The Catholic Church is the guardian of the deposit of Faith,
she has the fullness of Truth, founded by our Lord Himself.
Due to our fall from grace we live in a low dimensional
material world, and the point and goal of being
Catholic is to open ourselves up to God's rejuvenating graces,
to convert, be born again, start again, to become holy.
It is on a continual basis and it takes faith, and work.
Protestants believe that faith is sufficient, but Catholics knows
that it takes work, and that the work will never be
"finished, done" as long as we live here.
At the core of Catholicism is the spiritual aspect; what is
going on in our own minds and hearts. That is why
spiritual exercises and regular Confession are so important;
everything starts with ourselves; our thoughts, words, actions
and motivations: what is in our hearts.
Just like a human being has two aspects to his nature;
a physical, material, concrete manifestation with his body,
and also a part which is invisible to the human eye; the
spirit that animates the body; our soul,
which belongs to God.
He is at the core of our being, He created us.
Similarly, the Catholic Church by her churches, parishes,
dioceses, the hierarchy of deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals and the pope on top,
makes up the physical, visible, concrete manifestation,
she is IN ( situated in) the world,
but she is not OF the world, because she comes from above.
The real power of the Church is invisible to the naked eye, it
is the spiritual power contained in the authentic doctrine of
the faith, practiced by faith-full Catholics.
This is the Mystical Body of Christ, who's Head is Christ.
"Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the
Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body,
may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever."
Paragraph 666 Catechism of the Catholic Church.
"Christ is the head of the body, the Church. He is the principle of
creation and redemption. Raised to the Father's glory, "in everything
He is preeminent, especially in the Church, through whom he extends
His reign over all things."
Paragraph 2, 792,
https://Vatican.va/content/catechism/en/part_one/section_two/chapter_three/article_9/
To regain access to God we have to submit to Him and
His teaching, pray every day, avail of the Sacraments of
the Church. We need to practice charity, but being charitable
in itself is not sufficient; (pagans and atheists can also be kind).
We need self-awareness and to be striving for perfection on
an ongoing basis.
The dogma of the Church are codified, they are exact and
specific, but as we know there has been a continuous watering
down and slackening of the doctrine the last few decades, so
today the majority of Catholics are not quite sure what the
Church teaches, and what they are supposed to believe or
what is demanded of them. And also there are many false
beliefs, twisted and misunderstood, because they have not been
transmitted clearly.
