From my Journal 20130728Sun

You know, compared to my EMHC brothers in our Parish, I'm just a youngling - a padawan. I look up to my brother Lay Ministers in the EMHC as examples of perseverance in this life and of enduring service to the Church.

It's really so good to serve again in Holy Mass... 

I look to the Eucharist for true sustenance for Jesus is my Savior. He has always been mine and I have always been His.

Yes, it's true - despite all my sins, my God has never abandoned me, and my Redeemer always stayed with me... even at the aftermath of my favorite sins, when I feel the most desolate and abandoned by all creation, my Jesus just sits there with me to share the pain with me and to quietly carry my spirit back to health...

He sends people - friends, family, angels and saints - my Anne, most of all - to look for me when I am lost that I may soon return with Him, as my beloved Eldest Brother, to the Home of our Father...

Indeed, I am so blessed to be saved by a Savior as mighty and capable as Him! My Jesus is truly the greatest hero of my little life!

O my Jesus, zealous for souls,
thirsting for the love of all mankind.
Come, my Jesus, be Thou the God of my heart,
and accomplish in me Thy will of Peace.



If God stopped forgiving us our sins, our world will come to an abrupt end.

From my Journal 20130727Sat

I was a medium to heavy cigarette smoker for ten years of my life. I started smoking cigarettes in college and successfully quit it in May 2000.

I am quite surprised myself I was able to do it but I was... and let me tell you, willpower had nothing to do with it. My quitting cigarettes, to cut a longer story* short, was all about trust.

I did not fight the addiction, I let it go. I let it go by holding on to something greater than it. Since I can not outdo the Devil, I turned to Christ....

And so here I am 13 years later... laying siege with my God on the last bastion of the Devil in my life.

To me, it was impossible to quit... but with God, and with the right attitude of faith, quitting became entirely within the realm of the possible.

It was still difficult. But let me tell you this - the gifts of any recovery from any vice are always worth the effort we put in because more often than not, what we get are always much more than what God originally promises.

For the LORD indeed is peerless and unsurpassed in His generosity to those who love and fear Him.

*This longer story is worth telling... but at another time.

From my Journal 20130725Thu

I have an abiding respect for the people I work with, and feel fortunate to be with all sorts of people... in that environment I have learned to deepen the truth about the saying, "do not judge a book by its cover".

Every seasoned traveler in this journey of life knows what makes each of us unique can not be seen by the unaided eye. Only a fool will sum up the being of a person by mere appearance or sound.

We can not for long pretend to know the warmth and comfort of a welcome hearth from the outside without succumbing to the chill of winter's night.

Looks do matter but seeing, insofar as the eye of the heart can see, matters more. For friendships like love can not be feigned by the unfamiliar heart.

If we judge a book by it's cover, we miss the message of the book. If we judge a person by externals alone, we miss the blessings of a friend.