[betty boop]

Actually, I find a lot of evidence in the New Testament and certainly from my experience that more than suggests God has a strong hostility to efforts to reduce TOUCHING HIM, TOUCHING HIS HEART, FACILITATING HIS PRESENCE. . . . BY . . . RITUAL.

Well, if you define"ritual" thataway, then of course it would be a horrific thing.

Problem is, I do not believe that's how the Roman Catholic Church understands "ritual." The Church and you seem to be operating under two entirely different definitions of what the word "ritual" denotes and means.

Maybe we should try to clarify our definitions before we press on?

Anyhoot, I strongly sympathize with the statement

RE: Today’s Catholic Mass in the stock-in-trade neighborhood parish is banal, drained of its richness, sacred music, and rituals. . . . Tens of thousands (myself included) now find it hard to attend Mass and experience the Divine.

Indeed. One is put in the extraordinary position of being in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, but of not being in communion with the American Catholic Church. Most distressing....

I truly appreciate your eloquent witness, dear brother in Christ! But I still think we need to work on the idea of "ritual" a bit more before we pass judgment on co-religionists (no matter how seemingly remote they are to us).

In Christ's Love and Peace!

[Quix]

Thanks for your kind reply.

Made it back to pottery today and am exhausted so to bed shortly.

I will offer this definition of ritual:

—a set, prescribed, sequence of ceremonial actions—usually repeated more or less endlessly over time in a certain context, situation, set of conditions.

Religious rituals are probably the most common such.

Obsessive Compulsive Rituals would also more or less fit the definition.

Will try to get to your kind posts tomorrow.