The one thing I don't particular feel drawn to in Orthodoxy is the Eucharist. I don't feel the need to go to Communion during Divine Liturgy. I am perfectly happy with the antidoron, and there have even been times when I was perfectly happy with attendance at Vespers.
The one thing that is pulling me back, giving me pause, causing me to linger with Catholicism is the Eucharist. I remember how it used to be in other churches, other times. When the whole of the Catholic Mass experience was reverent. The tabernacle, the adoration, the benediction, the altar railing kneeling to receive Communion, that red light telling me "Jesus is home".
When writing my poetry anthology, "From Faith to Peace", I pondered the different ways we have turned religious relics and sacramental items into idols. I even recently heard a Catholic priest explain how we can even make God into an idol when we caricature Him into our own image of what we think He is like. I've mentioned to the Orthodox priest I've consulted with how Protestants have turned the Bible into an idol. I thought for a time that Catholics have turned the Pope into an Idol... but that's not quite right. I think maybe Catholics have turned the Eucharist into an Idol?
This is what I have to take to prayer. The Catholic Eucharist. I have to read about it directly in the Bible, and I have to spend time in Eucharistic Adoration. And I have to give this last TLM church a solid chance. I have very high hopes for it, but only if the goal is to reengage with the Catholic church.
Maybe what I am being led to is a corrected understanding of what the Eucharist is and isn't, what it should and shouldn't be, and therefore, where it can and cannot be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment