Is the Church a place of refuge for you?

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Psalm89

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It seems the only sane people I know anymore are the Christians. I am Lutheran myself, and more and more I appreciate my physical local Church and the Invisible Church. People outside of the Lord JesusÕ Church are insane, spiritually insane and I can see it more and more everyday. Abortion, euthanasia, terrorism, broken homes, corrupt politicians, cults, secularism it all seems overwhelming at times. Sometimes after a long day at work and traffic I go home and spend time with my Dalmatian and pray thanking God for Christian fellowship whether it is on Sunday or on the Internet like right now.

More and more I see the need for the Church in this world, if only some of my non-Christian friends could know the joy of being reconciled with God and freely approaching his throne in humble prayer! :gopray2:

The secular world likes to paint believers as irrational crackpots who worship the invisible sky wizard to deal with their fear of death and want to form political parties to enforce morality. How wrong they are! The older I get the more I see that sanity is within the Church and within God. Like Augustine said, ÒOur hearts are restless until the rest in thee, oh Lord.Ó

We fiercely debate on this board about theology, but we Christians are all part of one body.

Any other members on this board feel the same way about the Church being their refuge?
Psalm89
 
I agree. The only way to stay sane is to associate with folks that have the same high moral values as you do. We have a great opportunity to do this in the Third/Secular religious orders of the Catholic Church. A lay person, married or single in good standing with the church can meet with others, and discuss their faith journeys. Sometimes one’s own family does not care about your faith journey. Further, these groups all have a particular charism dating back hundreds of years. I am partial to the Franciscans. The Carmelites have a current thread on this site.

May God bless you and your family,
Deacon Tony SFO
 
I too enjoy the church as a “place of refuge” I am a maternity tech by trade and am constantly “in demand” by patients, doctors, coworkers etc. Not to mention my kids and grandkids, my boyfriend, my family and life in general. So often times I spend time in church, because as I once said, “it’s the only place no one wants anything from me except to sit there and bask in the goodness and quiet”
 
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Psalm89:
It seems the only sane people I know anymore are the Christians. I am Lutheran myself, and more and more I appreciate my physical local Church and the Invisible Church. People outside of the Lord JesusÕ Church are insane, spiritually insane and I can see it more and more everyday. Abortion, euthanasia, terrorism, broken homes, corrupt politicians, cults, secularism it all seems overwhelming at times. Sometimes after a long day at work and traffic I go home and spend time with my Dalmatian and pray thanking God for Christian fellowship whether it is on Sunday or on the Internet like right now.

More and more I see the need for the Church in this world, if only some of my non-Christian friends could know the joy of being reconciled with God and freely approaching his throne in humble prayer! :gopray2:

The secular world likes to paint believers as irrational crackpots who worship the invisible sky wizard to deal with their fear of death and want to form political parties to enforce morality. How wrong they are! The older I get the more I see that sanity is within the Church and within God. Like Augustine said, ÒOur hearts are restless until the rest in thee, oh Lord.Ó

We fiercely debate on this board about theology, but we Christians are all part of one body.

Any other members on this board feel the same way about the Church being their refuge?
Psalm89
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Dear friend

God is my refuge and therefore so is the Catholic church. Nothing in life makes sense if there is no God, there is no purpose to life, no reason to continue to breathe. I cannot imagine not having faith. To not have faith would be sheer madness to me and therefore without faith all else is of no importance and is sheer madness.

In the actual building of the church I find refuge, but wherever I am I find refuge because God is constantly with me. I see God in all of His creation and in all people. I can spend a long time looking at a flower/animal/people/ sky/stars/river/ocean etc and find refuge in Him, in the beauty of Him who created the beauty of all creation.

The world is refuge in Him…God is my refuge which makes this world so very beautiful. The madness and non-peace exists outside of union with Him.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
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Katie1723:
I too enjoy the church as a “place of refuge” I am a maternity tech by trade and am constantly “in demand” by patients, doctors, coworkers etc. Not to mention my kids and grandkids, my boyfriend, my family and life in general. So often times I spend time in church, because as I once said, “it’s the only place no one wants anything from me except to sit there and bask in the goodness and quiet”
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Dear friend

I know the feeling that you are talking about here, the feeling of being demanded of by others, but I came to the conclusion it is a great blessing God has given us to be needed and demanded of by others, it is a blessing wherein we can bring Christ to others by the way we live our lives and deal with others.

That peace we are blessed with before the Blessed Sacrament is useless if that peace is not then emitted from yourself to others, that peace and love is meant to flow through us to others. To be taken with us into every part of our lives. Not an easy thing to do, but a very worthwhile thing to strive to achieve.

This world is meant to be our sustinance and refuge in Him and those of faith are to be the light of the world in Him that bring peace and sanity to the lives of all we meet.

Christ Jesus is our HOPE for ALL of the world and despite all of the surrounding madness we must never lose hope in Him for the greater purpose of salvation for all of the world.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
I took your headline to mean the building itself, don’t know it that is your intent. It occured to me, during one of several Masses I attended today, observing our sacristan, an elderly lady of quiet piety and holiness, who already had served for daily Mass and 2 funerals preparing for the vigil Mass, that she is blessed to spend so much time in church. I spoke to her to thank her for having everything so lovely for the funeral, saying “You must have had a busy day,” and she just said, “Yes, but wait until Ash Wednesday” (3 Masses, 4 services, plus the the Youth service planned.

It occured to me that if my job gets any more “churchy” than it already is (sometimes I am at 4-5 weekend Masses, with 1st communions coming up, and RCIA rites of Lent it will by like that til end of May), I will be practically living there, like the sacristan.

There are sure worse job conditions to contend with than spending a lot of time in church.

I prefer adoration in Church, because our chapel is small, feels crowded if more than a couple of people are there, very badly ventilated and gives me claustrophobia. also chapel is next to office, and no matter how many times I ask them not to, secretaries come find me if there is a call or visitor. In church they can’t find me (they would never think of walking across the street and I turn my cell off)
 
More and more I’m finding the Church…both the physical building and the spiritual “body of Christ” to be a refuge. I have co-workers who are Christian…and we do find an identity with each other, although we are of different faiths.

I’m so sick of the secular liberals all around me. I have to take recorded statements at work, and you have no idea how many people are so unapologetic about their…uh…living in sin. They don’t even have any idea that they are so seperated from God. When I ask someone if they stayed over with their girlfriend/boyfriend, or ask the question of a gay person about whether he is married/single/divorced (legal reasons we have to ask), I am embarasesed FOR them!

There is refuge in people who have NOT gone insane, for whom family is important, is the foundation, and for whom God makes the rules for life…not some liberal politician who “believes” in God when it gets him votes but actually lives according and preaches according to hedonism.

I once connected with someone with whom I had no connection at all…because we are both Christian. We Christians may not always agree…but at least we can stand together when it counts.
 
I too find the church a place of refuge. I try to go to Mass every day and am attempting to expand my prayer life.

One thing I miss since I moved (from Philadelphia to Scranton) is Perpetual Adoration chapels that were prevelant where I lived. Even though I did not schedule for a regular time since my Parish did not have one, I regularly went to one of the half dozen chapels within a half hour where I lived. I found them to be a calming experience in this hectic world. Since the new Bishop of Scranton is from Philadelphia, hopefully he will promote them here too.

PF
 
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WanderAimlessly:
One thing I miss since I moved (from Philadelphia to Scranton) is Perpetual Adoration chapels that were prevelant where I lived. Even though I did not schedule for a regular time since my Parish did not have one, I regularly went to one of the half dozen chapels within a half hour where I lived. I found them to be a calming experience in this hectic world. Since the new Bishop of Scranton is from Philadelphia, hopefully he will promote them here too.

PF
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I completely agree with the sentiments expressed by everyone here…today I was at the shopping mall & overheard this group of older ladies expressing their hatred for George Bush & one of them called him a “holy rollin’ Jesus freak” then she proceeded to say we have all elected an idiot…

It just sent shivers up my spine to hear how anyone would use our precious Lord’s name in such a uncharitable way…there was a day not so long ago that I was as lost as these ladies were & I thank God every day for knocking some sense into me!!! By no means am I any better than these ladies but I just felt such pity for their cluelessness.

Eucharistic adoration chapels are such a blessing to us on this Earth, I pray that every parish will be Blessed with one in the years to come…here’s a picture of the inside of our Eucharitic adoration chapel down the street. It is open 24 hours a day:

sthyacinthchurch.org/images/ChapelInterior38-adj-sm.jpg

May the peace of Christ remain with us always,
M:gopray:
 
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WanderAimlessly:
One thing I miss since I moved (from Philadelphia to Scranton) is Perpetual Adoration chapels that were prevelant where I lived. Even though I did not schedule for a regular time since my Parish did not have one, I regularly went to one of the half dozen chapels within a half hour where I lived. I found them to be a calming experience in this hectic world. Since the new Bishop of Scranton is from Philadelphia, hopefully he will promote them here too.

PF
Click to expand...
I completely agree with the sentiments expressed by everyone here…today I was at the shopping mall & overheard this group of older ladies expressing their hatred for George Bush & one of them called him a “holy rollin’ Jesus freak” then she proceeded to say we have all elected an idiot…

It just sent shivers up my spine to hear how anyone would use our precious Lord’s name in such a uncharitable way…there was a day not so long ago that I was as lost as these ladies were & I thank God every day for knocking some sense into me!!! By no means am I any better than these ladies but I just felt such pity for their cluelessness.

Eucharistic adoration chapels are such a blessing to us on this earth, I pray that every parish will be Blessed with one in the years to come…here’s a picture of the inside of our Eucharitic adoration chapel down the street:

sthyacinthchurch.org/images/ChapelInterior38-adj-sm.jpg

May the peace of Christ remain with us always,
M:gopray:
 
Psalm89,

Great observations. Yes, the Church and the Faith are great places of refuge. I am sometimes able to arrange to go to a local parish during my lunch to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. It is a wonderful thing to be able to spend time in the presence of Jesus! It helps me to regain my perspective to deal with the craziness in the world.
 
Great post Psalm 89!

I do feel like the Catholic Church is my spiritual home. Also, I go to visit my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Several times I have heard people say that to develop a relationship with someone you need to spend time with them. That’s what I feel like I am doing with the Lord when I go to Mass and holy hours of adoration before the blessed sacrament.

Those practices along with prayer give me strength to get through the day (ok, night with my night owl work schedule). Though I still face challenges I have a lot more hope about life overall. I have no doubts that the Catholic Church is leading me on a true spiritual path.
 
Psalm89 said:
[snip]Any other members on this board feel the same way about the Church being their refuge?
Psalm89
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The atmosphere in my church is so secular I can hardly wait to get out. But the Faith as a home and refuge - YES! Most assuredly. It provides one’s life with a center, a firm foundation which, as you point out, others just don’t have.
 
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