What do you have to say for yourself ?
Protestantism is almost burned out. They have tried it all and they are only finding out that the Catholic Church was right all along.
Any groups copying the Catholic Church wont stand for long, without a valid Eucharist the mood can only last for so long before people get burned out or come home to Rome.
An "evangelical monk?" Not to sound too cynical, but that's a contradiction in terms. That said, I'm very happy to see the Spirit moving things in this direction for our Evangelical brothers & sisters. Perhaps over time they'll recognize what they're hungering for is authentically found in the Catholic Church.
Now if only we Catholics can only get the house swept clean and neatly in order before they get here!
"Lent" for Evangelicals is like a very groovey diet... Like doing a cleanse with fruit juice...
Pinning one's sins on a note to a cross hardly has semblence to confession... But its cute if they think it does!
The WaPo is a little behind the eight ball on this one. This basic story was reported in US News & World Report a few months ago -- remember the photo of TLM on the cover?
** An "evangelical monk?" Not to sound too cynical, but that's a contradiction in terms. **
I guess you've never heard of the Taize and Grandchamps communities or the Evangelischemarienschwesterschaft (who have a house here in Phoenix).
Fisher-Price Play Church.
...light Advent calendars at Christmastime...
Either the reporter meant "candles", or there are some extremely confused and/or pyromaniacal Evangelicals out there...
Brick by brick a sense of Tradition returns. Let us praise God for it and stop being so petty as in some of the comments I have read here.
Perhaps these are the stirrings of the birthpangs that precede a great reunion.
They better adopt entering the Ark of salvation (the Catholic Church) before death because outside of it there is NO Salvation!!!!!
There is something to be said for the instinct Catholics have of disliking what is not quite Catholic. It's something like Lewis' remark about watching out when something looks like a man, but isn't.
However, that's an instinct meant to protect us from heresy inside the Church. For those outside the Church... well, obviously it's better to have the whole loaf. But if people have found even a few crumbs of that loaf, they're better off than if they were starving to death.
But it's certainly creepy if people adopt Catholic practices so as _not_ to become Catholic. Silly, but creepy.
We should pray for them. Deacon Alex Jones wrote a book called "No Price Too High" about how he started reading the Desert Fathers and other early Christian writers in order to find a more authentic Christian worship service for his Pentacostal congregation. He and his wife, as well as his sons and many of his congregation entered the Catholic Church afterwards. It was not an easy road to take, even after he saw the truth.
Here in rural Virginia, where Catholics are a minority of less less than 5% of the population, I work in a factory staffed by approximately 750 Protestants and me.
Ash Wednesday is a riot. You can see people notice my ashes and almost read what's going through their minds. Some reach up to try to wipe my forehead clean. The people who don't like me just chuckle, figuring I am unaware of my condition and keep going. I feel like I gave them a gift.
But after 10 years of my low key apologetics, Lent has become a major season among my band of evangelicals. I have planted the seeds regarding the idea of "offering it up." Stations of the Cross next!
Yes, let's get our house in order. I'm reeling over the lack of orthodoxy, beauty and tradition in my suburban parish. Attended Stations of the Cross last night and was saddened by what was offered. To start with the stations were those monochromatic stylized versions that you need a magnifying glass to see. Not once were we really invited to dwell on the sacrifice and suffering of Our Lord and NEVER once on our sins. Every station had a new spin, ie: Jesus didn't really fall, Simon didn't really help, Veronica didn't really wipe the face of Jesus, blather, blather, blather. Take home message: We're "invited" to believe in the Lord, Everyone who beleives in Jesus will be saved. We don't sin, we simply don't pay attention to Jesus' message. Nothing to stir the heart, to examine the conscience. Pitiful and protestant.
Would it be safe to say that this feels like a slap in the face?
"They better adopt entering the Ark of salvation (the Catholic Church) before death because outside of it there is NO Salvation!!!!!"
True, Ed, outside of the Church there is no salvation, but you better understand Church teaching enough to realize how those "outside the fold" can and/or actually do still subsist in Christ's Body, the true Church.
From Lumen Gentium, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church...
15. The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter. (14*) For there are many who honor Sacred Scripture, taking it as a norm of belief and a pattern of life, and who show a sincere zeal. They lovingly believe in God the Father Almighty and in Christ, the Son of God and Saviour. (15*) They are consecrated by baptism, in which they are united with Christ. They also recognize and accept other sacraments within their own Churches or ecclesiastical communities. Many of them rejoice in the episcopate, celebrate the Holy Eucharist and cultivate devotion toward the Virgin Mother of God.(16*) They also share with us in prayer and other spiritual benefits. Likewise we can say that in some real way they are joined with us in the Holy Spirit, for to them too He gives His gifts and graces whereby He is operative among them with His sanctifying power. Some indeed He has strengthened to the extent of the shedding of their blood. In all of Christ's disciples the Spirit arouses the desire to be peacefully united, in the manner determined by Christ, as one flock under one shepherd, and He prompts them to pursue this end. (17*) Mother Church never ceases to pray, hope and work that this may come about. She exhorts her children to purification and renewal so that the sign of Christ may shine more brightly over the face of the earth.
Mixed feelings here. On the one hand, joy that they are aiming at least closer to the true church and are aware of the problem of "mile-wide but an inch-deep" spirituality in much of contemporary evangelicalism. On the other hand, sadness that modern Catholicism in America seems to want to abandon the riches that these people are hungering for. Many of these people will end up swimming the Tiber, if they follow where the Holy Spirit is leading them...
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Hopefully it leads to conversions. This is what happens when people keep ignoring the Truth of the Catholic Church, eventually, they figure out we got it right (whether now or when its way too late)
Sound like steps in the right direction to me! Deacon Alex Jones' website:
http://deaconalexcjones.com/home/
It doesn't feel like a slap in the face to me. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I work in a Catholic hospital, but you'd never guess it from our cafeteria. Beef stew was the featured entree yesterday. And I saw plenty of people I know to be Catholics eating the stew, while an evangelical Lutheran co-worker of mine who abstains from meat on Fridays during Lent ate fish. Something wrong with that picture, folks.
They're adopting/adapting some of our best traditions (Lenten fasts, increased veneration of Mary, confession). And what did we take from them in the '60's and '70's? Ugly churches, contraception and the idea that Mass should be "entertaining."
And according to the latest Pew poll, Catholic numbers in the US are only holding steady due to immigration, while evangelical churches are booming because of the numbers they've gained from the dried up mainline Protestant churches.
We're in no position to sneer.
"Protestantism is almost burned out. "
Right. Stats certainly bear this out, esp. in Boston.
Protestants,
Really?
Sincerely,
This is the real deal. There is a revival in Protestant circles of all things Catholic. Christianity Today devoted a whole issue to the subject last month. Vatican II along with Catholic radio and television have a lot to do with this. I will not say the Protestant church is dead, altho' it's becoming more Catholic everyday. Our silent witness of Ash Wednesday ashes are surely a help. Yet I had a discussion just today with someone spouting the old Protestant myths regarding the Inquisition. Maybe Protestants and catholics will get closer in my lifetime, maybe not. It's in God's hands.
MissJean is right, it is not easy. It is frightening to finally realize that what you want is in the Catholic Church but that you will probably loose all your friends, your family, just about everything, to get it. So please, please be kind to those who are just on the outside and looking in the windows but are still unsure of what they see. It is also very hard to admit that you have been wrong for so long.
I came from a Church of Christ turned mega-church. We celebrated communion every week but then the CoC has been doing that for a long time. In the last few years they started doing a 40 day prayer vigil coming up to Easter. Kinda like lent but with prayer only rather than fasting. There is a prayer room up at the church building that gets manned 24/7 for this time period. When I started going to the Catholic Church this last year, I was struck by the similarity it had to perpetual adoration. Imagine my surprise when I found out that we had only reinvented a very ancient wheel, and not very well at that.
It will take them a lot of time because these people have a lot of distance to cover intellectually but many of them will see same things that I did. That the Catholic Church is home and just what we have been trying to reinvent. We slowly give ourselves less and less reasons to not be Catholic. But the process of softening up preconceived notions takes time. Most people have to let it simmer for a while before realize it. True, the time is short but being to confrontational too soon will only drive them away. I think it would be best to simple encourage them to keep on doing it and share with them how we do it. Trust me, they will be intrigued and when they are ready they will come around to asking themselves the question: "Why not Catholic?"
In terms of the big picture, I believe that the rise in interest towards Catholic devotions and the increase in Tiber swimmers like myself is a result of American style evangelicalism's fundamental dependence on existing in a nation that is essentially Christian. Because our nation is fast becoming a post-Christian nation it is causing a shift in the churches based on it and this is causing many believers to question where they are at. The Catholic faith however, is bigger than any one nation and has an almost unique ability to exists in both friendly nations and hostile nations. It has the ability to stay rooted to the truth by being able to depend on the Holy See as its anchor. This will prove to be significant as the industrialized west becomes more secular and more hostile toward religion.
The Catholic Church also has a history of surviving the collapse of nations and empires and in a lot of cases provides an interim structure for people to depend on during crisis. American evangelicalism will not survive without America in any significantly recognizable form. And America will not survive if it continues to support an abortive, contraceptive and unchaste culture.
I maybe cynical, but I think the current Evangelical interest with ancient traditions is market driven. Evangelical churches compete fiercly with each other for members in a free market environment. As a result, Pastors are constanty experimenting to keep worshippers.
One Frustriang thing...I have heard / read evangelical leaders directly quoting Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa. They NEVER give either one credit.
Regardless of how this started, this phenomenon demonstrates that people instinctively understand the importance of and need for penance, prayer, and sacrifice. God's grace is leading these Christians back toward the Faith that their ancestors threw away so many years ago. It is so unfortunate that they were led away in the first place. It is even more unfortunate that the Church is not now really prepared to deal with what could be mass conversions back to Catholicism. These people are dying for it. They need help. Are we up for it?
"worshipers line up to take communion from bread purchased at a nearby grocery store and sip wine out of a pottery chalice or grape juice from plastic cups"
I truely do not see how on earth they can see eating some wonder bread and drinking grape juice together as what Our Lord really meant when he asked us to 'do this in memory of Me'...and listening to Dr. Dobson 'quoting' scripture: "...this is a symbol of My Body", if it is just a symbol it is a rather weak and silly one. I realize that most protestants were raised with this kind of teaching, but it just seems so surface and illogical...
"worshipers line up to take communion from bread purchased at a nearby grocery store and sip wine out of a pottery chalice or grape juice from plastic cups"
Funny thing, that is how we played Mass when we were kids! (Didn't every good Catholic kid?)
I have always said that the Catholic religion is the religion of logic and highly intelligent people, heh.
Because when it comes down to it, its the only one that makes sense when you break it down. There just is nothing else thats logical. I do believe it is killing some of them tho to find this out and have to acknowledge it. Either way its great, I'm happy for them
ASimpleSinner:
Yes! We played Mass. Necco wafers worked really well as the hosts.
I very occasionally attend my grandmother's Southern Baptist church. When I was there over a year ago, the preacher was implementing a 3 week fast to begin 2007. He talked about the benefits of fasting food and fasting other things. And that you could fast from T.V or sugar or some other thing that you like. And he covered the biblical basis for fasting and the spiritual benefits.
He was completely describing Lent except it was New Years and not 40 days. Of course, he was acting as if he had dreamt all this up by himself through inspiration. I was thoroughly amused.
Wise and hopeful post, Cel. Thank you. We can never be reminded too often to practice patience and charity towards those who are looking for the way home. It's easy to forget when we are fending off insults.
Julie I didn't much like sweets... we opted to flatten a piece of wonder bread and then use a shotglass (which my parents seemed to only have around the house to put their morning vitamins in...) to cut out round "wafers" from the flattened wonder bread...
The comments about "confession" are interesting. However, it immediately reminded me of a quote of G.K. Chesterton talking about psychoanalysis being borne out of Protestantism:
"Psychoanalysis is simply confession without the absolution"
If our Protestant brothers and sisters realize the gift of the confessional, in it's proper form, along with a true understanding of the Eucharist then we will see a mass exodus from the ranks of Protestantism. It sounds like there are many seeking the truth, but are not quite there yet. These people need to kept in prayer so that the Holy Spirit can convert their hearts and minds and we can begin to fulfill our Lord's prayer that "we all may perfectly one." John 17:7-26
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