Sistine Chapel
I'm a Christian... raised in a Lutheran church...born again in a Baptist Church....now spending time in a Presbyterian Church...and content. But after reading...and I'm not finished yet...."Chasing Francis" (a book about Saint Francis of Assisi)....I'm beginning to take another look at the Catholic Church....not that I"m considering converting to Catholicism....but I have a new appreciation for what they do in "their" church...something I haven't considered in ages. I"m all about head knowledge application of Scripture to my life...you know...the message!!
The Author of Chasing Francis, "Ian Morgan Cron" writes: Medievals built huge, ornate churches so that people walking into them would feel like they'd left one world and entered another reality -- the kingdom of God. ...{You see} stained-glass windows, frescoes and paintings, dimmed lights, flickering candles, the smell of incense, vaults and arches pulling your spirit upward, angels soaring on the ceilings. God {sneaks] up on you through the architecture...
He continues...."Augustine said the human mind was particularly delighted when truth was presented to it indirectly, like in symbols and sacred space. Unfortunately, most churches today are designed without any sense of the iconic because moderns like straightforward, unambiguous communication. We want 'worship centers' where hominess is more important than holiness."
THAT'S SO TRUE.....we focus more on 'lights, camera, action rather than "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost".
I just have to keep quoting this book....it has me enraptured! It's a story about a Pilgrimage and these quotes take place between 2 characters in the book. One is a Catholic Friar, the other a Baptist Minister...who is at the end of himself....tired of playing church....a place so many of us find ourselves these days....we just want more...and something different.....here's more...
The Friar says, "Next come the liturgy and the Eucharist".....most churches today downplay Communion...we 'just do it' ...sometimes. I always thought it odd that Catholic Churches and others serve the Lord's Supper almost every Sunday....in my piety I thought they should spend more time on 'the message'....but I learned something here in this short paperback.....
The Friar continues..."Church start[s] the moment you get in the car. ....Liturgy (the consecrating of the bread and the wine and it's consumption) is a journey that proceeds from the kingdom of this world into a brief encounter with the kingdom of God, and then back out again to bear witness to it. The liturgy began the moment you started separating yourself from this world so you could join the rest of the body of Christ. In liturgy, every act is a metaphor or symbol."
"The word liturgy literally means 'the work of the people.' It's an ancient text that helps us reenact the redemption drama. What we're reciting is a compressed version of the redemption story. At the end of it, we can't help but be moved to cry out with all the angels and archangels. "Thanks be to God! and give our lives to the God who gave his life for us.
So -- (when you enter one of these grand cathedrals) you entered sacred space, heard and spoke the Great Story. Next, you were mystically confronted with Christ at the climax of the liturgy, the Eucharist." (i.e. the Lord's Supper...it means "thanksgiving")
It's that moment in the 'work of the people' when we partake of the divine life and experience the presence of Christ in a way that can be particularly intense...Jesus draws very near at the Eucharist, and that can be unnerving. But think of it as a homecoming celebration. In the Eucharist, we are united with God, all the saints, the earth that gave us the bread and wine, and the whole universe.!"...
...the Eucharist is the sacrament of love and joy...
"We need more than reason or information to nourish our faith; we're built for firsthand experiences of God through things like the Eucharist as well. Gandhi (and I don't particularly care for Gandhi) said, "The world is so hungry for God that God could only come as a piece of bread. We so long for joy that God even risked coming into the world in the form of intoxication, that risky thing called wine."
"Sometime back I heard someone say that the Bible is less a book that tells us what to do than a story that tells us who we are....The liturgy moves us...taking us on a guided journery where we are reminded of who we are, where we came from, how things have gotten so out of whack in this world, how God intervened, and how history is going to end.
Sometimes we feel dislocated...liturgy helps relocate us. We are not characters in search of an Author...we have a story.
Sometimes our spiritual lives feel like they are dying a slow death....maybe things would be different if, week after week, we sit in a community that repeatedly reminds us of who God is and who we are thru something like the liturgy. It's like someone says, "Don't worry, Faith might be hard for you to come by right now, but listen to these ancient words we're saying and 'rent' our faith until yours revives".....
shoowee.....touche' The End! 'Nuf said!
The Author of Chasing Francis, "Ian Morgan Cron" writes: Medievals built huge, ornate churches so that people walking into them would feel like they'd left one world and entered another reality -- the kingdom of God. ...{You see} stained-glass windows, frescoes and paintings, dimmed lights, flickering candles, the smell of incense, vaults and arches pulling your spirit upward, angels soaring on the ceilings. God {sneaks] up on you through the architecture...
He continues...."Augustine said the human mind was particularly delighted when truth was presented to it indirectly, like in symbols and sacred space. Unfortunately, most churches today are designed without any sense of the iconic because moderns like straightforward, unambiguous communication. We want 'worship centers' where hominess is more important than holiness."
THAT'S SO TRUE.....we focus more on 'lights, camera, action rather than "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost".
I just have to keep quoting this book....it has me enraptured! It's a story about a Pilgrimage and these quotes take place between 2 characters in the book. One is a Catholic Friar, the other a Baptist Minister...who is at the end of himself....tired of playing church....a place so many of us find ourselves these days....we just want more...and something different.....here's more...
The Friar says, "Next come the liturgy and the Eucharist".....most churches today downplay Communion...we 'just do it' ...sometimes. I always thought it odd that Catholic Churches and others serve the Lord's Supper almost every Sunday....in my piety I thought they should spend more time on 'the message'....but I learned something here in this short paperback.....
The Friar continues..."Church start[s] the moment you get in the car. ....Liturgy (the consecrating of the bread and the wine and it's consumption) is a journey that proceeds from the kingdom of this world into a brief encounter with the kingdom of God, and then back out again to bear witness to it. The liturgy began the moment you started separating yourself from this world so you could join the rest of the body of Christ. In liturgy, every act is a metaphor or symbol."
"The word liturgy literally means 'the work of the people.' It's an ancient text that helps us reenact the redemption drama. What we're reciting is a compressed version of the redemption story. At the end of it, we can't help but be moved to cry out with all the angels and archangels. "Thanks be to God! and give our lives to the God who gave his life for us.
So -- (when you enter one of these grand cathedrals) you entered sacred space, heard and spoke the Great Story. Next, you were mystically confronted with Christ at the climax of the liturgy, the Eucharist." (i.e. the Lord's Supper...it means "thanksgiving")
It's that moment in the 'work of the people' when we partake of the divine life and experience the presence of Christ in a way that can be particularly intense...Jesus draws very near at the Eucharist, and that can be unnerving. But think of it as a homecoming celebration. In the Eucharist, we are united with God, all the saints, the earth that gave us the bread and wine, and the whole universe.!"...
...the Eucharist is the sacrament of love and joy...
"We need more than reason or information to nourish our faith; we're built for firsthand experiences of God through things like the Eucharist as well. Gandhi (and I don't particularly care for Gandhi) said, "The world is so hungry for God that God could only come as a piece of bread. We so long for joy that God even risked coming into the world in the form of intoxication, that risky thing called wine."
"Sometime back I heard someone say that the Bible is less a book that tells us what to do than a story that tells us who we are....The liturgy moves us...taking us on a guided journery where we are reminded of who we are, where we came from, how things have gotten so out of whack in this world, how God intervened, and how history is going to end.
Sometimes we feel dislocated...liturgy helps relocate us. We are not characters in search of an Author...we have a story.
Sometimes our spiritual lives feel like they are dying a slow death....maybe things would be different if, week after week, we sit in a community that repeatedly reminds us of who God is and who we are thru something like the liturgy. It's like someone says, "Don't worry, Faith might be hard for you to come by right now, but listen to these ancient words we're saying and 'rent' our faith until yours revives".....
shoowee.....touche' The End! 'Nuf said!
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