Monday, January 31, 2011

What I Love About Catholicism: Daily Mass #Catholic

I don't have the privilege of attending daily Mass, but have had the blessing of being able to attend a few Masses during the week. What I love about Catholicism, is that it is available. This really is a beautiful thing and a gracious gift of our heavenly Father.

I often think about the early Church, and how Christians had to meet in each other's homes because they were persecuted. They didn't have the freedom to walk down a street to the nearest temple and worship God and His Son, Jesus Christ, in the open.

We do.

Last week, I attended daily Mass twice. The first time was because I had read so much garbage about the evil in our world that I almost felt the worldly grime upon my soul. I prayed for God's mercy and thought, "I need to get to a Mass." Thank God (and I mean that literally), that almost around the corner and down the street from me was a parish that had an early morning Mass.

I joined the small group of about 18 other parishioners to take part of Mass. It was all so precious to me. I felt as though I had entered a safe harbor, a place where I could receive the peace and protection of God while I asked for strength for the day. Receiving the Holy Eucharist was exactly the medicine I needed.

Throughout the rest of the day, I felt buoyed by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. All this was imparted to me from a very abbreviated Mass that lasted under 30 minutes. The next day I attended again.

I'm not sure about anyone else, but our world is growing darker and to me, attending Mass is like a mini-retreat. It's the place where I get my head, heart, and spirit straightened out as I'm reminded of the truth. The world is spinning more and more out of control. We as Christians struggle to keep our lights shining. Sometimes it is very tempting to give up, to shrug our shoulders and say, "What's the use?"

And then we attend Mass, and are reminded of One Man, who sacrificed all for the glory of His Father. It looked like One Man could not do much and evil was all around Him. But He submitted to His Father's will, and ultimately, was victorious.

It is that victory, which was the shot heard 'round the spiritual world, that reminds me to never give up, to always believe, and to let God's truth permeate my soul.

He has won. He is winning. He will win again.

1 comment:

kkollwitz said...

Well done. Daily Mass is such an endearing little miracle. When you're in the company of others who are not there out of any formal sense of obligation it's very...fortifying, I suppose.