The Catholic Church has daily Masses. What this means, in secular terms, is that there are more opportunities to socialize with the parishioners after the Mass and make friends, which may be useful for a job interview. Your new social circle may broaden your professional social networking.
The Catholic Church is the major denomination in Christianity. Because so many people are Catholic (perhaps your classmates or teachers or co-workers or boss) or just raised Catholic, you know it is not a brainwashing cult.
The Catholic Church has bazillions of saints. Each saint has a remarkable story to tell and teach what it means to be human.
If you are not a morning person but you force yourself to sleep early and rise early just so you can be awake and on time for the earliest Mass of the day, attending the Mass may be a good way to give you something to do while you exercise self-discipline.
Attending the Mass may give you the incentive to “read” the Bible by hearing the words spoken from the lectionary and listening to the homily. Then, in your mind, take out all the superficial God part and get to the deeper, humanistic meaning, because that’s the only way you can make sense of what you’ve just heard.
The Catholic Church has the liturgical year. Throughout the liturgical year, there are Christmas, Easter, and Ordinary Time. You may have heard childhood stories from non-observant Catholics, and they sound more “fun” than your nonreligious atheist life. You don’t understand how some people abandon their childhood faith, so attending the Mass may be a good opportunity for you to experience what Catholicism is about year-round firsthand.
The Catholic Church is in your neighborhood. You can just bike or walk your way to the church building.
There is something uniquely collectivist about the Mass. What you do is not just what you do, about what the community does as a whole. You almost get the impression that you are not at the center of the world and that you are not alone. Everyone else in the room is repeating the same thing, and as a result, you feel that the heavy burden of sin has been spread out equally among the congregants of the room, not just on your own shoulders.
I don’t think your secular reasons alone would keep you going to mass for very long. Maybe a week or two for some people, maybe a month or two for others. But you would need to find something entirely different in the mass to keep you going back indefinitely.
I don’t think your secular reasons alone would keep you going to mass for very long. Maybe a week or two for some people, maybe a month or two for others. But you would need to find something entirely different in the mass to keep you going back indefinitely.
I mean, I returned to mass because, of all reasons, a dream I had. I went to mass and found “something entirely different” and kept going to mass, for the past nine years this month in fact. It was months before I found faith, but that something different that I couldn’t explain kept me coming back until I found faith.
The mass is a powerful source of grace. And I think that’s at least part of the OP’s point.
I don’t think your secular reasons alone would keep you going to mass for very long. Maybe a week or two for some people, maybe a month or two for others. But you would need to find something entirely different in the mass to keep you going back indefinitely.
Speaking personally, it is being in the presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ, as a community. This is one of the most peaceful and comforting aspects of the Mass.
I don’t think your secular reasons alone would keep you going to mass for very long. Maybe a week or two for some people, maybe a month or two for others. But you would need to find something entirely different in the mass to keep you going back indefinitely.
I have been attending the Mass for about two weeks now. The daily Mass and the Sunday Masses, plus the rosary. Sometimes, I’d tour around the stations of the cross and picture all the movie scenes featuring the passion narrative of the New Testament. Then, by the autumn season, I may only have time to attend the Mass on Sunday. I hope the weather would not be too violent or the ground too icy or snowy during Advent and Christmas and Lent and Easter, because that’s one reason I am attending the Masses regularly.
DISCLAIMER: Catholic Answers has turned over the archive to Catholic-Questions.org and no longer owns, manages, or moderates the forums. For additional apologetics resources please visit www.catholic.com.
