Stagnant and Boring?

[the_phoenix]

Oh believe me I have. That’s why I’m still interested in pursuing Catholicism and haven’t just given up all together. I just have unanswered questions that should be answered soon, hopefully, and then I’ll be able to take the plunge. That is, if my nerves don’t get the best of me first.

Nerves about going to confession can happen. One thing that may help is knowing that you can have help going to confession. Sometimes I’ve prayed for saints and my guardian angel to go into the confessional with me and help me make a good confession, when I just didn’t want to go in there alone!

Some who can help:

St. Padre Pio
St. Faustina
St. Teresa of Avila
St. John Vianney, Cure of Ars
St. Michael the Archangel
your patron/favorite saint

~~ the phoenix

 

[amills]

mrs abbott,

I think that it is normal in our lives to sometimes go through deserts and over steep hills. Perhaps that is what you are doing now. That is when we cling to our faith without necessarily having a heart full of joy. That is when the mass and prayers just lead us through because we cannot do it ourselves.

I wish you courage for the desert and strength for the hills.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

Are we stuping to the Protestant Need of being Entertained?

Hi,
When you guys are complaining or talking about the CC’s problems, could you please not bring protestants down in the process. I dont feel there was a good reason for the above comment. I kinda see this statement in the category of putting protestant churches down to make the CC look better. That is not right.

Thank you

 

[jmcrae]

Hi,
When you guys are complaining or talking about the CC’s problems, could you please not bring protestants down in the process. I dont feel there was a good reason for the above comment. I kinda see this statement in the category of putting protestant churches down to make the CC look better. That is not right.

Thank you

You are right. There is actually a lot that certain Catholic parishes could learn, from the seriousness with which many Protestants take their worship. I was at an Anglican church the other day to give a talk, and their service of worship was very reverent and prayerful - certainly not what anyone would consider to be “entertaining.”

 

[Trudy_Whittaker]

Hi,

It often helps to prepare for Mass ahead of time. You can find next Sunday’s readings in a missel or even online, so you can read them and meditate on the beforehand.

It’s like anything else. the more we are involved, the more we benefit. So if we pay attention to the words that we are saying & those that are being said by the priest, we are drawn into worship.

We express our sorrow for our sins. We ask the whole communion of saints to pray for us. Everyone there asks us to pray for them (check out the words of the confiteor). We glorify God, we listen to readings from the Bible. We reaffirm our faith.

We offer up to God not only our inadequate mortal gifts, but we get to participate in Jesus’s own sacrifice!

We pray for the living and for the dead. These prayers are wonderfully comprehensive. We are joining our prayers with the prayers of the whole Church, both in heaven and on earth.

Finally we are invited to participate in the Eucharist - the heavenly banquet.

Then we are challenged to go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

I find that the more I make the prayers of the Mass my own the more absorbed I am, and the more surprised I am at at how quickly the hour has passed.

Then there are the seasonal changes - advent, Christmas, lent ordinary time - that lead us through the drama of our salvation.

Another approach is to become involved in the Mass is through service (ie joining the choir, etc)

I know that remaining focused on the actual prayers of the Mass got me through the post Vatican II liturgical fidget. I hope that this is helpful.

Trudy

 

[BryPGuy89]

Hello! I’m right here! I didn’t insinuate that I needed to be “entertained” at Church. I just said that I was “unhappy” being Catholic.

Oh. I wasn’t saying that you need to be entertained at all. I had finished talking about you and was addressing the issue of many people these days needing entertainment at their church, I don’t know you well enough to say anything about you that you haven’t said yourself.

 

[calchiquita]

Have you read any stories of converts, like in Patrick Madrid’s Surprised by Truth books? It’s kinda like if you’ve been in the USA all your life, sometimes it takes an immigrant’s eyes to see all the blessings we have.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

You are right. There is actually a lot that certain Catholic parishes could learn, from the seriousness with which many Protestants take their worship. I was at an Anglican church the other day to give a talk, and their service of worship was very reverent and prayerful - certainly not what anyone would consider to be “entertaining.”

Hi,

Thank you for responding.

 

[JoeyWarren]

Hi,
When you guys are complaining or talking about the CC’s problems, could you please not bring protestants down in the process. I dont feel there was a good reason for the above comment. I kinda see this statement in the category of putting protestant churches down to make the CC look better. That is not right.

Thank you

AllForHim, I am only speaking from my own experience as a Protestant(and I refer to those that generally produce the anti-catholic automatons which would exclude Lutherans, Methodist, Episcopals, and Anglicans ) and from the experience of those protestants i was associated with during my protestant days.

Being entertained is critical to most of these. If the service loses it’s emotionalism and charisma people leave for something better.

If the Pastor becomes boring during his way too long sermon, people will leave for something better.

People have forgotten the primary and core reason for coming together in His Name.

A Catholic should never feel a Mass is stagnant and boring. And they should never feel the CC is stagnant and boring.

 

[Tonks40]

From my own personal experience, the Church became exciting for me again because I once again became excited about loving God and Our Lord Jesus Christ. I almost defected to a non-denominational church (which I credit for bringing me back to my faith), but I realized what wonderful graces I would be missing out on if I did go elsewhere.

Fall in love with Christ - fall in love with His Church!

 

[Maxply]

People are just used to be entertained in our culture. Read Neil Postman’s books on television, for a good reference here.

My own changes in thinking toward religion came when I was taking long drives on a regular basis, and I realized I couldn’t find anything worth listening to, anything entertaining on the radio. And that just as television was increasingly unsatisfying, radio programming was. . . except for the protestant radio ministers. That was about the only serious stuff on the radio.

But think, too, how many teachers complain that they have a hard time finding students who expect to WORK at their studies; they just want fun lectures, etc.

The important thing about mass is that it’s participatory. The priest is working on behalf of the congregation.

 

[Verita]

Ironically enough, when I first started attending Mass with my husband after we were married, I found Mass to be significantly more entertaining than my non-denom protestant church. Everything about it was fascinating (although at first it was fascinating in a disturbing way). I will always remember the saturday when looking around St. Ambrose Church I (still firmly entrenched in my protestant beliefs) suddenly realized “Hey! This is just like the Old Testament!” That I would say was the beginning of my conversion.

I still find Mass entertaining in a fascinating, enlightening, vivid, constant learning experience sort of way.

 

[ALLFORHIM]

AllForHim, I am only speaking from my own experience as a Protestant(and I refer to those that generally produce the anti-catholic automatons which would exclude Lutherans, Methodist, Episcopals, and Anglicans ) and from the experience of those protestants i was associated with during my protestant days.

Being entertained is critical to most of these. If the service loses it’s emotionalism and charisma people leave for something better.

If the Pastor becomes boring during his way too long sermon, people will leave for something better.

People have forgotten the primary and core reason for coming together in His Name.

A Catholic should never feel a Mass is stagnant and boring. And they should never feel the CC is stagnant and boring.

Yes I will agree with this. My minister actually just gave a seromn on this exact thing. He was talking about church hopping. The service is soley to worship God not please ourselves.

 

[JoeyWarren]

Mrs Abbot, concerning the confession discussed earlier. I reccommend finding a good confession priest outside of your parish ( a Fr. Larry Richards type ) and do a face to face confession. AND LET IT ALL OUT. Hold nothing back. A good confession priest is also a good counselor as well.

I personally do a monthly LET IT ALL OUT confession and utilize a Priest in a different Parish.

 

[inJESUS]

I honestly don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’ve been away from the Church for so long that I’m not sure how to come back and be a “happy” Catholic.
I know that the Catholic Church has things that no other church has. I’m not really wanting to go “join up” with another church. I’m just trying to be somewhat glad or happy to be a Catholic.

i know the solution :bounce: Confession + Eucharist :dancing:

 

[Cardinalsong]

Are we stuping to the Protestant Need of being Entertained?

The good news here is that my 14 year old daughter wants to convert to the Catholic Church (as well as I–but that’s another story).

We attend a non-denominational “mega-church”. They have been great & actually was the step needed to take towards coming home to the Church

Anyway, as nice as the church we attend is, she doesn’t understand why they need to play rock music, serve coffee, etc. It looks like a big convention center or concert hall. Not even a steeple with a cross & nothing within the sanctuary that would make you think it was a church

She would like a place more reverent as well as sacred. “Nothing is sacred anymore” she says. I agree with her

 

[bella5110]

Umm, can someone explain to me what a cradle Catholic is?? I’ve heard of a “cafeteria” Catholic, one who picks and chooses what one wants to do. Is this the same thing?

 

[kellie]

Umm, can someone explain to me what a cradle Catholic is?? I’ve heard of a “cafeteria” Catholic, one who picks and chooses what one wants to do. Is this the same thing?

Baptised Catholic at birth and bought up Catholic

 

[bella5110]

Baptised Catholic at birth and bought up Catholic

Ya, I was Baptised and brought up Catholic, but I call myself “Devout”. Cradle Catholic is something missing?

 

[Al_Masetti]

There are a lot of “dynamics” going on during Mass.

For example, if the church building is large, then the priest has to learn to make his various movements slowly and to speak slowly. Otherwise, if he moves normally, for example, then his appearance will seem “jerky”. [One of my priest-friends got transferred to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC; his description of how he had to change his “style” of saying Mass was very enlightening.] However, if the priest moves slowly and speaks slowly, then the Mass will seem to stretch out. Some parish churches are quite large. Ours, for example, seats more than 1000 people.

If someone wants to go to and experience a Mass that is very moving, then I would suggest an ordinary week-day Mass at a smallish church or at a chapel. Sometimes even large churches have chapels attached where 50 people can be comfortably seated. Under those circumstances the entire congregation is very close to the altar and can see and experience at close hand what is being done and said.

The homily is usually short, but very direct and it seems that the priest is talking directly to each member of the congregation.

So, try a daily Mass and note your emotional response to it compared with your emotional response to the Sunday Mass in a large church building.

There is absolutely no difference in the degree of grace or of the Sacrament … large church versus small chapel. But sometimes there is a different “feeling”.