Holy Consumerism

That sounds so true and I see how it can be that way in many instances. However, I am moving on from the Catholic church but not Jesus. My religion is not my church. For many years it was and I am having a hard time with this decision. I don't like leaving but I feel as if the church has shoved Jesus out the door and I have to go where he is. If that means I have to go to Taco Bell, then so be it.

I have always justified judgement of the "quality" of liturgy by St Paul's instruction to discard what (to me) is not useful (guitar music, music as performance rather than in support, voting instructions, etc.). Have to think again perhaps. But I do always look for the moral uplift, and it's sometimes very hard to discern.

Local Episcopalian pastor said the burgeoning crowds at the "mega churches" and Pentecostalists "check their brains at the door". To me they get entertainment and effortless reassurance. What will the RC church do, the defeatist "leaner and meaner", or actually try something like the Brazilian charismatic mega-masses? I fear what we will get is only the stunted retro literal translations of the Latin Missal, which some people profess to believe will restore reverence.

I am just old enough to remember the aggressive chastisement and threatening tone of pre-conciliar fire and brimstone sermons (at least in the Archdiocese of Boston). I wonder what would happen if my pastor were to suddenly adopt that old mode and vehemently instruct the congregation that it is utterly unacceptable to turn their backs on the tabernacle and conduct secular conversations at full volume immediately after Mass? And that people who behave that way are not welcome?

if the "holy rendezvous" means my contemplative meeting with Jesus there at Eucharist, then I agree. however, if it means that I must just grit my teeth and bear it gratefully when Mass is said fast to get people out of the parking lot quickly before the next Mass, or if the homilist talks to adults as tho we were still children, then I truly am a "dissatisfied customer" and keep hoping for better experiences in future. more and more I go to just find Jesus and tune out the rest.

Although I am reading for this purpose the newly published meditation on the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola by the Reverend Father Anthony de Mello entitled Seek God Everywhere, I can heartily recommend as lectio divina this Lenten Season the several books from Karen Armstrong inclduing her studies of Islam and her History of God.

Or join me, and help me please, in the reading of the new book from Father De Mello, an edition of lectures given in 1975 published for the first time, a great gift from our Jesuit community.

Fr. Hays is right on once again with this reflection. To so many people, "going to church" is seen as an opportunity to "get something" rather than to "give something" to God and one another. I find the same to be true with Catholic schools, which I have served for decades. People expect academic perfection for their tuition dollars, and surveys show that "instilling the faith" is not a major reason why most people send their kids to Catholic schools. But when I was a kid, that was *the* reason my parents sent me to a Catholic school. As with the Taco Bell analogy, if the local public school has a "better" academic product, then people don't see the Catholic school as worth the money, totally losing sight of the catechetical perspective.