Catholic ping!
Our Marine son recently was honored to present the flag to the family of a vet of Iwo Jima, Peleliu, Korea and Viet Nam. He’s done a lot of funeral details, but that was his first presentation.
Take that away and we are an impoverished people....
...take that away, and we have the Novus Ordo liturgy...
I do not need pomp in a church. Some of the best services I have attended had men dressed in short sleeves and dressier pants. In fact, as I look over the churches I went to as a kid and even now, the ministers did not have a suit on. I now wonder if they even had one. That did not take anything away from the service. If they teach the Bible , I do not think God cares. Some put on airs, but do not act like Christians the rest of the week. As a child, I even attended a few brush arbor services and no one dressed up. God sees what is in your heart and not the clothes.
Bah!
People not only love ritual and ceremony. They need it.
No, they don't.
Some part of us communicates deeply through the language, gestures and ritual of liturgy.
Rather, it distracts from worship... Or at least it certainly does distract me. I find it abhorrent.
There is a secret place in the human heart that longs to worship, and beauty is the language of worship.
Right... Here's a cathedral:
Go there for a week long fast and all these rites and trinkets, pomp and circumstance lose all meaning whatsoever. Entirely.
Take that away and we are an impoverished people....
Quite the opposite is true - Taking them away will only let you know just how impoverished you have been.
Wonderful, thoughtful essay. Thanks for the ping.