my reflection on Rom 8, 18-25

". . . the sufferings of this present time are nothing compare to the glory to be revealed to us . . ."

In math, when you divide 1 by 1000 the quotient is almost negligible.

In the life to come i.e. when we pass over to the world yonder, the hardest and the most bitter experience we had will surely be insignificant.

After enduring pain or big problem, once it's over you simply feel I'm glad it's over. You just don't care much if how painful the experience is. This is just a foretaste of what is going to happen in the life after our death.

Only the Creator knows best about His creatures. God knows that in due course we will understand the reasons behind these apparently meaningless pain and sufferings in this present world.

My Refelction on Tim 4, 6-8

You would know the depth of your being a Christian not during Christmas but on Good Friday.

When your prayer is not answered, when your friends deserted you, when the whole world seems to be against you.

It's easy to be a Christian when God do marvelous things for you in the same way that you want Him to. But when God does good things for you but their goodness are not very obvious some falter.

To be a true Christian is to keep going on Good Friday with a big hope for Easter Sunday.

Perez and Solomon

Perez and Solomon have something in common. i.e. both of them were born, say illegitimately.

Solomon's story is more popular. He was the son of King David to Bathsheba, the wife of an Army General whom David saw taking a bathe from, maybe a window in David's palace. And then many things happened consequently after that but in the end, Solomon was born.

Perez story was not known apart from he being one of the twins born by Tamar to Judah. Tamar became pregnant when she pretended to be a prostitute to Judah - his father in-law who sent her home when Judah's sons died one after another.

While we don't know much about Perez, we can deduce that he had become a great man when the elders in the story of Ruth wished Ruth and Boaz wished them that may their house be one like that of Perez.

Being born out of wedlock is never the fault of the child and therefore it should not be taken as something disgraceful. What matters is what had become to the person rather than how he came to be.

bad-star - a person born illegitimately.

The Daily Gospel

DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Sunday, 28 October 2007 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time Today the Church celebrates : Sts. Simon and Jude, apostles See commentary below or click here Saint Bernard : "The publican...would not even raise his eyes to heaven" Book of Sirach 35,12-14.16-18. For he is a God of justice, who knows no favorites. Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet he hears the cry of the oppressed. He is not deaf to the wail of the orphan, nor to the widow when she pours out her complaint; He who serves God willingly is heard; his petition reaches the heavens. The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal, Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right. Second Letter to Timothy 4,6-8.16-18. For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance. At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the proclamation might be completed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil threat and will bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 18,9-14. He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity--greedy, dishonest, adulterous--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and Doctor of the Church Sermon 3 on the Annunciation, 9-10 "The publican...would not even raise his eyes to heaven" What is that container into which grace chooses to pour itself? If trust has been made to receive mercy and patience to garner justice, what is the vessel we might put forward as apt to receive grace? A very pure ointment is concerned here, which requires a very sturdy container. Now what is more pure or more sturdy than humility of heart? That is why God "gives grace to the humble," (Jas 4,6; cf Prv 3,34; Jb 22,29); that is why it is entirely right he should have "looked upon his handmaid's lowliness," (Lk 1,48). Right, because a humble heart does not allow itself to be preoccupied by human worth and because the fullness of grace can be poured into it all the more freely… Did you observe the Pharisee at prayer? He was neither thief, nor dishonest, nor an adulterer. Nor did he neglect to do penance. He fasted twice a week, he gave tithes of all he possessed… But he was not empty of himself; he had not stripped himself of himself (Phil 2,7); he was not humble but, rather, puffed up. That is to say, he was unconcerned to know what it was he still lacked but overestimated his worth; he was not full but puffed up. And so he went away empty for having put on a show of being full. The publican, on the other hand, because he humbled himself and took care to present himself like an empty vessel, could carry away with him an even more abundant grace. Manage your subscription directly clicking HERE ---------------------------------------- The DGO is sent every day to more than 255.000 subscribers ! Do you want to help us maintain this free service? Daily Gospel is free of charge, it is not free of cost. Make a tax-deductible donation directly at "The Daily Gospel", PO BOX 16, New Hope, KY 40052. USA. Thank you and God bless you.

The Daily Gospel

Repent

Repentance means realization of the evilness of sin. It means hating sin because of sin itself.

Repentance means realization of the importance of love. It means hating sin because of love.

The point being is that when a person repents he should be motivated by love. He refrains from doing evil things because he knew that it is not good for the others or for himself.

The point being is that a person repentance should not be motivated by fear. A person who refrains from sinning becaue he fears being thrown into hell is a person with very narrow faith. Such is not even faith at all.

The Bible should be read in its proper context and in relation with the entirety of the Bible. We find in the it several allusions to the wrath of God as if God is a blood thirsty person who would love seeing sinners burnt in hell.

Bear in mind that the OT understanding of God is a vengeful God, a punishing God and the Evangelists were simply coming from this sort of background hence they echoed the OT understanding of God.

But we must remember that God is love, all his actions are motivated by love. The only reason therefore why a soul is sent to hell is that God loves him.

DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Saturday, 27 October 2007 Saturday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time Today the Church celebrates : Bl. Emilina, St. Frumentius See commentary below or click here Saint Augustine : Answering God's call to repent at last Letter to the Romans 8,1-11. Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace. For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 13,1-9. At that time some people who were present there told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. He said to them in reply, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were greater sinners than all other Galileans? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did! Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them --do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means! But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" And he told them this parable: "There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, he said to the gardener, 'For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. (So) cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?' He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'" Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : Saint Augustine (354-430), Bishop of Hippo (in North Africa) and Doctor of the Church Confessions Bk. 8 (trans. F.J. Sheed) Answering God's call to repent at last Those trifles of all trifles, and vanities of vanities, my one-time mistresses, held me back, plucking at my garment of flesh and murmuring softly: "Are you sending us away?" And " From this moment shall we not be with you, now or forever?" And: " From this moment shall this or that not be allowed you, now or forever?" What were they suggesting to me, O my God?… I hesitated to shake them off and leap upwards on the way I was called: for the strong force of habit said to me: "Do you think you can live without them?" But by this time its voice was growing fainter. In the direction towards which I had turned my face and was quivering in fear of going, I could see the austere beauty of Continence honorably soliciting me to come to her and not linger, hands full of multitudes of good examples... "The Lord their God gave me to them. Why do you stand upon yourself and so not stand at all? Cast yourself upon Him and be not afraid; He will not draw away and let you fall. Cast yourself without fear, He will receive you and heal you"... This disputation within my heart was nothing other than a struggle between myself against myself… When my most searching scrutiny had drawn up all my vileness from the secret depths of my soul and heaped it in my heart's sight, a mighty storm arose in me, bringing a mighty rain of tears. That I might give way to my tears and lamentations, I rose and went out… I flung myself down somehow under a certain fig tree and no longer tried to check my tears, which poured forth from my eyes in a flood, an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And I spoke to you freely: "And thou, O Lord, how long? How long, Lord, wilt Thou be angry forever? Remember not our former iniquities." (Ps 6,4; 78,5)… And I continued my miserable complaining; "How long, how long shall I go on saying tomorrow and again tomorrow? Why not now, why not this very hour?" And suddenly I heard a voice from some nearby house, a boy's voice or a girl's voice, a sort of sing-song repeated again and again: "Take and read, take and read." I ceased weeping and immediately began to search my mind most carefully as to whether children were accustomed to chant these words in any kind of game, and I could not remember that I had ever heard any such thing. Damming back the flood of my tears I arose, interpreting the incident as quite certainly a divine command to open the book of the apostle Paul and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall… I returned hastily and took up the book and read what I had seen before: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence," (Rom 13,13). I had no wish to read further, and no need. For in that instant, with the very ending of the sentence, it was as though a light of utter confidence shone in my heart, and all the darkness of uncertainty vanished away. Manage your subscription directly clicking HERE ---------------------------------------- The DGO is sent every day to more than 255.000 subscribers ! Do you want to help us maintain this free service? Daily Gospel is free of charge, it is not free of cost. Make a tax-deductible donation directly at "The Daily Gospel", PO BOX 16, New Hope, KY 40052. USA. Thank you and God bless you.

Sales Training

Following are three points to remember in selling:

1. Salespersons should believe in the products they are selling. Of course there some occasions when you find yourself in a situation that you landed a job which ask you to sell a product which you yourself won’t buy. It does not always follow that when you are not interested in the product you also don’t believe in it. Maybe you don’t need it. Hence to sell it, find people who need it.
2. The most important part in selling is closing the sale. You might have the best convincing sales pitch, you could have aroused prospect client interests but if you couldn’t sell your product then everything is useless.
3. Efficiency rate, i.e. sales made over attempts has no bearing in selling. You could have a 100% efficiency rate by closing 2 sales in two attempts but a 10 sales in 100 attempts which is only 10% efficiency is still much better than the 100%.

Interested in learning the secrets in effective selling, Take Sales Training Courses from avand.co.uk

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Sharing in the Life of God

God the Father
God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit

The Triune God

The Trinity is the best idea about God. God is three Divine Persons but only one God.

This is a bit confusing because we are numbered oriented. Because of this when we explain Trinity we painstakingly tried to create a mathematical equation which proves that three equals one.

This idea of the Trinity can be best understood in relation with persons, relationship, love and happiness.

When two persons are related to each other in such a way that such relationship is being bound by love, said persons become united and the immediate outcome is the feeling of happiness.

The more they love, the more that they become one. Now if human love can make two persons one, how much more the perfect love of each Divine Person.

The feeling of happiness in a relationship brought about by mutual love of persons in a relationship signifies that they share in the life of the Triune God.

The Daily Gospel

DAILY GOSPEL «Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.» John 6,68 Friday, 26 October 2007 Friday of the Twenty-ninth week in Ordinary Time Today the Church celebrates : St. Demetrius,  St. Evaristus See commentary below or click here John Paul II: Knowing how to interpret the signs of the times Letter to the Romans 7,18-25. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if (I) do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 12,54-59. He also said to the crowds, "When you see (a) cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain--and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot--and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? If you are to go with your opponent before a magistrate, make an effort to settle the matter on the way; otherwise your opponent will turn you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the constable, and the constable throw you into prison. I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny." Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB Commentary of the day : John Paul II, Pope Apostolic Letter: Novo millennio ineunte, paras.55-56, 06/01/2001 (copyright Libreria editirce Vaticana Knowing how to interpret the signs of the times In the climate of increased cultural and religious pluralism which is expected to mark the society of the new millennium, it is obvious that this dialogue will be especially important in establishing a sure basis for peace and warding off the dread spectre of those wars of religion which have so often bloodied human history. The name of the one God must become increasingly what it is: a name of peace and a summons to peace. Dialogue, however, cannot be based on religious indifferentism, and we Christians are in duty bound, while engaging in dialogue, to bear clear witness to the hope that is within us (cf. 1 Pt 3:15)… This missionary duty, moreover, does not prevent us from approaching dialogue with an attitude of profound willingness to listen. We know in fact that, in the presence of the mystery of grace, infinitely full of possibilities and implications for human life and history, the Church herself will never cease putting questions, trusting in the help of the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth (cf. Jn 14:17), whose task it is to guide her "into all the truth" (Jn 16:13). This is a fundamental principle not only for the endless theological investigation of Christian truth, but also for Christian dialogue with other philosophies, cultures and religions. In the common experience of humanity, for all its contradictions, the Spirit of God, who "blows where he wills" (Jn 3:8), not infrequently reveals signs of his presence, which help Christ's followers to understand more deeply the message which they bear. Was it not with this humble and trust-filled openness that the Second Vatican Council sought to read "the signs of the times"? (Gaudium et spes, §4) Even as she engages in an active and watchful discernment aimed at understanding the "genuine signs of the presence or the purpose of God", (§11) the Church acknowledges that she has not only given, but has also "received from the history and from the development of the human race"(§44). This attitude of openness, combined with careful discernment, was adopted by the Council also in relation to other religions. Manage your subscription directly clicking HERE ---------------------------------------- The DGO is sent every day to more than 255.000 subscribers ! Do you want to help us maintain this free service? Daily Gospel is free of charge, it is not free of cost. Make a tax-deductible donation directly at "The Daily Gospel", PO BOX 16, New Hope, KY 40052. USA. Thank you and God bless you.