Right Here, Right Now
I recently read an article written by a Protestant about modern worship. The author explored all the new ways, through technology and media, to keep the members interested in the worship service. The article was about how to keep the attendees feeling like they had a good God experience, new songs, new music, new films, and such.
Of course, the Catholic mass is different. It’s not about entertaining and enticing people to come like it’s some sort of party, it’s The Celebration, the meeting of Heaven and Earth where Christ is really present in the Eucharist. It’s the most precious food to edify our lives. It’s not about us; it’s about God and our appreciation.
Catholics know there are differences in the worship services, but I made an important connection in thinking about these differences, an evolution in myself. It’s the objective vs. the subjective thing. Orienting my thinking about the Mass has caused me to re-orient my thinking about everything else in life, my family, my motherhood, my finances, my health, my happiness. Catholicism teaches us to see the world as it is, not as we imagine we’d like it to be. That is monumentally significant.
It means when my husband or children don’t do everything I think they should do to make me happy (come on, you know what I’m talking about), I don’t feel anxiety or pine for things to be different. Instead I feel a certain detachment, an ability to just accept the situation for what it is and to then focus my attention on seeking solutions. I can let go, and let it be, and still be joyful even during turmoil because I know the deepest truth is still true. We are redeemed if we accept it. No one is perfect, we are all on a journey, and if I can help someone become more virtuous, then I’ll grow in virtue too. That is the goal of the Christian life, to progress in virtue towards Heaven where we are united with God.
This ability – nay, this freedom – to see things objectively brings peace and stability to my life. It makes me a better mother and wife, a calmer person. I can be confident in my ability to do whatever needs to be done, to endure and do the right thing, even if it’s really hard or distressingly painful — one day at a time. I’m not a slave to my emotions or fearful of rejection. I’m just right here, right now.
Category: Catholic Free Press, Parenting, Personal
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
Comment
Such wisdom can be gained from
battling arachnids…who knew?
Wow, you have totally described something that I’ve tried many times to express to my non Catholic friend/family… excellent!!!!
Deep Thoughts with Stacy…
I gave my sister’s super-duper mega church a month of my time. Approximately 6 hours of my life were wasted. It was all show, music and a certain type of massaging of the ego.
I must admit, however, the assistant preacher’s sermon was quite good and well spoken at the time, I can’t for the life of me remember what he said but I thought about it all week long. (Sad that I can’t remember what he said. At the time I thought he was a little less deluded than the people he was preaching to. I think he was.)
The head honcho preacher came back from where ever from the following week and had resumed Standard Operating Procedures from that point on. I wasn’t so keen on it…”God Loooves…bla bla bla” “if only you would… bla bla bla”. But, I gave it a little more time…who knows…
What followed was pure delusion: A great squishing of eye lids so tight that the eyes they covered might fly out of peoples rear ends and injure those near bye. Many hands flew spontaneously in to the air and many people spontaneously fell to the ground. The music of the band became more intense with the mellow soothing tones a of a very nice and very expensive Les Paul Custom and the “Come Hither” voice of the preacher. The Little Red Dot bounced in rhythmic time to the sways of the people following lyrics of the songs being played on the big screen with sunsets and beaches and mountains and nature stuff for a background. My sister was singing with her eyes “just closed” but with here hands out like she was holding a serving tray. My brother-in-law was obediently following the Little Red Dot(eyes open but focused, arms crossed). Behind me, against the wall, with his arms spread and his legs clamped together, as if he had been “nailed there to the spot” was my sis and bro-in-law’s bible study teacher, singing as loud as he could in total ignorant bliss. I was on the last row and as close to the exit as possible and horrified. People started getting up and making their way down to the stage where the preacher was calling everyone down to partake in the Eucharist. That is… everyone but me. I stayed seated and witnessed the apex of the delusion; as people gobbled down their crackers and gulped down their grape juice(because no true Southern Christian would dare drink alcohol on Sunday) many souls were saved and re-saved, many bodies were healed and God was most pleased all to the glory of the specialized “prayer teams” As the people made their way back to their seats they saw on lone figure still sitting there on the back row ready to bolt at the merest sign of danger. All 800+ of them.
Now that I look back on it it seems a mockery has been made of what so many hold dear and why y’all are Catholic and Orthodox respectively.
In contrast I have spent more time perusing Stacy’s blog posts and others like it than I ever gave my sister’s church and have come away a better person for it. (I hope)
As for the rest of the post despite a difference in what we think God is or the Will there of… I think you are spot on; contentment of the world as it is, if I read it correctly.
“The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
Robert Pirsig
It’s no secret I left the RCC many years ago. But, I have always favored the type of service held by the Catholic Chruch. I have always felt the Mass was about the WORD of God and His Glory. Service was not about the nice suits pastor wore, his nice car and him justifying why we was entitled to both while the neighborhood surrounded the Chruch disintergrated. It wasn’t about how many songs the choir could sing end on end. It was about the Word and how to applied to our lives.
I loved the simplicty and directness of Mass.