*Being Nourished and Pruned by God

        In today's Gospel reading from John 15, Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit." I feel that I am a branch of the vine that's Jesus, receiving all the nourishment from him to bear fruit for the glory of the Father. It also feels so good to be pruned by him to make me more fruitful. These are two great satisfying feelings.

**Who Has the Right of Way?

        God is never a barrier in our way, but we are always barriers in his way. Remember too that he was here first long before we came along.

*Start Everything with God

        Whatever you wish to accomplish, go to the Lord God first, for nothing is impossible with him. Especially, when you wish to be holy to love him more, telling yourself to do so is useless. Going straight to God for help is the smart way to go. Only God can draw you to union with him, and he can make you holy in a jiffy.

Bold Living

        You abandon yourself totally in God. Now you live securely above the world, for nothing in the world can take you down anymore.

God Refreshing Us

        First thought at morning Mass. I am making a new start today. With Christ, you can do this at any time. Repent, get all your sins forgiven, and you are clean again. You now start afresh. God gives us continuously the opportunity to be saved.

Good Awareness

        God knows every single thought, word, and deed of ours. This is good news, for knowing this can keep us from destroying ourselves.

Secure in Christ

        Communion experience. Life is like riding in a boat sailing on the sea. When you don't have Jesus with you, you are completely at the mercy of the weather and the waves. But the Lord is with me in my boat and I feel completely secure, for the winds and the sea all obey him (Matthew 8, Mark 4, Luke 8).   

**Hallmark of Christianity

        Today's entrance antiphon: The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep and willingly died for his flock. Christ did willingly lay down his life for us. If you pause and think about it, it is truly an amazing act and fact. This is the beautiful hallmark of Christianity.

*Honest View of Dishonesty

        If we have not totally submitted ourselves to God yet, then we are not being totally honest with God yet, don't you agree? 

***Desiring What God Desires

        Communion experience. My sole desire was to be one with the Lord. This desire met his desire to be one with me and both our desires were instantly fulfilled! It's certainly a wow moment. While the church musicians and singers were performing nicely, I realized then that it's always our own desire that matters, not anything external.

**God Shapes His Servants

        When you pray sincerely, you shape yourself too. Saying the Our Prayer from your heart makes you aware of your place before God. When the Holy Spirit leads you to share all the good thoughts with others, you are shaped by him too. As you teach others, the Lord teaches you. Serve God faithfully and he makes you holy. 

**Glorifying God Nonstop

        In today's first reading from Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas exhorted their disciples to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." In the Gospel reading from John 13, at the Last Supper after Judas had left, Jesus said to the rest of his disciples, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Jesus meant that he was to glorify God by letting himself be killed. Must we undergo hardships or die to glorify God? The fact is that we can glorify God at any time in every way. Celebrating Mass is a happy way of doing it. If I do dishes or take out garbage willingly for the sake of God, I glorify him too. Life provides a big opportunity of glorifying God in every way and we should appreciate that. Yes, keep glorifying God to store up treasures in heaven and we are bound to end up there.

*In Spiritual Doldrums

        The God of Christ has given us clear, simple instructions on how to enter heaven after we leave this world after sacrificing his Son on a cross for us, yet we hem and haw, drag my feet, or pretend that we don't know a thing. It shows how dull-witted we are and how badly we need to be saved!

**God Removing Our Limitations*

        If you are not in union with God, what you want to do for God may not be what he wants you to do – this I would call "rushing ahead of the Holy Spirit." When you are in union with God, what's amazing is that he may want you to do what you would not think of doing – this is exciting, for the Lord shows that he can help you break through your self-imposed limitations. 

***Knowing the Truth

        Today's Gospel acclamation from John 8: If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. What Jesus says here is absolutely true: I know the Lord and he has set me free. That the Lord is the truth does not mean that everything else is false; it simply means that he is the most relevant truth essential for us to know, superseding all other truths. I know him to be this truth because he has revealed it to me in my very heart – there is no other way I can explain it. This is how God communicates with us. When he lets you know something, you just know it without any doubt. Very cool!

Being Good, Not Good Enough

        Being a good person is not the same as accepting the truth. If you think you are a pretty good person but do not believe that you need Christ to save you, there is no guarantee that you will get to heaven.

***Most Mistreated One***

        Jesus came into the world to give us the good news of God's salvation, and people put him to death. He has risen from the dead, but people today still snub him. God came to us purely because he loves us and wants to save us from eternal death, but we just don't get it. We are most precious to him, yet we are so thickheaded that we don't even care. In today's Gospel reading from John 14, Jesus says to his disciples, "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be." Then, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." I hope we all hear him loud and clear. Most urgently, we need to repent of mistreating the one who cares about us the most and to whom we owe our very existence!

Our Safe Refuge

        Remain in union with the Lord and you can forget about the Devil.