J
JustaServant
Guest
Some Christians (like me) have gone from Catholic to Evangelical, and then when age and wisdom catch up with us, back to Catholic. But some Christians, are born in the Christian wilderness. They have never been in a liturgical, let alone a Catholic church. And when they walk into one, well, let’s face it, it can be kind of scary.
They see statues, stained glass windows. They smell incense. They see an altar, kneelers, people genuflecting, crossing themselves, holy water, crucifixes. Instead of a preacher, they see a priest in a robe.
People aren’t standing around talking, they’re in silent prayer. They are required to respond in prayer, creeds. Just not sitting in a pew staring. Let’s face it, for the person born in the Little Church on the Evangelical Prairie, it’s like stepping off a spaceship onto another planet.
A ‘good ole boy’ who puts on his ‘go to meetin’’ clothes on Sunday to ‘hear the preacher’ is coming from a totally different mindset and church culture. Even if the church is not hostile to the RCC, for him, it’s a different world. Generations of conditioning have produced this. His father was ________, his father was a ________.On the other side of the coin, the first time I walked into an evangelical church, what struck me was nothing was required of me (which perhaps fed into my lazy nature). No order of service, just listening to a preacher…and well, that’s pretty much it. I think both need to understand there are generations of Christians who have never experienced the other. This is not helped by fundamentalists on both sides anesthetizing the other. So to many Christians in the RCC, Protestant, and evangelical, nothing is known and communication does not exist.
It’s like a science fiction story of two planets who have been at war for so long they no longer remember the reason why or even know what the “enemy” looks like.
I think the reason many evangelicals are turning to the Catholic and Episcopal churches are more complicated than many evangelicals imagine. I believe it is found in one area:A longing for the Eucharist.
Wherever you meet the early church, there is one characteristic. Whether it be in the arena just before they are fed to the wild lions. In that anteroom they were doing something. If you went to their secret meetings in the cemeteries where they met for fear of the authorities on a Sunday morning, they will be doing the same thing that they were doing in the anteroom. Wherever you find these Christians, that’s the one thing they did.
Eating of the Body and Blood of Christ.
They see statues, stained glass windows. They smell incense. They see an altar, kneelers, people genuflecting, crossing themselves, holy water, crucifixes. Instead of a preacher, they see a priest in a robe.
People aren’t standing around talking, they’re in silent prayer. They are required to respond in prayer, creeds. Just not sitting in a pew staring. Let’s face it, for the person born in the Little Church on the Evangelical Prairie, it’s like stepping off a spaceship onto another planet.
A ‘good ole boy’ who puts on his ‘go to meetin’’ clothes on Sunday to ‘hear the preacher’ is coming from a totally different mindset and church culture. Even if the church is not hostile to the RCC, for him, it’s a different world. Generations of conditioning have produced this. His father was ________, his father was a ________.On the other side of the coin, the first time I walked into an evangelical church, what struck me was nothing was required of me (which perhaps fed into my lazy nature). No order of service, just listening to a preacher…and well, that’s pretty much it. I think both need to understand there are generations of Christians who have never experienced the other. This is not helped by fundamentalists on both sides anesthetizing the other. So to many Christians in the RCC, Protestant, and evangelical, nothing is known and communication does not exist.
It’s like a science fiction story of two planets who have been at war for so long they no longer remember the reason why or even know what the “enemy” looks like.
I think the reason many evangelicals are turning to the Catholic and Episcopal churches are more complicated than many evangelicals imagine. I believe it is found in one area:A longing for the Eucharist.
Wherever you meet the early church, there is one characteristic. Whether it be in the arena just before they are fed to the wild lions. In that anteroom they were doing something. If you went to their secret meetings in the cemeteries where they met for fear of the authorities on a Sunday morning, they will be doing the same thing that they were doing in the anteroom. Wherever you find these Christians, that’s the one thing they did.
Eating of the Body and Blood of Christ.
