[MeganC]

I am not a Catholic but one of the more moving and beautiful experiences I ever had was hearing a Latin service for a Christmas Eve one year. I love the small church experience I have on Sundays but there is an undeniable spiritual awesomeness in hearing the priest singing, the choir singing, and hearing the organ echoing in a beautiful stone cathedral.

To take that away from the Catholics who connect to God through it is to me a kind of violation.

[Tell It Right]

I visited a regular Catholic mass decades ago. I thought the priest was on fire both in energy and in Biblical accuracy and also in assessing what people needed to hear at the time (including stepping on my toes). But the regulars attending the mass were bored out of their minds saying the ritual things even before the priest started his sermon.

Then the very next Sunday I visited an Assembly of God church (a Protestant church that's a wee bit Pentecostal). To me the preacher seemed a bit theatrical in his emotions and crying. But before, during, and after the service the regular attendees seemed to be the kind of Christ-loving and people-loving and righteous living people everybody ought to hang around. Just being around them made Christ and church attendance a way of life worth enjoying and doing to the fullest.

I joked with the lady I attended both churches with that an awesome church would be one with the Catholic priest and the Pentecostal congregation. LOL

[blackpacific]

Another beautiful experience for me was to hear the bells being rung continuously during the Gloria at a TLM Easter Sunday midnight mass. It was AWESOME!!