Would your friend like to accompany you to Mass on Sunday or maybe to the next Lenten Mission or talks held at your Parish?
This is a regular, weekly service. That is unwise.
that really isn’t the point though.
And with good reason.
No.
My advice is to politely decline. Or to suggest that you will go to a Wednesday night service once, and then she can come to Mass with you on a Sunday so you can better understand each other’s religious practice.
No.
Oh no, she’s not, trust me. She’s actually very supportive of my Catholic faith, and she knows that I’m a hardcore Catholic 100% committed to my own Church. She’s not one of those evangelizing Protestant types. She’s honestly just asking me out of good intentions. She says that this service has been amazing for her and she wants to share it with everyone else that she knows. Her intentions are good, but I understand what you’re saying. I won’t go, and am glad that my first instincts were correct.
Please see my response - I think this is a chance for you to do some evangelization…
She’s already been to Mass once with one of her other Catholic friends and she said that she didn’t like it because it was too traditional and old-fashioned. She’s used to the over-the-top, flashy Protestant services that make Mass seem super strict and boring. I obviously don’t feel that way about Mass myself as I’ve learned more about my faith and have come to understand the significance and beauty and perfection of it all. Should I tell her all this? How do I go about that?
Well, you could just say that Mass is amazing to you and you want to share it with everyone you know.
I would highly recommend this particular point. Obviously an Episcopal/Anglican mass is not identical to a Catholic mass, but due to the common source they’re similar in liturgical form and can be mistake for each other by outsiders.
If it’s that popular, flashy and non-traditional as they say… well, you can probably watch it on tv from home… the really flashy popular ones buy network time
If she was 100 percent supportive of your Catholic faith the why in the world would she ask you to go!?
The same reason why we would ask individuals to go to mass, to the movie theater because it is fun.
People invite people to their churches because they fell the invitee is “missing” something.
I would not. Not that we cannot go to protestant services as long as it does not interfere with Sunday Mass obligation but why would a Catholic want to? Protestant theology and interpretation of scripture has a lot of differences compared to ours. You will get some truth mixed in with a lot of false in a protestant service regardless if they have happier music or the pastor is a good speaker or whatever.
Honestly, my best friend is not like that at all. She just brought it up casually and was just telling me about it because we got on the topic of church. It was just something she threw out there, I doubt that she’ll seriously continue bringing it up. It was probably just a one-time thing and she’ll most likely forget about it. I was just asking this question for not the only this matter, but for just all Protestant invitations in general, as I’ve been invited a few times recently for Protestant events by family friends or friends. This just gives me a general idea of how to approach this issue at all times. I honestly don’t want to go to anything non-Catholic. I just needed to confirm my thinking. Thank you all for your advice! It’s been very helpful.
While I’m somewhat surprised at the discouragement in attending for lack of “propriety,” the decision is completely up to you.
Also, don’t limit your lack of going for their worship not being catholic, rather, go with the open heart in the likelihood they too are striving to follow God themselves, even they don’t understand what we know to be true.