**Why Hell Is So Horrible

         It is so because offending the God of Christ who loves us so much is most horrible! 

***Keeping Jesus Company

        Jesus is suffering tremendously for the sins committed against him by so many of us—are you willing to keep him company just to make him feel better? Letting him know that you want to remain with him in all circumstances would be of great consolation to the Lord who deserves all of our love.

***Christ Our Only Lord

        As followers of Christ, we respond to him only. What I mean is that listen to him only, obey him alone and not to anyone else. In essence, we live just for him. And it's absolutely worth it! 

**Love and Attachment

         Love and attachment are two different things. To be attached to someone may not be loving that person at all. In fact, if you love someone with God's pure love, attachment can get in the way. This is not easy to explain, but God's love must prevail at the highest level. Perhaps looking at Jesus can help us understand somewhat. The Lord loved the people with the greatest love and pitied them, yet he never got himself attached to someone to impede him in carrying out God's will. 

*About Wanting to Live Longer

         Many people are interested in eating right so that they might live longer. You see articles that tell you if you follow their diet, you can live two or maybe five years longer. How would you know, as this is not something you can do experiments on to find out? And living longer may not even be a blessing if your health deteriorates. Now, believing in Christ and being assured that you'll live on forever—this to me is a lot more relevant and exciting. 

****Ready for God?*

         God is always ready for you. The question is whether you want to be ready for him. I think you know what I mean.

*Detaching Yourself from the World

        If you want to become detached from the world, start detaching yourself from yourself first. Once you achieve that, detaching yourself from everything else will be easy.

**Learning From the Lord

        When the Lord implants thoughts in my heart, I love that, for he lets me know that he is with me and nurturing me.

**Rejoicing Called For

         We have a most merciful God who loves us, understands us thoroughly, and wants to save us with all his heart. All we need to do is to believe in him and obey him. Instead of ignoring him, we should rejoice every moment with gratitude and anticipation!

***Pleading with Worldlings***

        The world is wasting a lot of its time. Many do not believe in God or love him as much as they should and many are embracing evil. It's most lamentable. God loves us and unquestionably will vanquish all evil in the end. Many will be saved, but many will be lost too. If you sin, you just have to pay a price. But the God of Christ can remove all our sins and save us if you believe in him. That's why it's called the good news. It's actually fantastic, much better than good. Ask for his mercy right now before time runs out on you. Do yourself this favor you need the most. Please!

**Disobedience, the Root of All Evil

        Since disobedience to God causes us to love money, it's even more correct to say "disobedience to God is the root of all evil" than "money is the root of all evil." To obey God alone requires that we trust in him alone and not in anyone else, ourselves included. 

***Most Beautiful Relationship with God

        If you keep the God of Christ out of your life, naturally you'll never get to know him. He already knows you, so to know him best, you only need to open up wide to him. Then he'll come and reveal himself and whatever you need to know to attain eternal joy to you. There is no relationship more rewarding and beautiful than you and the Lord freely exchanging thoughts with each other at any time. 

*Don't Miss Out on Getting into Heaven

        Today's Gospel reading from Mark 9 is on the transfiguration of Jesus. Peter, James, and John were with him on the high mountain. He was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white. Then Elijah appeared along with Moses, and they conversed with Jesus. A cloud came over them and from it came God's voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." The whole scene was just splendid and awesome! Don't you wish that you can be in heaven too? You surely can if you stick with Jesus.

***Disobedience Begets Confusion

        In my last post, I extolled perfect obedience to God. Today, we have disobedience to God everywhere, within and without the Church. Ralph Martin's new video brings an excellent message that may shock you, but we need to stay informed. This we already know: Confusion can only come from the Devil.

*****Obedience Is Being Humble*****

         If we obey the Lord, we'll automatically be humble and ask for the right things. What if I ask the Lord to make me a great saint? This doesn't sound like I am very humble. Yet this is what the Lord wants to hear from us, for he had said to his disciples, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). We make such a request only to obey the Lord, and it does take great humility to obey whatever he tells us to do and not question him. Perfect obedience overrides all consequences. Abraham is a great example. When God tested him by asking him to offer up his son Issac as a burnt offering, he readily compiled. Of course, our perfect model is Christ himself who died for our sins in perfect obedience to the Father. Yes, we are to do God's will single-mindedly with all our heart and with all our soul.

***Treating Jesus Right

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, we hear Jesus say to the people, "Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words . . . the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angles." It sounds fair enough. Thank you, Lord. Now I know exactly how to treat you and your words so that you may be proud of me and grant me eternal life. 

***World in Crisis

        The Holy Church is supposed to be the light in the world, making disciples of all nations and proclaiming the gospel to every creature, keeping the souls of the faithful safe and defending mankind against evil. The fact that today the Church seems to be more in line with the world than the teachings of Christ indicates that we are truly in end times, you might say, and the Lord will be compelled to do something to wake all of us up. I have no doubt that his Holy Church will be purified, restored, and become stronger than ever. Meanwhile, we need to double down on praying harder than ever.

**Obeying God Unconditionally

        We are to obey God unconditionally. This means that we don't just do his will, but also do it willingly and with joy. For inspiration, you only need to look at how Jesus dealt with the Passion he underwent. 

**Most Satisfying Involvement

        In the past, I have been involved in mathematics, product design, rental business, photography, CD collection, etc. They're all interesting. Now that I am primarily involved in saving souls, I can say that it is the most satisfying involvement yet. For you remain in communion with the Lord at all times and experience freedom, peace, and joy. Shall I say that the Lord God is the best boss there is and working for him the fringe benefits are fantastic?

**Same Lord with Us Today

        Even though we were not at the Last Supper, we still receive the same body and blood of the Lord Jesus at every Mass as the Apostles did at the Last Supper. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The Lord fulfills his promise he made in the last verse of the Gospel Matthew that he is with us always, until the end of the age.

*Our Perfect Lord

        It is by Christ's perfection, especially his love and humility, that we are made to see our own imperfections, shortcomings, weaknesses, and faults. He is the perfect one for us to imitate and follow, the perfect shepherd for us who are his sheep. And he is also the shining light that dispels all darkness around us and keeps us on the path to heaven. Rejoice that we have such a Lord!

***Our Souls, Most Precious*****

         Once when I was traveling with my wife Maria in Yucatan, Mexico, I almost lost her. Fortunately, I found her again. I mention this because we all experience great pain when we lose a loved one, temporarily or permanently. I thought of God the Father who loves us infinitely more than we can possibly love others. Imagine how much pain we would cause him if one of us is lost to him forever! If you have any heart at all, you should realize this. So do your best not to sin, and if you failed, get your sin forgiven without delay, for you mustn't lose your soul! You are loved by the Father, the saints, the good angels, and all those who are heaven bound, and that's a lot of people. Nevertheless, God's love alone should be sufficient for you to want to safeguard you most precious soul. Heaven awaits you and is ready to give you the biggest possible welcome when you turn to the Father to tell him that you want to come home to him. Or you'd rather remain an outcast to be shut out of heaven forever? 

*Faith in Jesus

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 8, a blind man begged Jesus to heal him. Jesus laid hands on the man's eyes and his sight was restored. To those who don't believe in Jesus yet, surely if you ask him to help you see the spiritual truth, he will heal you spiritually blindness too.

**Our Crucial Moment

        In today's first reading from James 1, the Apostle writes, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world." I'd like to go over that last bit of advice: to keep oneself unstained by the world. Everyday we turn on the news, watch some shows on TV, or just hear others talk around us, the world is trying to stain us! To protect ourselves, we need to dwell completely in the Lord. This is accomplished by attaining union with him. There's not another way, for only God can keeps our soul unstained and safe. The fact is that God is always inviting us to abandon ourselves in him to achieve this union, but we must will to accept his invitation to make it happen. For those who have not responded yet, you are facing this crucial moment right now. This invitation will expire when you expire.

***Second Greatest Gift

         The greatest gift the Lord God has given us is of course Himself. Christ the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Eucharist we've received are all Him. After the Lord, I personally rank the Holy Mother as our next greatest gift. She, conceived without sin, loves us with God's pure love, prays for us unceasingly, and is our best partner in doing the will of God the Father. She's the Mother in whom we can fully trust and find protection and guidance as we return to the Father. With her in company, the journey is now a total delight! 

**Making an Effort in Serving God

        To serve God, we must always make an effort. I am not saying that we struggle hard in any way. In fact, we should never struggle in spiritual life; instead, we rest in the Lord to let him help us do all the necessary work. To make an effort simply means to not miss any opportunity. It's too easy to sit back and skip doing some of the little thing for the sake of God, when doing them can mean a lot to him and benefit our own spiritual life greatly. I can still recall the pop song "Little Things Mean a Lot" of the 1950s. The title means something to me now.

***Contrasty States

         A humble person realizes that he is a sinner, so he repents of his sins to God and is made clean and is saved. Now he feels free, enjoys inner peace, and is filled with great joy. On the other hand, a proud person does not admit that he is a sinner and keeps on sinning, so he never feels free, experiencing no peace nor joy—he could remain in this miserable state all his life. I am not making all this up; it's sad reality.

***Hail Mary's Special Grace

        The Hail Mary prayer, of course, I, as a Catholic, have prayed countless times. It goes like this: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death. Amen." The first part is based upon the greetings given to Mary by the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation and the second part upon that given to her by her cousin Elizabeth when Mary visited her, both came from Luke 1. The last line, a petition, was added to complete the prayer. When I say that petition, I thought I simply ask Mary to intercede for us from now on to the hour of my death. Today I listened to Dr. Taylor Marshall's podcast on YouTube and he made me see something new. The petition in the prayer says "now and the hour of our death," not "now to the hour of our death" as I had thought. This is significant: we are actually asking God to grant us a special grace at the hour of our death. And it happens that God does make many aware of their sins in that last minute, giving them one more chance to repent and be saved. Therefore, we must not cease praying for anyone we wish to save.

**Our Sensible Role

        We love God, but he loved us first. We open ourselves to him, but he's always open to us. He has always existed, as he had revealed himself to be I AM, while we are the late, late arrivals on the scene. It makes complete sense that we let God initiates all actions and we just follow him.

**To Be Rich and Beautiful**

        There are two ways. Choose to be rich and beautiful in this world and after you die, you'll be poor and ugly forever. Choose to be rich and beautiful in God now and after you die, you'll be even richer and more beautiful for all eternity.

***What We Only Need to Know Now*

        I watched an educational video on Bluetooth. It was quite amazing to learn what certain electromagnetic waves can do for us. The scientists probably have only understood them to the point they can built devices using Bluetooth technology to communicate wirelessly with each other. The Lord God who created everything of course knows all about that and more. We have to think hard, do research, experiment, and finally come up with something new, but God knows it all and does not even have to think and it is accomplished. (Notice how healed the sick instantly as he willed.) Yet with such infinite knowledge and power, he never teaches us such things. He only teaches love to us, for that's most important and all we need to learn. Know how to love now and we'll know everything in the end.  

**Responding to God Only

        When we sin, can we blame it on Satan? I thought about this today. If we do not sin, then Satan can't do a thing about it—I am sure of this. For example, when you are in union with God, you enjoy his presence so much that sinning couldn't be further from your mind, and Satan would have no way of sneaking in. Then suppose I am in a bad mood and don't feel like doing something I as a Christian should do, this would please Satan for sure, then I don't know exactly how he can make things worse. I believe we are ultimately in control of deciding whether to sin or not, but Satan might have been permitted by God to tempt us to a certain extent. At any rate, we should respond to God only and ignore Satan. Always stick with the winner and dismiss the loser.

*Follow God, Not the World

        Living in the world, we learn how to survive successfully, but the world only teaches you how to serve yourself and not God. To serve God alone, we need to follow God alone. Success in the world is meaningless if you can't get into heaven. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said to his disciples, "What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"

***Our No. 1 Problem

        I have blogged about what life is all about from time to time. There are different ways of looking at it. Today I see that it's all about combatting sin. Since we were born with original sin, to overcome sin becomes our No. 1 problem. And we need to solve this problem within our limited time on earth. Of course, Jesus is precisely the solution God has provided us. It comes down basically to whether we want to get into heaven or not.

***Way to Freedom

        If we want to live longer, we don't have a say. If we wish to die sooner, we don't have a say either. And there are at least a million other things we can't do a thing about. The smart way is to leave everything up to God. This is total abandonment, the way to freedom. You see, you no longer lord it over yourself.

**Dramatic Turnaround

        We are sinners, so in general, we march toward hell step by step. Then we repent our sins to God, asking for his forgiveness, and he spins us 180 degrees around instantly and we start marching toward heaven.  

***Ego Warning

        Are you aware of the presence of your ego? Ego is definitely something to be starved or rid of if possible, for it destroys humility, thus keeping you from knowing God. A well-fed ego can inflate to the point that you are no longer aware of its existence—now you are in the danger zone, spiritually. Know that some day it might get popped and hurt you horribly, but that would be your big blessing.

**No Loneliness with God

        People get lonely without God. If you are young, it's not that bad because you are still much engaged with the affairs of the world. Then you grow old and retire, and you start feeling lonely. But for those who know God all along, they can never be lonely, for the Lord is their constant companion or soulmate.

***God Needing Attention

         Unexpected things, usually misfortunes, happen to us in life. When that happens, know that God wants our attention, and we'd better turn to him. We seek attention to satisfy our ego, but God seeks our attention purely to benefit us.

**Living a Solid Life

        I like Fr. Goring's video posted today. It is most interesting. Watching it I learned that God truly knows our heart. Every thought we have, every gesture we make, everything action we take . . . he knows, and they are not trivial to him. If I pray without being 100% reverent, he knows. If I praise him or confess a sin without total sincerity, he knows. Nothing escapes him. Being aware of God's omniscience makes me want it live a solid life, not a flimsy one that can crumble. And trusting in him makes that entirely possible.

**Formula for Joy

        Do everything large or small in the name of Jesus and you'll be filled with joy. 

***God Is All We Need

        We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the same God in three. I see that the Father is the one who sets us free, the Son the one who grants us peace, and the Holy Spirit the one who gives us joy. We've got it all! God is all we need. 

**Ready for Death

        At the presentation of the child Jesus at the temple, after Simeon saw the child and knew that he was the Messiah, he was ready to go to God in peace. We who already know Jesus personally as our Savior should likewise rejoice and be ready to go to God in peace.

***The Simple Truth and Fact

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 7, Jesus said to the crowd, "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person: but the things that come out from within are what defile." Later he explained to his disciples that all evils come from within the man, from his heart, and they defile. We see that we are all potential evildoers and we need the Lord to cleanse us so that we may have eternal life. This is what life, our existence, and our survival are all about. See this and all your life problems are solved. There's nothing more urgent to know.

***Mary, Pray for Us All*****

       Mother Mary's favorite prayer is what's inscribed on the Miraculous Medal she gave us: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Recently, as I was praying this prayer, it dawned on me that those who have no recourse to her yet would need her to pray for them even more. So I started praying "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for those who do not have recourse to thee."

***Praise and Understanding

        Do not seek praise for yourself. At my funeral service, I want no eulogy, not a single word of praise for me. How about seeking understanding? If there is any misunderstanding between you and someone, clear it up if it's proper and possible, but ego must not play a part. It it doesn't work out after you have tried your best, just let it go. After all, you have the Lord understanding you perfectly and that should be more than sufficient for you. So, do not seek any human praise but accept all God's understanding.

*****The Divine Mercy Devotion

         If you wish to know more about Jesus' Divine Mercy and St. Sister Faustina, watch this documentary. I read her diary many years ago and started praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet daily, sometimes more than once for specific intentions. After watching the video, I am inclined to read her diary again. I have not been attending daily Mass since the pandemic started, but I am now drawn to resuming that practice since I feel the benefit of praying right before the tabernacle. There is nothing more consoling and satisfying than pouring your heart out in close proximity to the Blessed Sacrament. Trust in God's Divine Mercy and we'll have life in God and be able to save the world.

Yet Another Reason We Need God

        Obviously, we need God just to remain alive. Then I saw that there are always pressing problems we don't know how to solve yet. Another reason we need God.

***Most Inspiring Love

        I thought more about how Jesus suffered for us. Abortion is today's most horrific crime, killing the unborn who are innocent. But Jesus was not just innocent, he was in fact doing all the good deeds and preaching the kingdom of God, with the sole aim of saving us from death! So they killed the one who loved them the most. This is even more unjust! But I suppose that was God's plan to show that he was even willing to sacrifice his own Son to save us from sin. This revelation alone should uplift our spirit and inspire us to love God and all others as much as he loves us.

**The Lord's Agony Then and Now

        I was praying the first Sorrowful Mystery of the Holy Rosary, the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and recalled that the disciples couldn't stay awake to keep him company as Jesus underwent it—I suppose they did not quite know what the he was going to pass through yet. We now know exactly how the world is still causing the Lord agony, so we need to remain awake and do all we can to alleviate his suffering and console him.