**Most Carefree Existence!

        God knows everything and he loves you, so let him into every aspect and every nook and cranny of your life. Become one with him, achieving complete harmony and submission. So you can say that you are thoroughly God's. Now you lead your happiest, most carefree existence. By the way, I am talking reality!

***Most Important Message***

        Following God is easy or hard, depending upon you. You can easily dismiss God or believe in God like a child. So it's making the easy decision to make following God impossible or making the hard decision to make following God easy. Know that the most important and urgent call from God now and always is to surrender ourselves to him. It is the call to salvation, a call to eternal happiness. All you need to get started is to open up your heart to God. Your decision. This is my most important message to you, as it could impact your eternal existence.

**True Flesh and Blood of Our Lord

        John 6.56 is one of today's Communion antiphons: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him, says the Lord. If the consecrated bread and wine were merely symbolic representations of Jesus' flesh and blood, he would have simply said "Whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup . . . ." It's just common sense. 

          Here are the three verses preceding 56. Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not hav life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. How can you eat the ordinary bread and drink the ordinary wine and have eternal life? Of course, you must believe that the bread and drink once consecrated do become the flesh and blood of the Lord. Anyway, the Apostles, the early Church, and the Catholic Church to this day have all believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

*Bringing Up Teenage Children

     Parent often have problems with their teenage children because that's when they start to assert their independence before adulthood. Here are some of the lessons I have learned. 

1. First, remember this part of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis: O Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be understood as to understand. Therefore, listen to your children so that you may understand them. 
2. Do not rush to conclusions or get emotional, for you must remain calm to be able to think clearly.
3. Be gentle always, but firm at the same time if you know that you are right.
4. If they are wrong, do not scold them but calmly point it out.
5. Don't play the blame game. Tell them how you feel about it, rather than pointing the finger at them.
6. If you are in the wrong, admit that, so they'll see that you are also human and have enough humility.
7. It's best that both parents agree on how to teach and discipline their children.
8. Treat all your children fair and equally; never show any favoritism.
9. Your own example is the best way to teach your children.
10. Realize that all of them are souls that belong to God, not you. Each of them will have to respond to God individually. You are here to do your best to love them and to guide them; then you let them go. (Consecrate them to the Lord as early as possible.)

**To All Nonbelievers

        We have those who do not believe in Christ or the existence of God. And we have those who follow Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. Can these two camps ever understand each other? I used to be a nonbeliever and tended to feel sorry for those who believed. I thought they missed having fun and lived a suppressed life, thinking that they could save themselves by praying to their God. Now that I am a fervent believer, I truly pity all the nonbelievers who are not aware that God loves them. They may have fun and pleasures for the time being, but they do not experience any true peace, freedom, and joy. Worst of all, they are going to miss the opportunity to be happy for all eternity if they do not wake up. To all nonbelievers, feel sorry for yourselves, not for us believers, and know that we are praying hard for you.

*Why We Don't Think About God

        We are uninterested in God, sadly because we are so deeply immersed in the secular world with its false glitter and lure that any awareness of God has all but been wiped out. 

*The Whole Point of Living

        Some people receive all their reward in this world and no more afterwards. Some people suffer a lot (their purgatory?) in this life and reap their reward in their next. Some of us live a long life and others die early, all for the glory of God. I have lived beyond the normal life expectancy, believing that the Lord still has work for me to do. Nevertheless, whether we live long or short, get rewarded now or later, the whole point is that we get back to God. 

*Praying with a Strong Desire

       I've blogged that a strong desire backed by a strong faith will have God answer your prayer more readily. Now I see that a strong desire does indicate that you have a strong faith, so you may concentrate upon intensifying your desire and the Lord will be moved and relent. 

Flesh vs. Spirit

        Not being perfect, we live both according to the flesh and by the Spirit of God. The more we live by the Spirit, the purer we become. Attain union with God to be as pure a possible.

Two Questions God Will Ask

        Today's Communion antiphon, John 15.16: It was not you who chose me, says the Lord, but I who chose you and appointed you to bear fruit, fruit that will last. When we see God, he will surely ask if we did bear any fruit on earth and if so, what kind of fruit. 

**God Teaches Us

        Today is the Memorial of St. Bonaventure. The Gospel reading from Matthew 10 was amazing!  I shall quote the entire three segments of what Jesus said to his Apostles. 

        (1) Jesus himself being a cause of division. "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household." This is true, for Jesus being the truth, we are naturally divided into those who recognize and accept him and those who don't. We can be divided on many issues, but division over the truth brings consequences that matter.

        (2) Conditions of discipleship. "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever who finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." So the Lord must be No. 1 in our life. If he is truly our Lord and God, then all that was said makes complete sense. Otherwise, he must be a mad man, not knowing what he's talking about. He challenges you to make your choice. So he came not only to cause division, he came to test us too.

      (3) Rewards we receive. "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reword, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward." It all comes down to how we receive the Lord. Aim at receiving the Lord directly and your rewards will be taken care of.

*Being Doubly Foolish

        It's extreme foolish to try to avoid God, for it's impossible. When you are living on earth, he knows everything about you. When you die, you face him for your judgment. Then why do you live as if he does not exist and you'll never die? You must be doubly foolish.

*God Needed for Perfection!

        We think we can do anything. Wrong! We are only finite creatures. No matter how carefully and thoroughly we plan, prepare, execute with the best intention and effort, we can still fail or make a mistake. For ultimate perfection, we need God!  

**Highest Privilege

        In union with God, you get to share his joys and his sorrows!      

***Critical Reality We Must Face

        If you have trouble dismissing or writing off Christ as nonexistent or phony, then you have no choice but to accept him as your Lord and Savior and repent of your grave error. The Lord is all-or-nothing and I can assure you that he is anything but nothing!  

*God's Love Supreme

        Most likely, we have all fallen in love with someone once. Of course, that someone may not feel the same for us; but if he or she does, we would be overjoyed. I am bringing God the Father into the picture, for he alone loves us with an undying love and will never reject us. Accept and taste his pure selfless love first, a love that liberates us and can only give us joy, then no human love can disappoint us anymore.

God absolutely Makes Sense

        In Matthew 6, Jesus preached to all not to worry about what to eat, what to drink, what to wear, but to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things would be given them besides. This advice is completely logical and makes sense. God loves us and can provide all our needs. If we abandon ourselves to him, then, of course, he will take care of us. We have a real, living God! It is us who do not see or believe in this reality. When we open up to God, faith is born. Our eyes open and we understand everything.

**Critical to Know

        The last two verses of today's Gospel reading from Matthew 10 are extremely important for us to know. Jesus said to the twelve apostles, "Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father." This sounds totally fair and it's a huge deal. There are Christians today who are ashamed of admitting that they are Christians – I think they are going to have a big problem later.