Thursday

Why do Catholics have so many rituals?

Actually "ritual" can seem like bad things until you realize that you can't very well get through your day without them. Think about the ritual of getting up, shaving, brushing your teeth, showering, dressing, eating breakfast and reading the newspaper. Quite a ritual. If someone breaks it, we feel a bit ill at ease. We find a security in rituals. They make living easier to get through.

We Catholics do have a lot of rituals, actions and words, that we are comfortable with. In the frame of the ritual, we can move along with others to love and trust the Lord more. They might be considered as a track that takes us to the Lord.

All that is well and good. The big problem comes when the ritual isn't alive and uplifting but becomes so boring that we lose heart and life.

Rituals are necessary but we can never become so dependent on them that we find an end in them rather than let them take us to a higher place of commitment and love of the Lord and each other.

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