A Short History of a Conversion Part 2

    My years at CHC (Christian Heritage College) were very formative in my life. Not only did I make friends that have lasted even to this day, I learned much more about my Christian faith. One of my first classes was an apologetic class that dealt with the geologic column and radio active dating of rocks, etc., all from a Christian point of view. This was something that I had never heard of, a young earth and a reasonable explanation for it. In my Bible classes, I learned more about God's word than I had learned in my life up to that point. In retrospect, I don't remember much of Church history before the Reformation being taught in any classes, but if any alumni happen to read this, and this was not the case, please correct me. It is not my intention to paint an incorrect picture of my education, but this is what I remember from my time at Heritage. I do remember reading St. Augustine's "Confessions" in a Christian Literature class, but that was about the extent of early church fathers writings that were presented to us.

    I was also learning to fly small airplanes while I was at CHC. They had a Missionary Aviation program (which they still have, I believe) that was run out of Gillespie Field. It was an extreme experience to learn to fly and I have some great stories about it, but that is for another blog.

     I started working at a drive through dairy store while at CHC. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it is an open air store where customers drive up, usually place their orders from the car, and we would go and get what they needed, usually a gallon of milk on the way home from work, or beer, bread, yogurt, you get the idea. Anyway, one of the services that Hank and Linda DeGroot offered was a delivery service to restaurants and taco shops in the local area. During summer break, I would stay in El Cajon and work full time and I would get to do the Taco Shop run on Tuesdays and Thursdays. What was great about this was I would get free food at just about every stop! Everybody would offer me something to eat! It got to the point where I would just take a soda, I couldn't eat so much. One of these Taco Shops was El Ranchito in Santee, where I met the girl who would steal my heart forever. We didn't start dating until 1984, 2 years after I graduated, moved to San Francisco for graduate studies at a Southern Baptist Seminary, then moved back to San Diego because I had too many problems in the Seminary.

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary is located on a beautiful spot of land called Strawberry Point, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Mill Valley, California. I went there in January of 1983 to start my studies there for my Master of Divinity degree and to start my career as a minister. Apparently, the theological mindset from CHC rubbed off on me too much for GGBTS standards and I ran up against theological thought that I did not agree with. I  became stubborn in my views and it cost me a semester of academic probation. During that time, I was working as a Youth and Music minister in a small So. Baptist church in Concord, Ca. My second semester, I was working 30 hours in the church and taking 12 units of graduate studies, and commuting 50 miles each way twice a week. Needless to say, I burnt out pretty quickly and found myself back in San Diego.

     I started helping out in another small Baptist church, and also started to pursue a certain cute Mexican girl who at first didn't want anything to do with me. Martha finally relented and agreed to go out with me for one date.....we've been married now for over 26 years! During our dating, we both made the conscience decision to focus on the commonalities of our faiths instead of the differences. We found more in common the more we shared. There was still a cultural divide to cross, or to bridge, and it took a long time to do this...like I said, we've been married 26+ years, we still are building bridges together.

     When we were first married, I was still helping out in my parents church with the music (to this day I find it ironic that I was doing music ministry, since I don't even read music, but I can read and keep time). It was my mission to "convert" my wife into the Baptist church, I never voiced that, but it was always in the back of my head. We eventually moved out to Lake Elsinore, California, where again, I was helping out in a Baptist church, but by now, Martha had started longing to return to her Church. There was a small Catholic Church in the downtown area, and we would go to the Spanish Mass on Saturday and the Baptist Church on Sunday. I would not go up for communion at Mass, because I was aware of the doctrinal differences that prevented me from doing so in good conscience. It was at this time, that I started to look into the Catholic faith, but only to satisfy my own curiosity. I spent many a long talks with the parish priest who was very patient with me and answered all my questions the best he could. He put me on the path that would inevitably give me the answers I was looking for. He mentioned a three volume set by Jurgens called "The Faith of the Early Church Fathers" and was a collection of the writings of various early Church fathers, from Ignatius (who was a disciple of the Apostle John) and Polycarp (a disciple of Ignatius) to Augustine and Justin Martyr. It was by reading these men, who lived so close to the time of Christ, and in the case of Ignatius, was a disciple of one of the Apostles and could have actually know Jesus, that I started to see teachings that were not consistent with what I understood about my Christian faith. They way they worshiped, their liturgy, was so much different than to what I grew up with. This is what led me to investigate further the claims of the Catholic Church. In those investigations, I fell in love with the liturgy, the teachings, the sense of wholeness in the church.

Does this mean that I had turned my back on all that I had learned from my parents, my instructors, my pastors? No. Like I said in Part 1, I am forever grateful to my parents for bringing me to Christ. It is the primary responsibility of the parents to "bring up a child in the way they should go, so when they are old they will not depart form it". My parents taught me to be inquisitive, to ask questions, to be open to what God has for my life, and then to follow Him wherever He might lead. God has lead me home to the Catholic Church. My spiritual journey continues to this day. Like all of us who are on that journey, it will not end until 10 minutes after we die, then it will be a forever homecoming in Heaven. Until then, we have a home here on earth, that is in the Body of Christ, His Church. My journey continues, but it continues within my home, where I can explore the riches of all that God has, I can look honestly at myself and never worry about being rejected, for I am accepted just as I am.

A Short History of a Conversion Part 1

I have been asked many times to put down on paper the story of how I came into the Roman Catholic Church. Here is my story.

     I was born into a Southern Baptist family in the Los Angeles suburb of Lakewood in 1960. My Father was a deacon in the church, my Mother sang in the choir. My paternal great grandfather was a circuit riding preacher for the Methodist Church in the Oklahoma Territory during the last part of the 19th century, so I come by my Christian Heritage naturally. We, my sister, brother and I, were raised in the love and admonition of the Lord. We went to Sunday School and morning worship, Training Union and evening worship every Sunday (even if I had preferred to stay home Sunday nights to watch Wonderful World of Disney), and Wednesday night prayer meetings. On most Saturdays, my Dad and I would go to the church to mow the lawn and clean up for Sunday worship. We would go to the Rescue Missions on Skidrow in Los Angeles once a month or so to sing, preach and help feed the men (in those days it was mainly men on skidrow). I was shown, by the life of my parents, that this was how you showed your love for Christ. You went to Church, prayed, and shared the Gospel with those around you. I memorized many verses from the King James Bible as a child, and as a high school student moved up to the New American Standard Bible (Ryrie Study Bible Edition), since it was so much easier to read and we actually spoke the same language....it had been a few hundred years since anyone spoke like Shakespeare, except in Drama Class. To say that my parents brought me to a saving knowledge of Christ by their example of life would be an understatement. I owe them a debt of gratitude I could only hope to repay by being the same example of a loving Christian to my wife and family and those around me.

     I was baptized when I was eight years old, it was a decision I had made because I saw myself as one who needed Jesus in my life as my Savior, so I asked Jesus into my heart at that young age and was baptized  at Bellwood Baptist (SBC) church a few weeks later. I was one who was not afraid to share my faith. Jesus was real to me (he still is) and I wanted others to know to love that I knew because of what Jesus did for me, for all of us. This lead to a lot of bullying when I was in Junior High, because the bullies knew I would not fight back....that is not what Jesus would want. My friends at that time can bear witness to the fact that I talked my way out of many a fight, I also out ran many a bully too. (Sometimes I wish I could get into a DeLorean and fire up the flux capacitor and go back to the mid 70's with the knowledge of my second degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and teach those bullies a lesson! But as Mr. Miyagi would say, "Karate for defense only"). I digress. In high school I was fairly well known on campus (I did not realize this at the time, but found out years later from alumni who I had not known at school, since we were 3000 in the school, and they came up to me and introduced themselves. I had to go back to the yearbook to verify who they were, and I still didn't know them!). I was part of a student led lunchtime Bible study group and in the Shutterbug (photography) club, I loved to take pics of the Friday Night Football games (ok, I took more pics of the cheer squad than the game, but this was high school for crying out loud.). I also played waterpolo and was probably in the best shape of my life during those years. I also had a very good friend with whom I forged a great friendship....he was also a committed Catholic. Randy Laya and I would have many talks about our respective faiths, and while I was never Anti-Catholic, I never really knew what to think about the Catholic Church. I knew they were Christians by their profession/creed, but it was too "high" church for me I guess.

     It was during high school that I heard the call of the Lord to what I thought was a full time Christian Ministry. I knew that God wanted me to follow him, I was working in our youth group at First So. Baptist in Long Beach, and helped with many other ministries in the church, along with my best friends Ken Cunningham and Bryan Richardson (Bryan would later "jump ship" and come into full communion with the Catholic Church years before I did, unfortunately I have lost contact with Ken). It was during this time that I had made friends with a kid that I met while visiting my sister and her husband in El Cajon, California. I was a junior in high school, and I went to a skateboard park to ride. I had all kinds of Christian Stickers on my helmet and was not ashamed to share my story with anyone who wanted to listen. One kid thought the stickers were cool and we started up a conversation, so started a friendship that would change my life. David Sciacca was a student at Christian High in El Cajon, his parents lived in the upper class neighborhood of Mount Helix (those who live in San Diego know that Mt. Helix is not a subdivision, but and actual Mount, a very large hill that is even used as a landmark by pilots at nearby Gillespie Field.) Frank and Connie Sciacca took a liking to me and invited me into their family. soon I was driving to San Diego, not to visit my sister, but to visit David and his family. Frank was into land development, and in the late 70's, San Diego was smoking! They knew of my desire to go to a Christian College and become a minister, they also knew of our limited finances in my family. One afternoon, after I had already finished high school and had enrolled at the local JC, I was talking with Frank on the phone. He asked me what I was going to do with my life. I responded by telling me I had started talking a few classes at LBCC until I could save up money to go to BIOLA and start my Bible degree. He told me I would never finish college by taking two classes at a time, and that he and Connie and been talking and praying about it and decided to give me a year at Christian Heritage College if I wanted it, Room, Board, Books...a full ride! (That one year turned into all 4 years, to which I am forever grateful to the faith they had in me). I told my parents, who were absolutely thrilled! I went to my boss, where I had just started working for a Christian company and his reaction was, "GO, just GO, this is God's call! Son in the Spring semester of 1979, I was enrolled at Christian Heritage College in El Cajon, California. This is a college that was founded, in part, by Tim LaHaye, famous preacher and author of many Christian books including the "Left Behind" series.

     In college, I started to learn so much more about my faith. I learned that there were other ways of looking at the same event or problem or Bible verse for that matter. Much of my head butting at college had to do more with the "practice" of my faith rather than the substance of it. We had "rules" we had to follow, the school consider themselves as "en Parentis loco" or as they would say, in "place of parents". This was a new concept for me, since we were in college, all over the age of 18 and were paying for the privilege of going to this school. Most of the rules were easy to follow and pretty common sense, curfew at such and such time, etc. But the music rules and radio station rules were way too strict. The administration wanted to micro manage our lives and many of us (me included) secretly rebelled.

     It was during this time of my life that I experienced bigotry against my beliefs, but not by Catholics, but by my own college classmates. I also learned what the term "fundamentalist" meant. We had some fundamentalists at Heritage who basically told me that because I didn't go to their church, believed what they believed, that I was damned and going to Hell! So much for the love of God! Here I was, a student at a Christian College, studying to be a Missionary pilot, to bring the Gospel to the heathens in Africa, or New Guinea or wherever, and I was told it wasn't good enough, I had to believe a different way, dress in a suit and tie, cross my t's and dot my i's. It was a brutal introduction to Legalism, and I rejected it as Jesus rejected the Pharisees' legalism.

Who will be our next Pope?

We certainly are living in exciting times these days. A new Pope will be elected soon, perhaps this week of March 10th, 2013. I am sure that many, if not all of us have heard all the speculations of who might be elected as Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ on Earth and leader of the world's billion plus Catholics. However, he is not just responsible for the souls of his flock. Each Bishop is responsible for the souls of all who live within their respective dioceses, so the Pope has the responsibility of the entire world. No wonder the Cardinal, after he is elected, goes into the "room of tears" to weep with joy (and trepidation, no doubt) for the mission that he now faces.

The world's eyes have been turned to Rome for the last few weeks, but the world does continue on and many other things are taking place besides what is going on in Rome. Today, I was at a retreat for the children who have been in Catechism for their 1st Communion. The kid's parents were also at the retreat and they received their Catechism too. One thing we see is that families want their children to receive all their Sacraments, yet, afterwards, we see many of those same families leave the Church, or become C, A & E Catholics (Christmas, Ash Wednesday and Easter). Why is that?Many people are Catholic because that is how they were brought up, they are Cultural Catholics, not knowing their faith, never having a true relationship with Jesus, through prayer, Eucharist, fellowship and study of God's Word. They don't live the life that they are called to live, and that is sad because all of us, by our Baptism, are the Body of Christ, and we need to be working together for the good of the Body and for society in general.

So who will be our next Pope? Only God knows. But whoever he is, we are called to be faithful to the Magesterium of the Church and to live the faith as taught by the Church. We are a city set on the hill, let's let our light shine so that all can see the Kingdom of God in our lives.

Homily for 3rd Sunday of Advent: Year C

Homily for 3rd Sunday of Advent Year C

Here we are, the 3^rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, a Sunday of Joy.

What do we have to be joyful about? How do we become joyous?

I realize that we are still in deep economic problems. Many of us have been working on and off, or are having trouble finding work that will sustain us and our family. I have many friends who have not been able to find work for over a year, I know it is tough. Many in this community have been struggling just to get by.

Let me reassure you, tough times don’t last forever. Even when it looks like everything will fall, God calls us to rejoice. The Prophet Zephaniah calls on the people to rejoice because of their deliverance from their enemies. They are also called to rejoice because God is in their midst as King and Savior. They realized that they were the children of God, his chosen people.

I call on you to rejoice today, because God is in our midst, as King and Savior too!

St. Paul tells us to rejoice always! In fact, he wants to make the point, so he tells us TWICE!   REJOICE!!

So how do we rejoice? John the Baptist tells us to do what God has called us to do.

He calls us to share our abundance with others, even if that abundance is only extra food that we might have. To treat others with the respect they deserve as children of God, making all of us brothers and sisters. To love each other, starting with our own families. There is so much individualism in our world today, especially here in the U.S. We are told by every side of society that I am the most important person, that I need to have these things in order to be happy. But this is not what God calls us to be.

 We are called to be the people God has made us to be. In other words, Be Who You Are.

Know who you are, and what your role is in this world. If you are a teacher, be the best teacher you can be, treat students fairly and with respect. If you are an employer, treat your employees fairly and with respect. If you happen to be a supervisor or manager, don’t oppress those whom you have authority over.  If you are a worker, do your job with joy, knowing that it is God who will ultimately reward you.

When we realize that God is truly in our midst, we have no fear or need to deny our own limitations or boundaries that define our lives. We realize that our identities are rooted in being children of God, we have no trouble admitting that there are those who are before us, or beyond us. By the grace of God, we are who we are. Perhaps we need to be saved from our misunderstand of who we think we are, thinking we are more than who we really are, trying to impress those around us with a false image of who we think we are.

Advent is a time to strip all of that pretense away, and stand honestly and humbly before our God, eager for redemption. I invite you to stand humbly and honestly before God…..and REJOICE!

Trip to Mexico June 2012

Reflections on our trip to Mexico: June 2012

We arrive in the late afternoon, after the flight from San Diego to Guadalajara. Cotija is a small town in the Central Pacific Mexican State of Michoacán. It is famous for its’ cheese, chocolate and immigrant workers who travel to the United States, Canada, and other parts of the world in order to work, and to provide for their families. In fact, my Brother-in-Law was in Germany a few years ago for the World Cup, and ran into a friend from this small town who was working there. It truly is a small world. 

We took a short walk to the Mercado for dinner. Since the airlines don’t serve food on flights under 4 hours, we had not eaten since we had breakfast in the early morning. Dinner consisted of hamburgers and tacos. The hamburgers were very thin, with all the trimmings, including jalapeños!  In-N-Out has nothing on these burgers! After dinner, we had ice cream from a street vendor, then back to the house and to bed!

I am having some dental work done while I am here, a bridge for my molars, if you really want to know. The prices are a 1/3 of what they are in the states, and many times the quality of work is better. We are blessed to have such a dentist here in Cotija.

As I sit here at our kitchen table, sipping coffee and writing these thoughts, I am confused as to what I read in the papers, on social media, such as Facebook, and hear in conversations from average Americans about their opinions of Mexicans (more likely undocumented immigrants, or all immigrants, documented or no.) In the 25 years that I have been travelling in Mexico, I have never been mistreated, never been taken advantage of, or robbed (unless you count the times we have driven through the Capital and been pulled over by traffic cops and had to pay the “mordida” or bribe for a “traffic violation” which was only because we had the wrong set of plates on our car. If you drive in D.F. and you don’t have D.F. plates, be assured you will be pulled over.) Although I did get pulled over once in Guadalajara because I made a left turn without the light. I didn’t read the sign that said left turn with arrow only, but it was a light that looked like some we have in California where you can make a turn after the green arrow goes out but the green light is still on. Cost of my infraction? About 5 bucks, paid right on the spot, yeah it sounds like a “mordida”, but I really did violate the traffic law….live and learn.

Ok, so back to my confusion. It seems that the comments I hear most are that Mexicans are just here illegally and are looking for a handout. They are all lawbreakers! They came into the country illegally! They say they broke the law just by entering illegally. First case in point, from what I understand, the crime of entering the country illegally the first time is a misdemeanor, like that of J-Walking a street, or running a stop sign hardly something to send someone to prison for. The charge for doing it a second time is a Felony, since ignorance of the law cannot be claimed. Those who were brought into the country at a young age by their parents, have not committed ANY crime, since they cannot be held responsible for their parents’ actions.

It is for these whom I am most confused. Raised in the U.S., in our schools, our churches, our communities, they know no other country, would be absolutely lost in their country of origin, and when they do get deported, they usually wind up working for drug cartels because of their language skills (usually it is because they have no means of support in Mexico).

It would behoove the Untied States to incorporate these young people into our society, giving them the chance to prove themselves and show they can be productive to our country. It would also go a long way to show that we see them as PERSONS, with dignity that is God Given. Every person SHOULD be treated as a child of God, because that’s who we are, children of God, made in His image to love and serve Him and one another.

We are planning a trip to Sahuayo, Michoacán tomorrow to shop for some shoes for Natalie. Sahuayo is where Saint Jose Sanchez del Rio is from. For those who do not recognize that name, he is the 13 year old martyr in the Cristero Wars of Mexico in the 1920’s when the Government of Plutarco Calles tried to destroy the Catholic Church in Mexico. His story and the story of the Cristero Movement can be seen in the movie For Greater Glory, starring Andy Garcia and Eva Longoria. I plan to take my camera to try and capture some of the places where these events took place, the Presidential palace and the Cathedral for sure.

I went to St. James the Apostle Church in Sahuayo, Michoacán.  Inside there are pictures and statues of St. Jose Sanchez del Rio, yet, like all other Catholic Churches, no matter their name, point to Jesus Christ and his mission in salvation history. This is what we are here for, to glorify God by our work, and to point others to Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega of our faith.

Sahuayo is a large city compared to Cotija. It has a number of commercial centers, super markets, car dealerships, movie theater complex, even a Sam’s Club (ok, it’s not Sam’s, but it is their Mexican affiliate company). It also has what most bigger cities have too; traffic, sometimes lots of it. Sahuayo also has a lot of entrepreneurs, many some would call them street vendors, but they are working for themselves, knowing that the livelihood of their families depend on them. Sometimes there are success stories, big success stories like Carlos Slim, owner of TelCel, is one of the riches men in the world….started off like every other entrepreneur, from the bottom and worked his way up. Or Eduardo Verastagui, Mexican Novela Star who came to the U.S. to work in the Industry, didn’t like what he saw in where and how the Industry was portraying Latino males, and decided to start his own production company; he started as a shoe shine boy in Monterrey, Mexico.

The nice thing about spending a vacation in your own house is that there is no itinerary to follow. If you don’t want to get up early in order to catch the bus to have the tour of city/monuments/places where wars were fought/etc….you don’t have to. Besides, you have access to a car and you can drive there yourself when you want to.  We have been here a week now, and have only gone to Sahuayo to do a little shopping. We might take a trip to one of the local lakes in the mountains, but if we don’t, no big deal….we’re are vacation!!

June 24^th: Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist. Here in Cotija, this is a big feast day, with a week full of celebrations culminating with a big fiesta in San Juan del Barrio, just outside of Cotija. It was raining slightly when we left to go, and we decided to drive the Suburban, since Martha isn’t feeling good because of her dental surgery a few days ago. I am glad we decided to take the truck and not the scooter, because by the time we arrived, it was POURING rain! There was no parking anyway for cars, since many arrived earlier in the day, we ended up turning around and going back home. So now, it’s an afternoon of watching movies because we don’t get a T.V. signal and it’s too expensive to get cable service for two weeks only, not to mention that we don’t get internet either, but a neighbor has wifi, and I go down there a couple times a week to check email and such with my own laptop.

Went to the Plaza this evening to watch the people and talk with friends. The Plaza was full of people when a kind of silence fell over the crowd, then all of the sudden everyone starting shouting and running in all different directions. A storm cloud had burst and drenched the Plaza and everyone in it. We were sitting under a large shade tree, so we didn’t initially get wet, but we did have to run across the street to the ice cream shop before the rain started to filter down through the tree.

 

When we arrived home, the thunder and lightening really started their work. It got very intense, and as I fell asleep I could hear Julie Andrews in my head singing My Favorite Things…

What trip to Cotija is complete without a side trip to Tocumbo, Michoacán? Tocumbo is the Ice Cream Capital of the World. If you don’t believe it, just look for their monument of a giant Globe with an Ice Cream on it when you drive into town! Seriously, Tocumbo has some of the best ice cream in Mexico, if not the World. The paletas (ice cream on a stick, that is made with either water or cream), and is made with way more than 31 flavors! All of the ingredients are natural and fresh, sometimes you cannot get certain flavors because they are not in season. The prices are right too, they run a little under a dollar a piece, and worth every centavo!

Ok, a few pages ago I was talking about how Cotija has many people hear who are bilingual. Here is a town that is a good 1500 miles from the U.S. Border, yet has some of their street signs in both English and Spanish. Now I am not saying that this should be the case in the U.S., this is just an isolated case where the city government sees the reality of their lives with the many people from the U.S. who come to visit.

 But since I brought it up, I do recall driving through Mexico City and listening to the NBC radio network that broadcasts from Mexico City for the English speaking workers that call Mexico City home, and there are many of them that do. Being bilingual is not a handicap, it is an advantage.

As I prepare to take our daughter to the airport tomorrow, (she has an anime expo to attend to this weekend and needed to get home before we leave on Sunday), I started to reflect on just how blessed I have been in my life. People might think we are rich, our bank account says otherwise. We have, however, been able to travel to many parts of the world and our two youngest have been on their own adventures with, and without us. I have been to places that I never thought I would have been able to go. I grew up in a middle class/ low to middle income family in the suburbs of Los Angeles, we weren’t poor, but when the other kids were wearing Levi 501’s, I was wearing JCPenney blue jeans. Not that there is anything wrong with JCPenney blue jeans, but it wasn’t the fad of the day. Which brings me to the point of this day’s reflection; whatever I have, whatever I have acquired, whatever I am able to do in this life, is nothing compared to the deeper understanding and wisdom that I have gained in the last few years. God has brought me through many trials and pains, given me unspeakable joy and shown me what my life’s calling is (at least it is what I have discerned that God has called me to this, and it is continually being confirmed). Being open to what God wants to show me, wants me to discover, wants me to share with others, is the greatest experience of my life. I am so proud to have been able to know so many people who have influenced my life, starting with my Mom and Dad, whom without I obviously wouldn’t be blogging!

So I took Natalie to the airport in Guadalajara this morning, a 2 ½ hour drive each way even using the toll roads. Actually today, the way the traffic was running, had I not taken the toll roads it would have been at least 3 hours each way.  The toll roads here in Mexico are really nice, you can cruise easily at 75, though most cars do 85, even though he limit is 70 for the most part. The roads themselves are very well maintained, rivaling many of the interstates we have in the U.S. although not as many lanes, most toll roads are 4 lanes,

2 each direction, but the directions are clear and they save a ton of time when traveling long distances. I took advantage of my trip to the airport and made a reservation at the hotel for Saturday, since our flight leaves at 7:15 a.m., I did not want to be driving on the roads (toll or not) at 2 in the morning, that’s just not safe anywhere you might be. We will also take advantage of our short time in Guadalajara by having dinner at a famous restaurant there called the Santo Coyote, or The Coyote Saint. Martha ate there when was in Mexico earlier this year and says that I must try it. I even recommended it to a friend of mine, Scott French, who mentioned he was coming down to cover a Chivas Soccer match. I usually don’t recommend some place unless I have been there, but in the 25+ years of marriage with my wife, I have learned that her recommendations are much better then mine.  So today, in essence, was spent on the road, driving in a foreign land that is not so foreign to me in fact, the more time I spend with people who are not from the U.S.A., the more I realize that I shouldn’t be making comparisons with them to the U.S. the system by which we make comparisons should be overhauled, we should be looking into the hearts of people, not their economic status. We should be looking into their minds, not their living spaces. The more I see of this world, the more I realize that it would be a better place for all if we truly did live by the Golden Rule: Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.

Catholic Bishop Compares Obama to Hitler & Stalin … or does he? | The Emmaus Road | a Chron.com blog

Catholic Bishop Compares Obama to Hitler & Stalin … or does he? | The Emmaus Road | a Chron.com blog

I re-post this from a fellow Catholic Blogger from Houston, Texas. Keep up the good work Kristan.

A Visit to a Winery

We live very close to the wine country here in Temecula, California. In fact, we have many of the workers from the wineries as customers in our Taco Shop, even a number of the owners come in to eat. On the way home today, I stopped at the Robert Renzoni Winery to shoot some pictures of the emerging vines and the landscape around the vines. There was no "wine tasting", at least not today. There is something very pacific about walking among the vines, something that soothes the soul. It was overcast, and a bit cool, but nonetheless I shot a number of photos of vines, flowers, rows of vines against the surrounding landscape of hills.

I got to thinking about the vines and how they grow, and what there purpose was. Obviously, their purpose is to be crushed, processed and fermented into wine; reds, whites and roses. Then to be enjoyed among friends and family at the dinner table, or between lovers sitting in front of a fireplace during a rainstorm, and some wine is used for a different kind of dinner, a different kind of feast. Some wine is used by local churches in their celebrations, the Catholic Church uses certain types of wine for their Masses.

Wine; fruit of the earth, brought to its current state by human hands,in the Mass, becomes the Blood of Christ for us to drink and thus recall what Jesus told his Apostles that when ever we eat this bread and drink this cup, we remember Jesus and His sacrifice for our sins.