Welcome Home, ping!
The author is undoubtedly hearing mass in a traditional, Latin, Roman Catholic church or chapel.
In the Novus Ordo churches, where the new religion is practiced, one could hardly be impressed by the beauty of languages, music, gesture or architecture. Especially if the architecture is represented by one of the new edifices that resemble aircraft hangars. All the things that made a Catholic church Catholic have been, by and large over the past century, tossed out and in place of those ancient sacred items are sterile, protestantized gathering halls where one is hard pressed to find a tabernacle, votive lights, confessionals or pictures and statues.
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Maybe Dave, you suddenly realized you are getting old and you have confronted the thought of your frailty as a human being,and you would like to have someplace to go after you expire. Good luck and Godspeed.
Good for him. People who leave the Church leave it because it is a pre-Medieval institution and those who come to the Church come for that very reason.
For we have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness (2 Peter 1:16)
bttt
. THE HOUND OF HEAVEN Francis Thompson I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbèd pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat—and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet— 'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me'. ......................................... 'Strange, piteous, futile thing! Wherefore should any set thee love apart? Seeing none but I makes much of naught' (He said), 'And human love needs human meriting: How hast thou merited— Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot? Alack, thou knowest not How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!' Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? 'Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.'
I know this marks me out as an “aesthete.” But in my experience, whether or not it is acknowledged, the beauty of language, music, gesture, architecture, and art play an important, often-crucial role in drawing people to the Church.
That's the difference between being a Catholic and a Christian...Language, music, gesture, architecture, art and pomp and the view of scripture as nothing more than literature makes one a Catholic...
The 'literature' of the scriptures warns against all these things...
Those who strive for a personal relationship with the author of that 'literature' are the real Christians...And thank God, there are far more people who have found or are searching for that relationship who have left and are leaving the Catholic Religon that are moving to it...
One would do well to notice that there is no mention of 'Jesus' in this testimony of a 'come home Catholic'...Should tell everyone everything they need to know about these 'come home' stories...