Musings from Prague, Why I love being Catholic - Vanity {Catholic/Orthodox Caucus}

Hello all! Wesołych świąt Wielkanocnych! Happy Easter! Šťastné Velikonoce! Joyeuses Pâques

This Easter my wife and I spent Easter in Prague. Normally Poles like my wife spend Easter and Boże Narodzenia (Christmas) with family, but we had a company training in Prague until Maundy Thursday/Wielki Czwartek so decided to spend Easter in Prague.

This is a gorgeous city, filled with more beautiful buildings than any other. Paris does not compare, Rome has more history, but less variegated, beautiful buildings and Florence's buildings are beautiful but far less.

However, for a Christian this can be a sad place -- and it was sad for us on Wielki Czwartek and the morning of Wielki Piątek (Good Friday) -- because this is a non-Christian place. The Czech republic is mostly non-Christian now (60% atheist country-wide and more so in Prague), for historical reasons, while it's staunchly Catholic neighbors of Poland, Slovakia and to an extent Hungary and even Austria still have Christian populations. With the loss of religion, they have also lost most of their traditions and many of the beautiful Churches in Prague are empty or made into concert halls.

However, on Good Friday, our pessimism was dissipated. We found two English masses, one at the Shrine to the Infant Jesus of Prague (mass at 12 noon each Sunday) and the other in an English-speaking parish at St. Thomas (11 am Sunday) which is an Augustinian Church. We went to St. Thomas for the Good Friday Stations of the Cross and service.

The first surprise was when the elderly priest spoke -- he was American, from New York! And he had a powerful voice.

The second surprise was the number of people even for the stations of the cross. May be even 40 to 50 including many young and youths.

The third surprise was the large number for Good Friday service -- even though there are less tourists, the Church was packed with possibly 300 to 500 people (and the Spanish mass after this was equally packed)

And what a variety of people, I saw Czechs, English/Americans/Irish, Chinese, Singaporeans, Filipinos, Indians, African-Americans, Africans etc. etc. with my wife a Pole completing the picture of Catholicism, a truly universal Church with all of us jointly witnessing the trial and sacrifice of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

The priest's sermon was very touching and down-to-earth, about Pontius Pilate and touching on us in the laity being in a way braver as we take and display our faith in Jesus Christ to the outside, non-believing world. He spoke about how Pontius Pilate missed his chance, so to speak, by being indifferent, how our Lord was condemned by us all, by our sins and about how we are all missionaries in a world that does not accept Christ.

At the sermon on Sunday, the priest indicated how most non-believers are happy to accept the "broad principles of Christianity" -- how no one really objects to "Love your neighbor" or "the meek shall inherit the earth", how the beatitudes are A-ok for all.

Hardly any deny that Jesus lived, preached or died. Yet the stumbling block, the point that they cannot accept is the Resurrection, which is something even Voltaire, the anti-Christian of his day saw as the point that much be demolished to demolish Christianity. Even the Soviets understood that.

Jesus Christ is our teacher, our High Priest, He was crucified and He rose from the dead. As catholics/orthodox we acknowledge and believe in all of this, we see our Lord as teacher, as sacrifice and as the glorious resurrected Lord, God and Savior. We do not separate any of this, we do not only read the scripture, we do not only meditate on it, we do not only sing praises to the Lord, but we experience it, we witness Christ in the Eucharist.

Wherever we go, we share this same common bond, irrespective of the language, the race, the features of the person in the pew next to us. This was driven home to us on Easter Monday when we went to a small Church near the hotel that had mass in Czech. For the Our Father and the I confess, as well as throughout the congregation prayed in Czech, my wife in Polish and me in English and yet we all prayed together, as one community in Christ. That is our orthodox faith, our community as ONE Apostolic Church, together, wherever we may be, joining together as a world-wide community back to the Apostles in praising, glorifying and worshiping our Lord Jesus Christ

True. and this is evoked in the Eucharistic prayer

As the catechism outlines it

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

1322 The holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation participate with the whole community in the Lord's own sacrifice by means of the Eucharist.

1323 "At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"

1324 The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life.""The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch."

1325 "The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit."

1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all
1 Cor 15:28.

28And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: "Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking."

1328 The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the different names we give it. Each name evokes certain aspects of it. It is called:

Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. The Greek words eucharistein
Lk 22:19

19And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

1 Cor 11:24

24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

and eulogein
Mt 26:26

26And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

Mk 14:22

22And as they did eat, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and brake it, and gave to them, and said, Take, eat: this is my body.

recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim - especially during a meal - God's works: creation, redemption, and sanctification.

1329 The Lord's Supper, because of its connection with the supper which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly Jerusalem
1 Cor 11:20

20When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper.

Rev 19:9

9And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

The Breaking of Bread because Jesus used this rite, part of a Jewish meat when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread,
Mt 14:19

19And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

Mt 15:36

36And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

Mk 8:6

6And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.

Mk 8:19

19When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

above all at the Last Supper
Mt 26:26

26And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body.

1 Cor 11:24

24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

It is by this action that his disciples will recognize him after his Resurrection,
Lk 24:13-35

13And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

14And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

16But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

17And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

18And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

19And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

20And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

21But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

22Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;

23And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

24And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

25Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

26Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

27And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

28And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.

29But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

30And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.

31And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

32And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

33And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,

34Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

35And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

and it is this expression that the first Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies;
Acts 2:42

42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers

Acts2:46

46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Acts20:7

7And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

Acts 20:11

11When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed

by doing so they signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion with him and form but one body in him.

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