**God's Mercy for All*

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 56: Have mercy on me, O God, for people assail me; they fight me all day long and oppress me. Here the psalmist asks God to have mercy on him rather than to take pity on his enemies. This makes sense, for if God grants him mercy, he'd surely protect him from his enemies. Nevertheless, every single one of us needs God's mercy whether you are the assailer or the victim..

**Joy Brings Sorrow

        The more we are overjoyed with Christ, the more we pity those who do not believe in him.

***Be like a Mirror***

         This morning I got out of bed and saw a perfect round circle of sunlight on my bedroom wall. I realized that it was caused by the low morning sunlight, coming thru the window, hitting the mirror, and getting reflected onto the opposite wall. It was quite remarkable. You usually think of sunlight producing dark shadows, not bright reflections. My inspired thought was that we should be like that mirror reflecting the light of Christ perfectly for all to see. 

**Cause of Profound Peace*

        Communion experience. I felt profound peace because the mystery of my existence has been completely solved.

**Our Role Before the Lord*

       We'll all be measured against Jesus Christ and be judged by him, for he is the perfect one. So imitate him and submit yourself to his mercy.

**Most Apt Saying

         Can you possibly think of anything that's better than enjoying peace and bliss for all eternity? I don't think so. Therefore, it's perfectly correct to say that for all faithful Christians, the best is yet to come.

***Most Pleasing Virtue*

        Being able to accept suffering joyfully and offering it up to the Lord is a great virtue. It makes you Christlike and is most pleasing to the Lord. Besides, it will gain merit for heaven for you.

***Do Not Limit God*

        If you believe that nothing is impossible for God, then ask for the impossible! Do not limit yourself nor the Lord! Timid faith is lack of faith. Naturally, asking for the the impossible doesn't mean asking for the unreasonable. So be reasonable and ask for anything that's good from your very heart and the Lord will always consider it. Never rule out miracles. If you intention is good, the Lord doesn't get bothered.

***Heavenly Experience

        Communion experience. I just visited heaven and the Lord filled my cup to overflowing. There's nothing adequate I can say.

*****Defending the LORD*****

        The Lord defends us who love him. So we need to defend him when he's under attack. The best and only way to accomplish that is to surrender ourselves to him even more, doing the very opposite of those who attack him.

**Meeting Our Hours*

         In today's Gospel reading from John 7, we learned that the Jews were trying to kill Jesus. As he was teaching in the temple area of Jerusalem, they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come. This got me thinking that we all have our hours to meet as we follow the Lord on our journey. We should welcome every one of them as we move closer to uniting with our Lord in heaven.

***Feeling the Holy Spirit's Presence***

        The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form as a dove after he'd been baptized by John the Baptist. On Pentecost the Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of those present. For us, this Spirit of truth is invisible, but we can definitely feel his presence within us. Here are some telling signs: You feel a great zeal for the Lord as if your heart is on fire; Christ is now your primary source of joy; you love and pity all humanity, praying unceasingly for its salvation; your focus is exclusively on pleasing the Lord, not yourself; you look forward to going to him . . .  

*****Most Beautiful, Powerful Force

        Communion experience. You experience the most beautiful, powerful force in the whole universe. The peace you feel is a peace you can easily die in.

***What You'll Find in Christ

         ONLY LOVE

***Being Genuinely Good***

        Do all things to please the Lord God; otherwise, doing whatever to please someone or yourself purely for your own sake is being phony. 

*****Only Thing We Need to Do*****

         Follow and obey Christ (and not think about anything else)—so simple!

***Why The Church Is Being Persecuted

         I see two reasons: (1) The Catholic Church being the Church Christ has established on Peter, Satan is now attacking her as one of his prime targets. (2) Since the hierarchy of the Church has not been vigilant enough and has allowed evil to infiltrate and corrupt her, the Lord God is now chastising the Church in the process of purifying and restoring her.

**Levels of Art

        Look at the artists of the world, they make films, write songs, present concerts and shows, do paintings, sculptures, etc. Here are the various levels of their works. At the lowest level are the works that are blasphemous, offensive to God, or pure evil. Next level up we have works that are worldly and impure; they are not from the Lord for sure. On the next higher level are works that are more of less neutral'; the may be clean and attractive, but don't really uplift you spiritually. Then we have impressive works that are inspiring and more spiritual, but not pointing to God specifically. At the highest level are works that actually inspire and draw people to God. Since our God is a specific person, the God of Christ, any work that does not point to him cannot be fully meaningful.