**Amazing Power of Faith

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 2, Jesus was preaching in his own town to a packed crowd so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, "Child, you sins are forgiven." (Later, he healed him too.) The lesson here is that if your faith is strong, believe in him firmly, and try your hardest to reach him, he's ready to forgive all you sins! Such is the power of faith! Let's exercise that faith and watch miracles happen.

*Clear Conscience Required to Be Smart

        To be considered smart, one must have a clear conscience. One can be very sharp intellectually or very shrewd in business, but if his conscience remains muddy, he is still a fool (in my book).

**Grave Oversight*

        In Luke 17, Jesus spoke to his disciples about the day of his coming. He said, "As it was in the days of Noah: they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building; on the day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed." This passage came to me as I learned that someone I know was very excited about finding others related to him through DNA testing. We often spend much time engaging in trivial or mundane activities and forget all about preparing ourselves for the Second Coming of Christ or our judgment day. This has been one of mankind's gravest oversights.

****Our Key to Glory

        In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, a leper came to Jesus and begged him to make him clean. Jesus, moved with pity, did just that. Then the Lord told him not to tell anyone about his healing. But the man went away and and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. We have a case of someone what did not obey the Lord but followed his own inclination. Perfect obedience to God means casting aside our own feelings and emotions and following his command alone. It is the key to becoming holy and one with God and entering heaven afterwards.

**Happiness is Relative

         Everything is relative. I have not been to heaven, but I know that if I spend one minute in heaven, I'll never want to come back to earth anymore. As the Lord is infinitely greater than we, the joy in heave will be infinitely greater than any happiness we experience on earth. Only fools will attach themselves to the world.  Only fools will think that they have only one life to live,

**Spineless Cowards

          It's sad to see that so many people today don't act on principle. They would change their stand or switch allegiance so long as it would benefit them. This is happening with many politicians and big corporations right now. They show themselves as hypocrites. The Lord is keeping the day of his Second Coming a secret, so no one will be able to switch to believing in him on learning that he is coming. Those without principles will surely lose big time.

***The Art of Doing God's Will

         We have the well-known book The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump and the classic The Art of War by Sun Tzu. What about the art of doing God's will? Well, you don't need to read any wordy book to learn that. Just abandon yourself completely in God and you'll know how to do his will perfectly. 

**Our Choices of Freedom

        If you truly follow the Lord, your faith will be tested continuously. You may have to pray hard constantly to get though all your trials and tribulations. Outwardly, this may appear unpleasant, but deep down you'll always have the Lord's peace. After you leave this world, your'll experience complete freedom for all eternity. On the other hand, the evildoers appear to have the freedom to do whatever they want in the world, but they have essentially fallen into Satan's trap. After this life is over, they will be imprisoned with no freedom whatsoever for all eternity. Going against God is never a good idea. 

***World's Fatal Mistake

        Reading 1 has been coming from Hebrews. Paul glorifies the Lord in his epistle. In today's reading, Paul writes that Christ is the one for whom and through whom all things exist. We recall that the Apostle John wrote "All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be" about Christ at the beginning of his Gospel. These are all huge statements! That the world doesn't look up to anyone so meek and humble as Christ has to be its fatal mistake. The humble and the wise see the truth, believing that Christ was with God in the beginning and is God (John 1). As God's ways and thoughts are higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth, our highest praises still fall way short of God's true greatness.

****God Calling Us Unceasingly

         In today's Gospel reading from Mark 1, Jesus called Simon and his brother Andrew and then James and his brother John to follow him, and they complied right away to become his first disciples. God calls us too. Whether he calls us aloud and in a whisper, it's the same Lord. Anytime you entertain a thought, say something, or perform a deed and lose inner peace, the Lord is calling you. This is the time to turn to him for help and guidance, not hide or run away from him. It's a moment of grace. In your lifetime, you'll probably have hundreds of thousands such moments, unless you are already quite saintly. If you ignore the Lord every time he calls you, you need his help for sure. Don't forget that our time on earth is limited.

***Our Lady of Victoria Novena***

        Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B., has urged all to start praying this Novena beginning tomorrow January 11 for nine days to beg God and Our Lady to reverse the deceitful "results" of the recent fraudulent presidential election. You can read her letter here. You'll find the link to the novena in that letter. I invite you to join her and me to pray this novena, for nothing is impossible for God.

**Perfecting Our Union with God

        Today's Communion experience. I received exactly what the Apostles received at the Last Supper, the first Mass. This Most Blessed Sacrament perfects our union with God.

***Making the Lord Feel Free in Us

        I attended the Sunday 10:30 AM outdoor Mass. Since it's the only on-site Mass scheduled for the weekend, the parking lots were quite full with cars. Again we all wore masks and sat apart. It was another nice dry day during this supposedly wet season. Early during Mass, the Lord made me see that to let him enter us, we must be open to him. But to give the Holy Spirit complete freedom to operate within us, we need to go beyond being open—we must not judge, hold any grudge against, or look down on anyone; that is, we must be like the Lord, his heart filled with love for everyone. If you do not feel at peace for any reason, you restrain the Holy Spirit. Be like the Lord so that he may feel free dwelling within you.

**Magnificent Truth

        John 1:29, today's Gospel acclamation: John the Baptist saw Jesus approaching him, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John knew then this magnificent truth, that Jesus was the Lamb to be sacrificed to save us from our sins. Now we all know and should believe.

****Most Precious and Glorious Faith

         Today is The Baptism of the Lord. One of the second readings comes from 1 John 5. The Apostle writes "The victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" That's why our faith in Christ is so precious and glorious! We who firmly believe that he is the Son of God and our Savior possess the "secret" of living everlastingly with him! My oh my, this is pretty incredible, yet so simple. I am going to rejoice every moment of my life over this.

*Test Question for Getting into Heaven

        The Lord: "How much time did you spend doing things for my sake on earth?" 

**Seeing Your Own Sins

         To face our own sins is to face reality, as we are all sinners. If you think that you are holier than you truly are, then you'll be in for a shock when you see God, for he knows sins you are not even aware of or have forgotten. It's much better to humbly acknowledge that you are a sinner needing God's mercy. This should incite you to become holier. Later, it'll be good to hear God tell you that you are better than you think you are. Great saints saw themselves as most wretched sinners before God and the Lord greatly exalted them.  

*How A Christian Lightens His Burden

        When we carry a heavy burden on our heart, we normally try to forget it. We may listen to some soothing music, go traveling, or even visit a bar to get intoxicated. These are all forms of escape and do not offer a solution. What should a faithful Christian do? A good Christian would not run away from anything but temptation. Whatever problem he has, he goes to the Lord to seek help. If you give your heavy burden to him, he will help you carry it. Doesn't Jesus say in Mark 11:28: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest"? United with the Lord, you'll find the strength and guidance to deal with the problem and consolation. Every burden shared with the Lord will draw you into deeper union with him.