Back when I was a Protestant, one of the Catholic Church’s great draws to me was its teaching that it’s actually a sin to skip formal, collective worship on Sunday. In the Episcopal Church, we were very much into the idea that you could honor the Sabbath “in your own way,” and—well, there’s only one sacrament for middle-class Yankees, and that’s brunch. The rest is optional.
Not in the Catholic Church. Here’s a faith that tells us exactly what God expects of His creatures on a week-to-week basis. And that makes sense, doesn’t it? As a Protestant, I was told He invited me to spend time with Him once a week in His house; I could never bring myself to believe that God didn’t really care if I declined. Either He never really wanted me to accept in the first place, or He was setting Himself up for disappointment.
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