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ROFL!!!

If this is what you believe, then we Catholics truly have our work cut out for us :-)

Just returned home from Mass .... where .... oh, wait, what does this guy say?

What is the Mass? It is an artificial sacrifice. It is a mock sacrifice. It is the priest recrucifying Jesus in the emblems of the Eucharist and the Cup. Where in the Bible are we to think that observing the Lord's Communion or Passover memorial we are recrucifying Jesus on the Cross? It is not there! When a Catholic looks in the Bible for a priest to hold in his hands the Eucharist wafer and turn it into the flesh of Jesus, he/she will not find it. When they look in the Bible for a place where a priest blesses the cup and turns it into the blood of Jesus he/she cannot find it. This is shocking!

He's right! You won't find the Mass in the Bible because the Bible is in the Mass! I guess the author hasn't figured this out yet. Allow me to quote another Protestant - Dr. Scott Hahn.

"There I stood, a man incognito, a Protestant minister in plainclothes, slipping into the back of a Catholic chapel in Milwaukee to witness my first Mass. Curiosity had driven me there, and I still didn't feel sure that it was healthy curiosity. Studying the writings of the earliest Christians, I'd found countless references to "the liturgy," "the Eucharist," "the sacrifice." For those first Christians, the Bible - the book I loved above all - was incomprehensible apart from the event that today's Catholics called "the Mass."
"I wanted to understand the early Christians; yet I'd had no experience of liturgy. So I persuaded myself to go and see, as a sort of academic exercise, but vowing all along that I would neither kneel nor take part in idolatry."
I took my seat in the shadows, in a pew at the very back of that basement chapel. Before me were a goodly number of worshipers, men and women of all ages. Their genuflections impressed me, as did their apparent concentration in prayer. Then a bell rang, and they all stood as the priest emerged from a door beside the altar.
Unsure of myself, I remained seated. For years, as an evangelical Calvinist, I'd been trained to believe that the Mass was the ultimate sacrilege a human could commit. The Mass, I had been taught, was a ritual that purported to "resacrifice Jesus Christ." So I would remain an observer. I would stay seated, with my Bible open beside me.
As the Mass moved on, however, something hit me. My Bible wasn't just beside me. It was before me - in the words of the Mass! One line was from Isaiah, another from Psalms, another from Paul. The experience was overwhelming. I wanted to stop everything and shout, "Hey, can I explain what's happening from Scripture? This is great!" Still, I maintained my observer status. I remained on the sidelines until I heard the priest pronounce the words of consecration: "This is My body . . . This is the cup of My blood."
Then I felt all my doubt drain away. As I saw the priest raise that white host, I felt a prayer surge from my heart in a whisper: "My Lord and my God. That's really you!"
I was what you might call a basket case from that point. I couldn't imagine a greater excitement than what those words had worked upon me. Yet the experience was intensified just a moment later, when I heard the congregation recite: "Lamb of God . . . Lamb of God . . . Lamb of God," and the priest respond, "This is the Lamb of God . . ." as he raised the host. In less than a minute, the phrase "Lamb of God" had rung out four times. From long years of studying the Bible, I immediately knew where I was. I was in the Book of Revelation, where Jesus is called the Lamb no less than twenty-eight times in twenty-two chapters. I was at the marriage feast that John describes at the end of that very last book of the Bible. I was before the throne of heaven, where Jesus is hailed forever as the Lamb. I wasn't ready for this, though - I was at Mass!

Thank you for posting this thread! It's a gem.

I read through this screed earlier. Beyond muttering to myself something about bearing false witness, I didn't think I had much to contribute to this thread. I had to kinda laugh about the part talking about foot washing, since my ex-husband's mother had regularly reminded him over the years about the monsignor washing his feet when he was a young lad. From what I understand, he was quite an intimidating priest, nothing like any of the other priests I've met over the years.

Instead of entering into the fray, I set myself back to the tasks I'd laid out for myself for this day. After completing Acts (about 7 chapters to go at this point), I plan to go through the chapters of the passages you cited to me in the other thread. You took time in your response to me & I am doing the same in my response to you.

Unlike Dr. Hahn before his "spying" mission, I've been to Mass a number of times over the years. I was married at a time when marriage ceremonies included a full Mass, even when the bride was not a Catholic. I attended Mass with cousins & friends numerous times when I was a child. I remember well the mad scramble for doilies & meatless Fridays throughout the year. I went often enough to notice the difference created by VII.

I can't think of any other way to put it, but the Roman Catholic Church leaves me cold. I've never felt welcome or closer to God when I was in any Catholic church. For those who've found the answer there, more power to them.