Purify Your Bride

Catholics often get jealous of how much effort protestants put into singing and preaching and revivals and such. But we needed to do that to make the moment. The only holiness we could find is in our hearts. So we had to convince ourselves it was there. That we were really in God’s presence. As Catholics we don’t have to have a feeling of holiness. We know things are holy because of what they are. The Eucharist is holy. So when we do adoration we don’t have to manufacture a moment. But we can’t fall asleep either. We need to believe and respond to the holy things that are given to us through the church. It is an embarassment of riches. But we need a heart of worship. How do we get there time after time?

It is a hard question because when we do anything over and over it can become quite dry. As Catholics God gives Himself to us quite freely. It is almost like a marriage when a wife gives herself to her husband freely. Sometimes husbands get bored because it comes too easy. Catholics can get the same way with the Eucharist. We don’t have to work for it so we lose sight of what a great gift it is. Sometimes we don’t even bother. We can make it seem more like a burden than a blessing.

So how do we fix it? It is just like a marriage. It is not to hard to figure out what you need to do. Deal with sin if it exists. Make an effort. Spend time with the Blessed Sacrament outside of mass. The biggest thing for me was to understand that it can be very quite and slow. Protestants talk about a glimpse of glory. Catholics want to soak in His presence. That is a little simplistic but the emphasis is like that. We can have dramatic moments of conversion but the norm is a long term, slow burn purification.

I almost feel like I want to write the parallel post on marriage. The analogy stretches quite far and really goes beyond analogy. God’s grace enters into our family relationships and every other area of our lives. We don’t just get filled with love and awe for God but we become better husbands and fathers and workers and friends. We might even become better bloggers.