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DominvsVobiscvm
Guest
In light of all the discussions about this, I thought I’d share my story with you guys, and we’d draw whatever discussions from it as they come up.
My religious history is somewhat complex, so I’ll give the really, really short version. I was baptized Catholic (i.e. as an infant), but wasn’t raised in any religion. My parents were themselves raised Catholic (after all, they’re Sicilian) but, as might be expected, they abdicated their Catholicism shortly after graduating from a Jesuit university (Loyola, in Chicago). My father can be now be called an agnostic, and my mother some kind of liberal Protestant.
I went to Catholic school for two years (6th and 7th grade), during which time I was Communicated and Confirmed. This was my first real introduction to religion, and I reveled in it. Like most young Catholic boys, I thought I might even be called to priesthood. Such aspirations were quickly dispelled by my father who, not wanting to see his first-born and oldest son “waste his life,” made known his disapproval and told me I couldn’t be a priest if I liked girls.
My 8th grade year, we moved from Hialeah to Fort Lauderdale, and I was once again enrolled in public schools. Here, I rebelled against all forms of “organized religion” and embraced a philosophy akin to my mother’s liberal Protestantism (i.e. Modernism). My freshman year of high school, however, I made many friends and acquaintances who were very devout Christians. Moreover, they were Protestants, for the most part Pentecostals.
My arguments/discussions with these friends/acquaintances soon led me to question the Modernism I had taken so much for granted, and led me to research the world’s religions, even considering the existence of a real, objective “Truth.”
My sophomore year of high school, I reverted to the Catholic Church, convinced that hers was the one true Faith (much to the chagrin of my friends had hoped to convert me to conservative Protestantism!). Also my sophomore year, a new Catholic parish was founded near my house, one that was unbashedly charismatic. I approached this cautiously, fearing it was really a “Pentecostalism” in disguise. I eventually found their enthusiastic style more to my liking, and even went through the “Life in the Spirit” seminars, and received the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.”
Soon after the “Baptism,” however, I began to question the theology surrounding this movement. It seemed in many ways to resemble the Modernism I had abdicated (i.e. an overexagerrated emphasis on emotions and feelings). I visited an Orthodox Church, and was moved by the sense of sacredness and, well, Liturgy, and saw that my charismatic Mass simply paled in comparison. It resembles more a Cub-Scout jamboree than Sacred Liturgy. I began to research the liturgical tradition of the Church, and discover what liturgical abuses are. I saw that at my charismatic parish, we were ripe with abuses, as has been every charismatic parish I have ever attended!
I was torn. On the one hand, the faithful of my charismatic parish seemed loyal to the Holy Father and Church teaching. On the other hand, there was no sense of sacredness in the Mass. The pastor insisted that we “warm-up” with loud rock-n-roll music before every Mass. There was never any silence. Music was played during the Eucharistic prayer. We had Euchairstic Ministers up the yin-yang, mostly women. The pastor would spend homily after homily, not preaching on the readings, but preaching about why we shouldn’t attend Mass late, and why we all needed to join “cell-groups” or receive the special “Baptism.”
Continued Next Post
My religious history is somewhat complex, so I’ll give the really, really short version. I was baptized Catholic (i.e. as an infant), but wasn’t raised in any religion. My parents were themselves raised Catholic (after all, they’re Sicilian) but, as might be expected, they abdicated their Catholicism shortly after graduating from a Jesuit university (Loyola, in Chicago). My father can be now be called an agnostic, and my mother some kind of liberal Protestant.
I went to Catholic school for two years (6th and 7th grade), during which time I was Communicated and Confirmed. This was my first real introduction to religion, and I reveled in it. Like most young Catholic boys, I thought I might even be called to priesthood. Such aspirations were quickly dispelled by my father who, not wanting to see his first-born and oldest son “waste his life,” made known his disapproval and told me I couldn’t be a priest if I liked girls.
My 8th grade year, we moved from Hialeah to Fort Lauderdale, and I was once again enrolled in public schools. Here, I rebelled against all forms of “organized religion” and embraced a philosophy akin to my mother’s liberal Protestantism (i.e. Modernism). My freshman year of high school, however, I made many friends and acquaintances who were very devout Christians. Moreover, they were Protestants, for the most part Pentecostals.
My arguments/discussions with these friends/acquaintances soon led me to question the Modernism I had taken so much for granted, and led me to research the world’s religions, even considering the existence of a real, objective “Truth.”
My sophomore year of high school, I reverted to the Catholic Church, convinced that hers was the one true Faith (much to the chagrin of my friends had hoped to convert me to conservative Protestantism!). Also my sophomore year, a new Catholic parish was founded near my house, one that was unbashedly charismatic. I approached this cautiously, fearing it was really a “Pentecostalism” in disguise. I eventually found their enthusiastic style more to my liking, and even went through the “Life in the Spirit” seminars, and received the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.”
Soon after the “Baptism,” however, I began to question the theology surrounding this movement. It seemed in many ways to resemble the Modernism I had abdicated (i.e. an overexagerrated emphasis on emotions and feelings). I visited an Orthodox Church, and was moved by the sense of sacredness and, well, Liturgy, and saw that my charismatic Mass simply paled in comparison. It resembles more a Cub-Scout jamboree than Sacred Liturgy. I began to research the liturgical tradition of the Church, and discover what liturgical abuses are. I saw that at my charismatic parish, we were ripe with abuses, as has been every charismatic parish I have ever attended!
I was torn. On the one hand, the faithful of my charismatic parish seemed loyal to the Holy Father and Church teaching. On the other hand, there was no sense of sacredness in the Mass. The pastor insisted that we “warm-up” with loud rock-n-roll music before every Mass. There was never any silence. Music was played during the Eucharistic prayer. We had Euchairstic Ministers up the yin-yang, mostly women. The pastor would spend homily after homily, not preaching on the readings, but preaching about why we shouldn’t attend Mass late, and why we all needed to join “cell-groups” or receive the special “Baptism.”
Continued Next Post
