Why do we go to church on Sunday? Is it to socialize with other parishioners? Is it to be entertained? Is it to commiserate about the priest assigned to the parish or the bishop who shepherds the diocese?
We go to church on Sunday to WORSHIP GOD!
Having grown up with the Latin Mass, survived the change to the Novus Ordo and visited several Eastern Catholic Churches, each week I remind myself of my purpose for attending mass on Sunday ... to worship God. Perhaps the NO liturgy is not to my liking or the priest / bishop is a progressivist, our purpose remains the same. Moreover, it is in the Catholic Church that we truly encounter God through the Eucharist. As bad as some of the liturgies I have attended over the decades, my focus has remained on Jesus Christ who comes to me each week in the Eucharist. Those who abandon the Catholic Church for an Evangelical one, abandon the living Christ. They may hear His words but they cannot receive Him, body, soul and divinity.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
I truly feel sorry for Catholics.
Those who abandon the Catholic Church for an Evangelical one, abandon the living Christ. They may hear His words but they cannot receive Him, body, soul and divinity.
God in the scriptures does not teach that one will be indwelt with the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and God when one partakes of your Eucharist...God does however teach that the born again Christian will be indwelt with the Spirit of God 24/7 when he/she trusts Jesus to be his/her Savior...
Those who leave your religion for other denominations and ultimately become Christians not only do NOT abandon Jesus but they find Him, they come HOME to Him where he is in them 24/7...
I guess Catholics who are not able to receive the Eucharist due to their living arrangements might as well convert anyway.
If you Denomination teaches that you can only encounter Jesus Christ through a man made item I offer you numerous Scripture to save your soul.
1 Corinthians 3:16New International Version (NIV)
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
1 Corinthians 6:19New International Version (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
2 Corinthians 6:16New International Version (NIV)
16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
“I will live with them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”
2 Timothy 1:14New International Version (NIV)
14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Ephesians 5:18New International Version (NIV)
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
Romans 8:11New International Version (NIV)
11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
John 16:13New International Version (NIV)
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Romans 8:9New International Version (NIV)
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
Galatians 4:6New International Version (NIV)
6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
And yes we go to Church to socialize also or as the Bible says to encourage one another in our walk of Faith.
Hebrews 10:25New International Version (NIV)
25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.