Why do we do that?



Why Do Catholics Do That? & Catholic Customs & Traditions

I thought that this would be an appropriate place to combat or make an apology (in the church's sense of the word) all of those stereotypes that our Christian brothers and sisters are so fond of trying to discredit us for in our church. I take most of this information from these two books mentioned above by Kevin Johnson & Greg Dues and of course from my own experience..

	What's with all the smells in the Catholic Church?	Every time you walk into a Catholic Church there is always a distinctive odor about it. It is one of two things (1) Candles burning; or (2) incense burning. Candles are burned in Church for three reasons: (1) The sanctuary light is a candle burning constantly in honor of the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle to denote His presence. We are every watchful for the Lord. (2) Candles burn at various religious stations in the Church at the feet of the Lord, Mary or some other saint for two reasons: (1) votive light (votum) or vow, asking for something special in prayer; (2) vigil light (vigilia) or watching or waiting as our prayers rise up to God. (3) Candles burn during the mass to honor the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at every eucharistic celebration on the altar. Incense is burned on special occasions such as: (1) Christmas and Easter celebrations of the Lord. (2) During Benediction and Adoration of the Lord. Taken from Psalm 141 which says: "let my prayer rise like incense before you O Lord, my uplifted hands, an evening sacrifice. And Revelations 5:8; 8:3-4 gold vessels symbolize the prayers of God's people.

	What's with all those statues in the Catholic Church? Are you idol worshippers?	NO! NO! NO! Just as you have pictures of Christ hanging in your home or pictures of your kids in your wallet, so does the Church put pictures (statues) of Christ, Mary, Joseph and other saints in the Church. They are just plaster, marble or wood and that's all they are, but they have a specific purpose. They are there to help us to visualize who they may have been and what they have done for Christianity or the Catholic Church in some special way. When we pray at the foot of the crucified Lord we do worship that Christ on the Cross, but that Christ who died for us by walking through His passion, death and resurrection. The image on the wall or in the alcove helps us call to mind their holiness and our need for it.

	Why are Catholics always rattling on with those beads in their hands?	That's called the Rosary folks! It's an ancient prayer form from the earliest times of the Church. In its earliest form the Our Father prayer was prayed by the early church fathers 150 times each day on a knotted cord, which replaced the 150 Psalms. It later evolved in the 13th century to praying on beads and shortened by praying only 15 Our Father prayers and 135 Hail Mary prayers. Today only 5 Our Fathers and 50 Hail Marys, the standard common rosary, is prayed each time. As each decade(10) of Hail Mary prayers are being said, one meditates on one of three sets of mysteries related to Jesus and Mary. Father John Corapi says that praying the rosary is to pray the Gospel, and it is. The four groups are: (1) The Joyful Mysteries (Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, Finding Jesus in the Temple); (2) The Sorrowful Mysteries (Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Scourging at the pillar, Crowning with thorns, Carrying the Cross, and the Crucifixion); (3) The Glorious Mysteries (Resurrection of the Lord, Ascension into heaven, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Assumption of Mary into heaven, Crowning of Mary as Queen of Heaven). (4) The Luminous Mysteries (The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, Jesus' First Miracle at the Feast of Cana, Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God, The Transfiguration, The Institution of the Eucharist. When prayed well, and it takes practice, this is a very difficult prayer form to do. You are saying one thing, praying about another; i.e, mystery, and for a specific intention; i.e., the Holy Father, a family member, or some special request. Try it and discover how rich this prayer form really is. The beads are merely there to help you count where you are in the course of praying. Actually, then there are four things you do all at one time.

	Gold, White, Black, Purple, Red, and Green. What's with all those colors in Church?	Gold is not an official color of the Church, but oftentimes is used to celebrate Christmas and Easter masses. Gold is the color of royalty and thus fitting for the King of Glory. White is an official color for Christmas season, Easter season, to celebrate special masses of the Lord and Mary and saints that were not martyred. It is a color of purity, joy celebration and triumph. Today white is used at funerals to celebrate the resurrection of loved ones, although Black is still valid to wear at funerals. Black is still an official color of the Church to wear at funerals. It makes better sense to use this color since it is usually a sad time of mourning and not celebration, although our job is to try and connect the paradoxical ideals together in a pastoral way. Purple is used during Advent, Lent and special penitential days. It may also be the color of choice to use at funerals. Red is the color of blood and thus is used during the Passion of the Lord, especially on Holy Friday. It is also used on feast days of saints martyred as well as the Apostles and Evangelists. It also denotes the Holy Spirit, fire of tongues at Pentecost when the Catholic Church came into existence. Green is the most common color in the Church used throughout most of the year. It is a color of vitality, life, fresh leaves and grass. It is the color of life. It is a color of hope.

	Holy Water--Why? How is it made?	This is an ancient sacramental of the Church. It is placed at the entrance of the Church so the faithful can bless themselves in order to purify themselves before they approach the altar of God. Holy water can be used to bless people, things, and places. It is made by a deacon or priest through a rite of exorcism and blessed salt.

	What's with all the ringing of those Church bells?	Bells have been ringing in Catholic Churches since the 6th century. They are rung to call the faithful to mass, at the Angelus (noon) prayer time, announcing the death of someone, and at the consecration of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ at mass.

	Why an Altar?	Taken from the ancient Jewish form of sacrifice at the altar, Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice at the altar of God. It is the table of the Lord where the Body and Blood of Christ is continually offered up at every mass, an evening sacrifice of praise. This is the table where the faithful come to for their food for the journey of life.

	Why make the sign of the Cross?	At our baptism we are empowered as priest, prophet and king and thus given the authority to bless ourselves. The sign of the cross from the forehead down the chest and then across the chest is especially Catholic(East and West), although the Eastern church does it in reverse. West crossed the chest from left to right and the Eastern Church crosses their chest from right to left.

	What is with all this standing,sitting, kneeling, sitting, standing, kneeling, sitting, standing.....	Devotional gestures are important! As we come before our God we must show some sign of respect and reverence. Standing was the most popular posture at mass for the first one thousand years of the Church. Today we stand in Church at the beginning of mass, at the reading of the Gospel(a very ancient tradition) and at the end of mass. Sitting has no special reverential significance other than it is a position of ease for listening and resting. It did not come into the Church until the 16th century when pews were introduced. Kneeling has always been a position of prayerfulness. Jesus knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane. Paul talks about kneeling in prayer with Christians in Miletus. Kneeling is a sign of penance, supplication and adoration. A young novice once said to me " I stand for kings and queens, I kneel in reverence before my God." I liked that! Genuflection is the posture and dropping to the right knee in reverence before the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle. The trend to move Tabernacles out of the center of the Church is reversing itself, thank you God. Placing them back in the center of the Church equates to returning reverence to our house of God. Prostration is the full and total position of penance, supplication and adoration. In the old Church it was done at the beginning of every mass by the priest, now only done on Holy Friday.

	Why does the priest wear clerical clothes?	"Do not be anxious, saying...'What are we to put on ?" Mathew 6:31 Jesus is telling us not to be concerned about what kind of clothes we wear and getting all wrapped up in the latest fashions. Priests take this to heart by wearing basically the same clothes every day in order to devote themselves to the work of ministry. And besides we never have to color coordinate!!! The Roman collar has been the priest's garment for centuries. Now it sets us apart from the rest of the world and everyone knows a Catholic priest walking down the street when they see one. Well, that used to be true until some of our Protestant brothers and sisters started wearing the clerical garb of a priest. Now I am asked more times than I like "are you a Catholic priest?" Apparently our brothers in Christ have never read their own history if only to discover that their attempts to distance themselves from us during the Reformation was to throw out the priestly garb. Today it is making a comeback even in Protestant circles. I can understand Episcopal and Lutheran priests wearing it, but Methodist, Baptist, United Church of Christ?

	You have bones in your altar? (relics)	The Church has always venerated (note I did not say worship) the saints who have gone on before us. They have been men and women of outstanding holiness. They are the examples of Christ that we all strive to be more like. We are a Church of communion of saints; i.e., we believe they are still very much alive in glory and stand before God as intercessory prayers for us all. To honor them is to honor God. Every Catholic Church's altar has a relic(a piece of bone) of some saint in it. If possible, the relic is from the saint that the Church was named after when it was built. If not possible, then the Vatican sends the relic of another saint. The next time you're in a Church, ask the priest to show the place where the relic is placed in the altar. You may not be able to see it, but you will be able to see where it is embedded in the altar.

	Why do Catholics have a different Bible?	When the canon (bible) was being put together in book form in the 4th century by the bishops of the known world, the Church was a Latin-Greek speaking Church; i.e., they lived in countries where Greek was spoken. The center of the Church had moved from Jerusalem because of the Jewish Revolt in 72 A.D. to Antioch and Alexandria. There were two groups of Jewish Rabbi schools of thought at the time; i.e. Jerusalem and Alexandrian. The rabbi's in Jerusalem settled on a canon of Hebrew scriptures that was different than the rabbis in Alexandria and when the Catholic Church fathers gathered to adopt the Hebrew Scriptures it naturally used the Alexandrian ones since that canon was most familiar to them. When Martin Luther started the Reformation in the sixteenth century he chose to use the Jerusalem canon. This set of Hebrew scriptures contain 7 less books in it than the Alexandrian canon. Those books are: Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch and some additional passages in Daniel & Esther. He also re-wrote parts of James Epistle to fit his own theology of faith without works, which is not what James ever said.