***What Having Faith Involves

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." For her faith, Jesus cured her. Let's see how we can have our prayers answered. First of all, the woman really wanted to be healed by Jesus. Next, she firmly believed that Jesus could cure her. So we have a combination of desiring something strongly and believing that God can accomplish it for you. It would be nice to have God do everything we want him to do, but most of the time the strong desire is not there. For example, I accidentally cut my finger a little bit, and I could ask the Lord to heal me instantly. But as I am aware that the finger will heal itself in a few days, I just lack the strong desire to be healed instantly. It's a different case over two decades ago, when my oldest son was attacked by a virus and lay practically dying in emergency care, I went to him, made the cross on his forehead with my thumb and at the same time saying without hesitation (like giving a command), "Be healed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." He got well enough on the 4th day to be sent home. I met the requirement of having a strong desire plus faith. I see that it was the Holy Spirit who prompted me to pray boldly. The same goes for wanting to be holy: we need to have the desire and believe, and let the Holy Spirit guide us. 

**Our Simple Choice

        Anything we do is either for God or against God, and we get to choose.

***Our Simple Role

        To submit ourselves to the Lord God and follow his will.

***How to Stop Sinning

        Let Jesus completely occupy you and there will be no room left for you to sin.  

***Joy of Being Holy

        A holy person is happy because he knows that the Lord has chosen him, called him, and blessed him. Besides, when God sets you free and fills you with peace sprinkled with great joy, how can you not be elated?

Missing Crowds

        Communion time thought. The Lord is ready to be worshipped, adored, and praised, but where are the crowds?

*How Not to Judge

        Judging needn't be verbal. If you think of someone without love, you are judging already. Only one who is at complete peace with God does not judge others. 

Proper Rejoicing

       In today's Gospel reading from Luke 10, Jesus sent seventy-two of his followers as laborers to reap the harvest. They returned rejoicing, for even the demons were subject to them because of Jesus' name. Jesus said to them, "Do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven." It is proper that we do not rejoice over anything of the world, but rejoice in the Lord alone. 

Beautiful State of Existence

        Today's Gospel acclamation drawn from Colossians 3: Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. This describes a most beautiful state of existence which we can attain by seeking union with God.

*Changing Ourselves First

        We cannot always change others, but we can certainly let God change us. If we all do this, there will be peace in the whole world.

God Makes All Meaningful

        Attended a friend's funeral earlier today. Saw this sign at the funeral parlor with this quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln: "Live a good life and in the end, it's not the years in a life, it's the life in the years." It sounded good, but somewhat vague, depending on what "life" means to you. Anyway, everything becomes meaningless when God is excluded.

Have Pity on Us, Lord!

        Communion time thoughts. Our God can take away all our sins and crush all evil, yet we put so little trust in him!

**Sluggish Christians

        Today's Catholics in general lack optimism. They focus upon their own sins, but do not place great hope in the Lord. They acknowledge their sinfulness and thank God for his mercy, but do not press forward to ask him to transform them in order to transform the whole world! In other words, they are not confident that God can solve all our problems and lack the fighting spirit needed to conquer evil. In this godless world, we need to recognize that not fighting hard is giving in to the enemy. Offense should be our best defense.   

Rejoice in the Lord Always

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." I thought about now that Jesus is always with us, we can certainly rejoice always.

*Unprofitable and Harmful Entertainment

        The entertainment industry in this country is a multi-billion dollar business, but much of what it produces is immoral. Let's face it – the whole industry primarily serves mammon. Even when its output seems innocent, it rarely propels you toward God. Therefore, cut out all spiritually unprofitable and harmful entertainment provided by the secular world so as not to waste any precious time of your life by knowing Christ the Lord well. 

Sweet Union

      Communion experience. The Lord melted in my mouth and I let myself be melted by his love to remain completely in him. 

***How to Get to Heaven

    I am going to list all the truths I have learned that will get you to heaven. It would be good to know them, even though you don't need to consciously follow all of them. So here I go, starting with what comes to my mind first: 

1. Believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
2. Eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord in the Holy Eucharist to remain in him (John 6.54).
3. Keep all his words.
4. Let God be your God and never play him yourself.
5. Abandon yourself totally to God.
6. Center your life around serving God and not yourself.
7. Remain meek and humble as the Lord and live hidden in him. 
8. Do to others what you want the Lord do to you.
9. Never leave yourself closed to God.
10. Never die without having all your sins forgiven or removed by God. 

     Again, I recommend seeking union with God. For once you attain union, the Lord will make all things easy for you. He is now your secret weapon, secret power, secret helper!

**Communicating with God*

        As I flew home yesterday, I looked out the plane's window and saw the sun setting just above a sea of clouds, and I saw how the earth had been rotating on it own axis, creating day and night, and at the same time orbiting around the sun, creating the seasons, for perhaps billions of years, I knew that God exists and I prayed to him and knew that he heard me. I could communicate with this amazing God instantly! I was overwhelmed, feeling great joy!