Growing up Catholic I went to Mass often. I was really familiar with the parts of the Mass. I knew everything I was supposed to say and I knew when I was to say it, but I will readily admit I had no idea why I was saying these things. It was more of a reflex action if anything. I definitely did not see any connection between what I did at Mass and the Bible. For me it was all a nice “Tradition,” but I didn’t even understand what I meant by the word tradition.
When I was in high school some of my friends and I began attending a non-Catholic Church service that met on Tuesday nights near Western Washington University. It was packed with young people. There was incredible music and a long sermon. It was nothing like Mass, and I loved it! I left every week feeling emotionally high and proud to be a Christian… for a while.
After a while the emotional high I felt kind of wore off. I started to feel like I was being manipulated. I began to feel like the emotional high I felt was artificially created by the ambiance of the environment and the music, and I had been mistakingly confusing my emotions with the Holy Spirit working in me. I wasn’t really acting like an authentic Christian, even though I thought I was at the time. I was more of an addict of religion trying to stay high on God.
Early on in college, shortly after September 11th, I felt like attending Mass again. I don’t remember everything that drove me back to the Mass, but I do remember that I was looking for something deeper than an emotional high. I went to Mass at a chapel near Western Washington University’s where many Western students would go to Mass. I was surprised I already knew a few people there.
Even after I started attending Mass again I was pretty sure there was no biblical reason why it was the way it was, but I was curious about a lot of things. I was curious why I had always said things like, “Lamb of God you take away the sins of the World.” What did that even mean? I started to wonder why we made such a big deal about communion and why we never received communion at the other church. So I started to look into these things. I wanted to know when we started saying these things and whether or not it was biblically sound.
Long story short, I was completely stunned. The reasons we did these things were much, much deeper than I expected. Prior to this investigation, I thought that the Mass was one style of worship among other equally valid styles of worship. Now I see the Bible and the Mass are so thoroughly connected that I can’t imagine Church being any other way. I believe that the Mass is biblical in a way that no other type of worship is.
We are going to explore the biblical foundations of the Mass at St. Rose starting Sunday, January 3rd at 7pm. I think that you’ll be blown away at just how scriptural Catholic worship really is. I especially want to invite people who were raised Catholic and who have left the Catholic Church to join other Churches. I also want to invite anyone who was not raised Catholic who is looking for a deeper, richer experience of worship, that isn’t based on transmitting and receiving an emotional high. You might really like what our thoroughly Bible based worship is really about.
We would like for you to register for this so we know how many materials we should purchase. Registration forms can be found in the Narthex at the Bible Study display. The office has them as well. We are offering two options regarding the the study materials. The $10 option provides a b/w copy of each chapter of the workbook. The $35 option provides a single workbook in full color. Please - don’t let cost keep you from coming. We will have scholarships available. Register soon so we can have the materials on hand. If you have any more information, please call our office at 360-425-4660.