Not to Forget

        If you are a disciple of Christ the Lord, know that you have been chosen by the Father. Rejoice!

Pure, Clean Feeling

        Communion experience. The best pure, clean feeling is when your soul is pure and clean. For this I am most grateful to God.

Good Selfcenteredness

        If we are to see our own fault first before criticizing our brother or sister, then also we are to get our own souls healed before helping those with broken souls. In other words, God wants us to concentrate upon our own holiness first. Selfcenteredness is bad only if we do not aim to glorify God.

Jesus Simplifies Life

        On our own, we make life complicated because we tend to hold onto things. Once we embrace, hold onto, listen to, obey and follow, want to please, and live and die for him alone, life is delightfully simplified. For this I am most grateful.

Jesus Changes Life

        Communion experience. Life is basically bitter and Jesus has made it sweet.

Instant Intimacy

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 8, Jesus said, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it." Here's the secret of being brought instantly close to God.

Easy but Risky Living

        Randomly pick someone you see, chances are if that person is in fairly good health, making financial gains would be foremost on his mind, with death the last thing he would think about. There's nothing easier than living a myopic, self-centered life. I say myopic because the person doesn't look beyond this life or at God. The occasional thought of God may turn out to be his saving grace.

Government Hypocrisy

        We legalize abortion in this country, terminating the lives of millions and millions of children over decades, yet our government accuse many other countries of violation of human rights. It's almost laughable. Back to Jesus calling anyone who notices the splinter in his brother's eye, but does not perceive the wooden beam in his own eye a hypocrite (Matthew 7, Luke 6).

Warped Justice

        Anyone who prays outside an abortion clinic risks being arrested if he or she walks one step too close to the building. Here we have Planned Parenthood selling aborted baby parts for maximum profit and our government remains silent as if nothing wrong has been done. Where is justice?

Essential Christian Belief

        We must believe in the power of Christ to change us inside out. That is saying that each of us has absolutely the potential of being transformed into a holy saint fit to be adopted by the Father to be his son or daughter. If you don't believe that you can be changed, your close the door in God's face.

The Savior We Need

        On NPR this morning I heard the singer Steven Clark being interviewed. His song "Lonely Roller" must be very well known to his fans. Steven admitted that what he expressed in his song were his true feelings. He was honest in saying that he was attracted to the dark side and suffered from that. Singing it out openly must be therapeutic for him. I can't help thinking that many who are mired in sin choose to remain in sin because they still derive pleasure from it, despite the loss of inner peace. I want to openly declare that Jesus is exactly the one we need to deliver us from all evil and into the loving arms of our Father.

Sweet Sorrow

        Once you live for Jesus, every sorrow becomes sweet because it's in sorrow that you are brought closer to him.

Great Consolation

        During prayer before Mass began, the Lord let me see that he's capable of squaring away everything and ironing out every problem in my interior life.

Surrender to Freedom

        We enslave ourselves any time we do not follow God. Therefore, we become free when we surrender ourselves to God. It's because we are no longer in the way and have become one with God.

One Big Family

        At Mass this morning, I felt extra close to the Holy Mother. I know that she watches over me and prays for me, to make sure I would follow her Son faithfully. What I love being a Catholic is the sense of belonging. I have God, my Father; Mary my mother; Jesus my Lord and my God, but also my brother; and all the saints as my intimate friends, among whom is St Therese, to me my sister and spiritual guide. We are all one big family, including all the faithful who are still living, bonded as one in the Holy Spirit.

One Thing Never to Lose

        Chile just got hit by a powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake. One man I watched on TV says that he has lost everything. Here in California, hundreds and hundreds of families have lost their homes to wildfires. I feel great sorrow for all the victims. Then I thought of the one thing we must never lose and can't afford to lose, and that's our soul.

Living in God

        Living in God does not make your life more peaceful; it only makes you peaceful in your heart. Life remains the same, but you have changed. You see life as what the Lord wants you to go through for your good, and your wish and goal is to follow and obey him knowing that he is with you always and will lead you to eternal happiness. This is how you receive strength and remain at peace.     

Reaching God From Within

        If you long to reach God, let Jesus into your heart to lift you up to him.