . . .

        The Holy Spirit is most refreshing because he renews us continuously and inspires us regularly.

***Next Coming for Sure

        In Acts 1, we read that while the apostles of Jesus were looking intently at the sky as the Lord was ascending into heaven, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven." As his ascension was witnessed by many, you can be sure that he will return again to clean up sin on earth once and for all.

**Choosing the Right Extreme

        Here are the two extremes. You can depend upon God totally or just drift around during your whole existence on earth. The God I am talking about is not just an imagined God, but a concrete God you can actually experience. So it comes down to knowing exactly where you are headed or remaining lost. The latter might be exciting when you are playing a game, but it becomes a horrible nightmare if your soul were involved. Of course, you can always take that other extreme with God.

***How the World Splits***

        For me, telling others about Christ is like someone telling me about an enthralling book, a beautiful piece of music, an attractive new friend, an exciting new car, an enjoyable new game, etc. We can talk about all these last things mentioned comfortably without getting upset even if we disagree. Yet, when the subject is Christ, the whole scene can change. People can start feeling uncomfortable. They think I purposely try to make them feel so. They think I am imposing my views or ways on them. They feel that I am lecturing them. Obviously, they don't like what they hear, even though none of what they think of me is true. I simply share the good news with all out of love without judgment whatsoever. The name Jesus must not be an ordinary name. Jesus said he came to cause division, that I can now understand. The whole world splits along that name. You either accept him as God and Savior or you don't. It must be that he truly is God.

**God is Thorough

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 16, Jesus said to his disciples, "The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones." It seems that the Lord prefers that we be thoroughly trustworthy and honest. If you are not trustworthy or honest in all matters, you are not trustworthy or honest. With God you must to be thorough, no compromise, no wishy-washiness, and no duplicity whatsoever. That's why I enjoy the Lord.

*****God Wants the Best for Us!

         Christ is completely selfless. He'll do anything to make sure that we'll have the very best, and what can possibly be better than gaining eternal life in heaven? He even sacrificed himself to be sure that we get the best! You need to realize this unless you are already in heaven!

*Optimistic About Conversion

        When Jesus called St. Paul, Paul changed from being a zealous persecutor of Jesus' followers to become his new Apostle. We are now anticipating the coming of the illumination of conscience. I believe that this warning will succeed in converting many unbelievers. Let's pray that the conversion rate will be 100%, for nothing is impossible for God.

***One Great Feeling

         That is knowing that you are totally in Christ, not halfway or partially, but all the way. Now you are one with your master and will remain safe spiritually forever. This is the very opposite of being cut off from the Lord. The worst possible feeling has to be that of knowing you've been cast out by God forever. 

**Unhappiness Analysis*

         If you are unhappy about anything, I recommend that you find a quiet place alone and look deep inside your heart to see what the cause might be. You must be completely honest to yourself. This kind of search can surprisingly reveal the true cause of your happiness. It's like making a good confession to yourself. Once you see the trues reason, you'll feel relieved and happy, for the truth shall set you free. Understand yourself first and you can solve your own problems. I must confess that I did my analysis before the Lord God and that helped me tremendously. Not only was I able to pinpoint the cause each time, I also asked the Lord to remove the cause and experienced great peace. 

**Light of God Exposes Evil

        Jesus the Son of God came into the world and his Mother couldn't even find a suitable place for his birth, Joseph had to flee with Mary and the infant Jesus to Egypt to avoid the child to be killed by King Herod, and later Jesus himself was mocked, scourged, sentenced to be crucified and even made to carry his own cross. All these events show the kind of world people lived in then, and the world has gotten even worse today. By the light of God, we can see all that's evil in our world.

***Waiting to Become like the Lord

         Tonight as I was praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, I marveled that we sinners can actually attain union with the Holy Lord on earth! For he can take away our sins! But we still remain capable of sinning. I hope and believe that in heaven we'll become like our Lord, knowing only how to love. I so look forward to that day!  

*Lamenting the World

        Once you know Christ, you know you don't belong to the world anymore. You look at the world and see that every day people fight against each other; they just want to lord it over others. They create their own problem, their own miseries. Where are forgiveness, selflessness, humility, and love? When do they pay any attention to our Lord and Savior. I love all people, but not the world they have created. It's downright boring and no good fun any more; there's little to rejoice about. But with hope in our Lord, the true God, nothing can deter us who follow him. We just pray as hard as we can to save as many souls as possible. Hey, nothing is impossible for our God. 

***God's Clear Aim*****

        What does God want from us? Take a good look and see it clearly. Our heavenly Father loves us so much and wishes to save us from sin. If we believe in his Son Jesus, we'll have eternal life. This message should be clear to anyone who hears it. This is God's sole aim. If you reject it, you reject God, for the message can't be simpler and more straight forward.

****All About the Soul****

         Our soul is our most precious possession, and it's absolutely treasured by the Lord our God. Why did he come down to earth to die on the cross, if not to save our soul? Our first priority should be to please the Lord, which means we must take care our own soul foremost above all other things. Therefore, live so that our soul may go to heaven to be secured forever.

*****Letting Go of What We Leave Behind

        When we die, we leave behind all our possessions and all what we've accomplished in our lifetime. Some of the things may even be quite valuable in the eyes of the world or have meant a lot to us personally. Should we just totally let them go? My answer is a resounding yes if you know you are going to the Lord. What we leave behind will eventually be forgotten or gone forever. I thought of the doctoral theses I saw all stored at the library of the university I attended. They were no doubt the results of years of hard thinking and work, and now they are just placed on shelves collecting dust. Realize that once you are gone, whatever you have left behind can no longer affect the state of you soul. But if you have left behind something that can continue drawing others to God, then that should be something you can let go happily. 

**Attitude of Serving God

        In Luke 17, Jesus described the attitude of a servant. He said to his disciples, "Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here immediately and take your place at table'? Would he not rather say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat. Put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. You may eat and drink when I am finished'? Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded? So should it be with you. When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.'" When we do all things for our own sake, we are never free. But if we serve the Lord in all things, we are actually rewarded with the greatest satisfaction we feel after having done what we were obliged to do. Humility before God can truly make us feel good.

****Don't Be Spoilsports

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 15, Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep and that of the lost coin. The Lord let it be known that there would be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance. It shows how he truly loves us! If we pray and succeed in converting all sinners, imagine how much joy we can generate in heaven! If we don't try to convert anyone or ourselves, we are spoilsports, party poopers, not deserving heaven anymore. 

***Why Judge Others?

        In today's first reading from Romans 14, Paul makes total sense advising the Christians at Rome not to judge others. No comment needed. 
        "Why then do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you look down on your brother or sister? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written: 'As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.' So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God."

***How God Judges Us

         The Lord judges us by different standards. Christians are given more, so more is expected of them. Someone who has never heard about Christ may be saved if he is a good person, but someone who knows Christ will be judged by a higher standard. I believe that the standard applied to a priest can even be higher, for he is in a position that can affect many souls. Anyway, every case is different and the Lord knows them all and is always just. If you've been given much by the Lord, know that you need to give him back more in order to receive still more from him.

***God's Beautiful Act

        As I prayed the Luminous Mysteries today, I saw that Jesus' giving his own body and blood in the Holy Eucharist was a most magnificent, selfless act. What a great gift we received from him!