***Rating My Church***

        I am a Catholic because I am convinced that the Catholic Church is the original church built by Christ upon Peter, the first Pope. When Simon Peter first told Jesus that he was the Messiah, the Son of the living God, Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (See Matthew 16:16-19.) So how is the Church with over 2.4 billion Catholics today doing? Well, as in any big institution you'll find some good people and some not so good. Within the Church, we have great saints as well as corrupt traitors. Satan, in rebelling against the Lord, has made priesthood one of his prime targets. My rating of the current state of the Church is lukewarm+ at best.
        These three issues have figured in prominently in my evaluation. (1) Abortion: Way over a million unborn babies still get aborted in this country alone. This most serious offense against the Lord must end! The Church has remained relatively quiet on this issue. You rarely hear the clergy speaking out boldly against this evil. It's the laity that's doing much work on its own. (2) The Holy Eucharist: Surveys have shown that the majority of Catholics no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in this most holy sacrament. This is an absolute crisis! We need to initiate a worldwide campaign to educate all Catholics and there's no time to waste! Yet the Church doesn't seem to sense any urgency. To wish the Lord to safeguard us, it behooves us to do our utmost to "safeguard" him, not that he can't take care of himself. (3) Union with God: The Holy Eucharist is available to us, the Lord's invitation to seek union with him is there, and above all, he commanded us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect; yet we are not specifically encouraged to seek to attain union with God through the Holy Eucharist so that we may all become saints! Have the Church ruled out this possibility? Wouldn't that be limiting God's omnipotent power? To believe that we can't become saints is false humility. The fact is that wanting to be a saint is being obedient to the Lord and being truly humble! Abandoning ourselves totally in God is all it takes. In Luke 12:49, Jesus said to his disciples, "I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!"  

***Awaiting That "Perfect" Day***

        Communion experience: I am full of blemishes, but I know that the Lord will make me perfect one day! 

**No Ordinary God**

        Today's First Reading Antiphon from 2 Maccabees 7: The creator of the universe will give you back both breath and life. Let us realize that Christ is that amazing creator and our Savior who deserves our utmost awe, respect, and gratitude!  

**God-Centered or Self-Centered Living**

        Those who do not know Christ always have to look for something they enjoy doing to keep going. Watching a TV drama is one example. On the contrary, those who know Christ well experience so much joy in him that all the things the world enjoys become rather boring and meaningless in comparoson. As a matter of fact, they never need to seek out anything in the world to keep going. 
       Also, I've noticed that many older folks, realizing that their time on earth is limited, decide to live it up by enjoying as many things in the world as possible. This may seem to be a sensible decision, but spiritually it may not be wise, for the intention is all self-centered. The closer we get to meeting the Lord, the more we really should live a God-centered life. We must never stop growing spiritually so that we may store up as much treasure in heaven as possible. To be rich in heaven is being God-centered.

****Being Most Unrealistic**

        Avoiding Christ is worse than avoiding the fact that you do exist. You now become the most absurd unrealistic person—for without Christ, you wouldn't have existed at all!

****Union with God and and Beyond****

        Communion experience: Attaining union with Christ the LORD through receiving the Holy Eucharist is reaching a mighty high point in our spiritual journey on earth. Further rapid, limitless spiritual growth now lies ahead, promising making following Christ more exhilarating than ever! 

**Equal Before the Lord*

        In Jesus' days, the Pharisees and the scribes look down on all the tax collectors and other sinners, forgetting that they themselves are sinners too. They became hypocrites, which displeased Jesus a great deal. It is important to realize that we are all sinners before the Lord, no better or worse than anyone else. We are to measure ourselves against the Lord only, for we only aim to be holy like him.

***Critically Important to Realize!**

        Today's Gospel Acclamation from Luke 19: The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost. If you know that you are lost, then Jesus is for you. This is all there is to it.

**Foreknowledge

        Communion experience. I know that one day in Christ, I'll understand everything.

***Faith and Healing**

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 18, as Jesus approached Jericho and was passing by a beggar, the man shouted, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!" Jesus stopped and asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" He replied, "Lord, please let me see." Jesus told him, "Have sight; your faith has saved you." He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God. This is how faith works in healing. We must not assume that the Lord will heal every little health problem we have. Normally, if it's something that's not that severe and/or will heal naturally in time, we ought not bother the Lord. But if it's something that's critical and really needs God's help, then it's proper to ask for healing outright without hesitation.

**Matching the Lord's Offering**

         Today's response from Psalm 119: Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands. In John 15:13, Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." Now, Jesus has shown his greatest love by laying down his life for us so that we may have life, we really ought to look forward to doing his commands with zeal and joy!

***Beauty in Plain Sight***

         I just found this post in drafts which I initiated two years ago but didn't get published. I recall that's because I didn't know how to include a photo image. Here it is now. I've been photographing with my cell phone since 2013 and have photographed hundreds of images of ordinary sights or things most people do not notice. At the time, I was attending daily Mass at Mount St. Joseph Seminary in Loomis, CA. One rainy morning after Mass, I saw this beautiful image reflected in a large puddle of rainwater in the seminary parking lot. Of course, what your see is that image turned upside down. God's beauty is everywhere!

**No Double Standard

        We easily notice others' faults and hardly our own. To be fair, we should examine ourselves at least as rigorously as we do others. On the other hand, we should just focus upon perfecting ourselves first.

**God Is Perfectly Just**

         Today's response from Psalm 98: The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice. Yes, we should trust in the Lord's justice, pray as best as we can for all sinners and accept the outcome of his judgment on any of us in the end. Worrying about it simply shows the lack of our trust in the Lord.

***Unique True Love***

        This is the love we have for God. It's essentially his love. It's different from any other kind of "love" we feel, being pure and completely selfless, and involving both the heart and the soul. As a matter of fact, it alone qualifies as true love.

**Becoming Unchosen**

        In John 15:16, Jesus says, "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you." The Lord has chosen many of us, but many have turned him down. Not only they won't bear any good fruit, but also lose the benefit of receiving whatever they ask the Father in Jesus' name. They are now orphans.

***Constant Prayer Indespensable*

        In today's Gospel reading from Luke 18, Jesus revealed to his disciples the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. To live a Christian life is to live a life of prayer. It's essential that we communicate with the Lord honestly from the heart at all times so that we may get to know him most intimately and grow to become like him. It is through prayer that we can attain union of the hearts with the Lord!  

**Appreciating My Own Existence*

         Today I became acutely aware that the Lord God, our heavenly Father, indeed created me out of love. So I am a special, unique creature to him whose sole intent now is to save me from sin and death. And I greatly rejoicing in that!