Self-Realization

        It is God who has made me see the truth. I thank him and rejoice in him.

*Year-End Insight

        Today's Mass celebrated the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We heard the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple from Luke 2. There was a prophetess named Anna who never left the temple, but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer. I realized that the ultimate point of prayer is to let the Lord make us perfect. You see, we sin against God, and to restore order and harmony we must become obedient children so that God's will may prevail. It is in constant obedient prayer to the Father that we learn and are transformed.

Year-End Realization

        As the year ends, the Lord God leads me to reflect on myself or the human race as a whole. I realize that God can be absolutely trusted or counted on, otherwise he cannot possibly be God, and it is us who are the weak, failing to bring ourselves to believe in him. The peoples of the world welcome and celebrate New Year, hoping that things will get better and that they will be happier, but they do not realize that nothing like that will happen if they do not first believe in God and become his obedient children.

Fulfilled by God

        Communion experience. God came to me to fulfill me. What I received from the Lord were the three Cs: consolation, contentment, and completion.

No. 1 Priority

        God is to be enjoyed to the fullest. Therefore, our No. 1 priority of life should be making our relationship with God as perfect as possible. Then everything else just wouldn't matter much anymore.

**Correcting Our Focus*

        Good to be home and resume attending daily Mass again. The thoughts I felt in my heart today were nothing new, but worth re-expressing. Once more, the Lord made me see that focusing upon how we can get to know and love him more is not the productive way, as it's much like concentrating upon ourselves to figure out how we can lift ourselves off the ground. The right, quick and efficient way is to focus upon the Lord exclusively to let him draw us to him. We must always let God take the center stage and he'll do all the lifting for us. 

Key to Seeing God

        Only the humble will see God. If we voluntarily humble ourselves before God, he will exalt us high. If we do not humble ourselves before God, we will be humbled by him and crushed forever in the end.  

How Much Are You With God?

        We can go to Mass every Sunday out of habit and not feel anything. Robotic Catholic might be a fitting name. Then there are those who hang on to God because they feel miserable about life. Truly blessed are those in union with God, who no longer struggle on their own, just living a triumphant life in the Lord. [Since I'll on the road with my son for the next three or four days, I won't able to attend daily Mass nor blog. I should be back on Dec. 30, if not sooner.]    

*Beautiful Prayer for Us

        Today is Feast of St. Stephen, first martyr. Response at Mass from Psalm 31: Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. As Stephen was being stoned, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Before Jesus breathed his last on the cross, he cried out in a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." This should be a prayer for us too. Whether we face martyrdom of not, it shows our trust in the Lord and readiness to go to him.

*Great Question

        What profit is there to be the most famous and admired, the wealthiest, the most honored, or the most talented or intelligent person in the whole world when your name is not even written in heaven? 

**God Our Consolation

        There are things in our hearts that no other human beings can possibly understand or are impossible for us to express precisely to them, yet the Lord knows them all perfectly without our saying a single word. Therefore, I appreciate him immensely and treasure my intimacy with him. He is our greatest consolation!

Sorrow on Christmas Day

        Merry Christmas to all of you! Should it be a joyful day? Of course. Yet at the same time, I felt great sorrow. As usual on Christmas day, the church was filled to overflowing as on Easter day. The adjacent space normally partitioned off had to be opened up to accommodate the extra crowd. And people chatted and chuckled so much before Mass began that the priest had to tell all to quiet down. I am not here to judge anyone, but I am sure that many were there just for Christmas. You probably have heard about cafeteria Catholics who only pick and choose the teachings of the Church they can accept. These Christmas and Easter Catholics are known as submarine Catholics who surface just twice a year. Can God be pleased with them? I doubt it. My sorrow came from feeling his sorrow.

***Letting God Do It

        If you want to search your heart to see what's in there, do not do it by yourself, for you are not capable of understanding yourself thoroughly. Instead, go before the Lord, open your heart up, and ask him to search it. And he will help you see what he sees and what shouldn't be there. Then ask him to cleanse and heal you heart. This conforms to the smart practice of always entrusting God to do the hard work for you. This is how you get to live a life carefree in the Lord. We struggle so hard on our own to do so many things, forgetting that God can accomplish what we want to achieve for us. Good example, to attain union with God, a lot of people dismiss it for being too hard. But ask the Lord to do the work to prepare you and it becomes totally attainable. Just remember that we are weak and God is super strong and eager to help. 

Deep Joy in Christ

        Communion experience. I experience deep joy in the Lord. This is a joy that wells up from within the innermost of the heart and touches the soul, making you aware that the Lord indeed dwells in your heart. It seems that he keeps me alive just so I might taste this joy.

Finding or Not Finding God

        I often like to depict a spiritual situation with a picture. In life, you will come to a Y intersection sooner or later. One road will take you to God, the Truth, while the other one will lead you to explore on your own. Since God is not there, you will invariably hit a dead end. I know, because it's either finding God or becoming lost.

**How to Possess All of God

        If you want all of God for yourself, give all of yourself to him. Make your humble move first.

*A Bright Spot in Old Age

        What can get better and better as we age? Certainly not our physical condition, as the joints get stiffer and even getting out of bed in the morning becomes a challenge. Likewise our mental condition, as we forget things more easily. I used to be able to learn playing a piano piece in a few weeks, now I practice for months or longer and still keep hitting the wrong keys. Poorer eyesight doesn't help. But there is a bright spot and it's our spiritual condition which can improve as long as we are alive! By remaining close to Christ, we can become more acute and wiser spiritually, and grow holier with no limit whatsoever. This is definitely something we should not overlook, but to rejoice about.  

**God Is Calling You*

        Today's Communion antiphon, Revelation 20.3: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. You can easily picture this scene. The knocking may be faint to you right now, but if you stop and listen carefully, you will hear his voice and you know it. Whether you will open the door to let him enter is another matter. The Lord is insistent because he wants to save you. He is gentle because he want your faith to be genuine. He is ever so polite and patient that I almost feel sorry for him, but I think I ought to feel a lot more sorry for those who do not wish to hear his voice or hear but do not open the door to let him in. Anyway, reading this verse makes me respect and love my God even more. Ignoring his voice is ignoring your own eternal future.

God Removes All Fears

       If you don't know God, experiencing fear is common. This is generated by not knowing what is happening or might happen. For example, people fear abandoning themselves to God. In the Gospels, we read that people saw Jesus perform some mighty, wondrous deed, were amazed, and started to fear. Now, if you know Jesus well, you have a different story. Know that God loves you dearly, you are at ease with him. And you are no longer concerned about Satan, since God now protects you. In conclusion, knowing God removes all fears.

What God Is to Me

        Communion experience. God is my life, my soul, and my existence. I don't mean them literally. My life because he is as dear to me as my life; my soul because he is as close to me as my soul; and my existence because I owe my whole existence to him. God is also my most beloved. This I mean literally.

*Christmas Present for the Lord

        Give your heart to God as your Christmas present for him. The heart still remains within you; giving it to him simply permits him to transform it to his heart's content. We and God become one when our hearts become one. It's a sheer win-win joy! 

**God to Be Praised!*

        We petition and thank God, but often neglect to praise him. While petitioning and thanksgiving center upon what we'd like to receive and what we have received, respectively, from God, praising is centered upon God alone, most likely most popular in heaven. In the Charismatic Renewal Movement of the Church, praising God has been the first order of business, and wondrous things happen as a result. Of course, the vocabulary for praising God is rather limited and this explains why your hear God being praised in tongues. You see, speaking in tongues is not something mysterious, but simply the natural outflow from us with an intense desire to praise God. Praise the Lord as often as you can to receive great blessings from him. 

*Rallying Cry*

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 24: O gates, lift high your heads; grow higher, ancient doors. Let him enter, the king of glory! As 2017 is coming to a close, we are also getting closer to Jesus' 2nd Coming. Here is my rallying cry to all who can hear: Let the God of Christ enter! Open your heart! If you shut him out, you will be shut out by him. Would you rather end up to be all alone than go over to his side to join him to be taken care by him forever? . . . . .  

**The One to Live For

        We all need something to live for. When there is nothing to live for, people experience despair, and contemplate suicide. My former piano teacher live for music and other artists I know for their art. Many parents who do not do well live to make sure that their children will have a brighter future. For me, living for Christ is absolutely the best, for he is the eternal loving God. He fills my life with hope and will grant me the brightest possible future I could ever wish for. 

Love Is Sufficient

        Is God a mystery? There is so much we do not know about God, but at the same time we can attain union with him and feel that we have known him for all eternity. In fact, once I realized that he is all love, there was no more need for me to know more about him. Love alone is sufficient.

***Union With God for All!*

        Union with God is loving God with all you've got, the giving of yourself to God. It is an unspoken, simple but profound, most intimate relationship with the Lord. You open yourself 100% to him and he communes with you freely. It is imitating how God the Father and God the Son are in each other. Above all, it is what God desires from us. Union is achieved by submitting yourself completely to God. When that happens, he takes over and accomplishes all that's impossible for you to accomplish. It's letting God be God. We struggle hard only because we have not let God reign over our private little kingdom. Union is for you and me, for everyone! Why do you not consider it? Is it because you don't think you are good enough? Then let God make you good enough! Is it because you don't think he can make it happen to you? Then you don't believe that nothing is impossible with God! You don't need to be a mystic or saint first; it is in union that they become mystics and saints. Short of union, you remain struggling through your life, which strictly speaking, is rebelling against God.

**Beware of Slipping*

        Life and death seems to be such a pair of opposites, yet they are seamlessly connected, for we can slip from life into death in an instant. I got this feeling when I felt dizzy once after neglecting to take my medication for a short time. Another time I fell, suffered a concussion, and momentarily lost my consciousness. So is heaven and hell a pair of opposites. Here exists a chasm between the two that's impossible to cross, but slipping from our present state into either one of them can happen in an instantly too. Therefore, beware of this to be sure that we do not end up where we do not want to go.

Faith and Truth

        God is our truth and this remains true forever whether we believe in it or not. If we are not connected with God, we are simply lost. If we have faith in God, then we are saved, as Christ had demonstrated to those who believed in him. Faith connects us to the truth, making all the difference to us.    

Journey of Love.

        We get to know God through the following possible stages. Of course, many never reach stage 6, but are still saved. (1) We feel the emptiness of life. (2) We seek God. (3) We check out Christ and find that there are sufficient reasons for us to believe in him. (4) That little bit of early faith makes us take the plunge, accepting him as our Savior. (5) You wish to know him even more and press on. (One common mistake is that some erroneously believe that once you have accepted Christ, you are saved forever. Then they slack off and put their salvation in jeopardy again.) (6) Another critical point is reached: should you surrender to Christ completely? If you do, the Lord starts taking charge of your life completely. As he continues to transform you into a new creature, you become less attached to the world and experience more and more peace and freedom. (7) You feel God's presence, his power and love, and start to fall deeply in love with God. (8) Finally, you desire union with him and attain it, aided greatly by the Holy Eucharist. All in all, it's an exciting journey. It is exciting because you are directly involved.

Love Banishes Fear

        Christians are not only to rejoice in Christ always, but they are to become fearless. We need to fear God only if we are not with him. Once you belong to him, he banishes all your fears, for now you are with the Lord who is in charge of all things that exist, their sole creator. He gives and he takes away. He creates and he destroys. But he is always love.

God Is Not a Crutch

        People accuse Christians of believing in God because they look for some kind of a crutch for support. I had never felt that way. If I were ill and desperately need some medicine for healing, I might try anything I can get my hands on – this would be looking for some kind of a crutch. When I sought God, starting out I didn't even want to believe in him. I gave in only after I discovered how truly beautiful he was. So it was God drawing me, not me looking for a crutch.

**God Wants Us Back Always

        Relative to God our Lord, we are lowly, unholy, frail, and useless on our own, yet he loves us and is eager to raise us to his level. No matter how immense that gap is between him and us, if we love him back and it is gone. We are the prodigal sons and daughters, and as long as we return to the Father, we are welcomed back into his family. Through the Holy Eucharist, we can even attain union with the Holy One! If you are not with God at all, the gap between you and him is infinite. But just remember that he can make that gap disappear anytime you so wish.    

*Restoring Our Beauty

        We are beautiful only if we are beautiful to God. In reality, we are always beautiful to God, our creator and Father; it is sin that make us look filthy and ugly. So just ask him to take away our sins and we'll be beautiful for good and to ourselves too.

**More Precious Than Our Soul*

        What is more precious than our soul? God our creator! For without God, our soul would be lost forever. With him, he can heal our soul or even create a new soul for us, for nothing is impossible for him! This is the God you can trust with all your soul.    

Sensible Planning

        We came into the world penniless and will leave the world and be penniless again. So it would be sensible and appropriate for us to will that all the money we have borrowed from the Lord during our lifetime be given away for his glory after we leave this world. 

**Giving Away Your Heart

        I recall my favorite saying of St. Bernadette's which I first posted back in 2009: "If we receive Jesus with love and make sure that he dwells happily within us, he is bound to pay us rent." Today the thought came to me that letting Jesus own our heart is even better than having him rent it, for as owner, he will have to do all the maintenance work, while we get his blessings anyway.      

**God Is Our Joy!

        Philippians 4.4: Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! We are exhorted to rejoice throughout the Scriptures. To be Christian is to rejoice in God always. It's hard to imagine that one can love Christ and not smile. The thought of God alone should make our hearts bubble with joy. We are so blessed to have a God who loves us to death, who is infinitely merciful, and who has revealed to us his plan of salvation, clearing the whole way for us to enjoy eternal bliss with him in heaven. So let your heart leap for joy! God is not only the source of our joy, he is our great joy! 

*Important Consideration

        If you believe that you do have a soul, that you do not just become nothing after you die, then looking into the afterlife and the existence of heaven and hell becomes absolutely necessary if you do have a sound mind and some common sense. If you ignore it, you should at least understand what your reason is. Gambling with your money is being foolish. Gambling with you soul is far beyond being foolish.

*Humility and Holiness

        Witness Christ who was misunderstood, falsely accused, horribly maltreated, and finally crucified. He did not protest to claim that he was innocent and his enemies wrong; he even asked the Father to forgive them. This is true humility. Now look at ourselves. Anytime someone disagrees or argues with us about something, most often trivial, we so want everyone else to see that we are right and our "opponent" wrong! Where is our humility? We may be considered nice and decent by ourselves and others, but without true humility, we definitely are not holy (nor cool). 

Receiving Life Through Christ

        In the olden days, emperors of China searched for the elixir of life, hoping to gain longevity or eternal youth. Today we have anti-aging creams and pills widely available on the market. When I last received the Holy Eucharist, it dawned on me that I was receiving the Lord who was to grant me eternal life in heaven! Never mind the elixir of life or those anti-aging stuff.                                   

**An Insight*

        The fact that Jesus underwent his Passion from the Last Supper to his death on the cross willingly without protest shows his genuine love for us.

**No Better God!*

        I love my Lord because not only I can share honestly whatsoever is in my heart with him, I can also laugh with him or cry with him. There is no better God or friend; he is to be savored and cherished. What a joy and privilege to know him! 

**Do You Know?*

        You can share anything with the Lord from your heart without feeling ashamed because he understands you perfectly and will be only too happy to cleanse you and make you whole again!

A Christian Stance

        Look up to God only and never look down on anyone.

Amazing Truth

        Do you know that the God of Christ is nothing short of being able to take away all you sins and give you eternal life? If you already know, then think about it seriously.

***Most Sweet Voice

        The voice of the Lord is the sweetest of all voices, for it is not only pure, but also most intimate, speaking directly to you from within your heart!   

*Pitiful Generation

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus said to the crowds about their generation, "John (the Baptist) came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon." The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'" Our generation today is no different. People judge you outright and with their mind made up criticize you no matter what you say or do. We have a firmly closed-minded generation that urgently needs God's mercy shutting God out. 

Greatest Privilege

        Communion experience. I felt completely satisfied and was elated that the Father has chosen me to belong to his family.

Following Jesus Properly

        Today is Memorial of Saint John of the Cross. Matthew 16.24 is the Communion antiphon: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me, says the Lord. It seems that Jesus already knew that he was going to carry the cross on which he was to be hanged before his Crucifixion and he wants us to be like him. As our shepherd, he is also our model.

Another Union Advantage

        Seek union with God so that loving him not only is a duty you feel you must fulfill, but also becomes your second nature.