I attended Easter Sunday Mass with my family this morning

by franklin J 5 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  franklin J

  Today is Easter Sunday and I attended a Family Mass with my wife and kids at the local Catholic church which we are members of. It was "standing room only". The entire service was not more than 30 minutes.

  Routine for us; except for today I actually listened to what the Priest had to say. Despit the fact that the priest looked and sounded like Herman Munster; his message was the origin of Easter.

  I was very surprised at how he told the history of the original Easter celebration being celebrated by Pagans; and how the Christian church adopted it to allow the masses their celebrations. He said that it was no different today.

  All Catholics attending the mass; except for me; really did not care what the origin of this holiday was. It is all a tradition; I am beginning to believe it is more of a CULTURAL tradition rather than a RELIGIOUS one.

  Any comments?

  PS. of course, back at my house there was a traditional Easter brunch; the bunny did come with presents for all of my kids ( even the older ones, and the dog and cat) and we had our annual Easter Egg Hunt.

  I must say; it was fun.

  Frank
• 

  Kenneson

  Even our Sunday Masses are at least an hour long. How does your priest manage to include all the parts within a half hour?

  I attended the Easter Vigil last night and it was nearly three hours long! Of course, we had baptisms and admittance of new members plus confirmations and that took some time.
• 

  Euphemism

  All Catholics attending the mass; except for me; really did not care what the origin of this holiday was. It is all a tradition; I am beginning to believe it is more of a CULTURAL tradition rather than a RELIGIOUS one.

  Is there really a difference?
• 

  willyloman

  Frank: My wife and I just got back from Easter services at an Episcopal church here. They'e practically kissin' cousins to Catholics, as you know. We went there because Episcopalians are a pretty hang-loose bunch and we didn't think anyone would try to start a bible study with us!

  I must say it was a beautiful service, and the folks were very friendly afterwards as we all shared Starbucks coffee and homemade cookies on the patio. (I ate a cookie decorated like an Easter egg... I hope that's all right)...

  We felt the need to commemorate the biblical events of the season and express our spirituality in some communal way, so we picked this particular event. We even joined in communion and partook of the emblems, deciding at the last minute that since we had gone this far, we might as well go all the way. As partakers, does that make us part of the annointed? As my wife said later, if some of the JWs we've seen partake can do it, we certainly qualify.

  Anyway, it felt good and was a delightful morning and we'd do it again in a heartbeat.
• 

  franklin J

  "...express our spirituality in some communal way.."

  willyloman, I thinked you summed it up for all of us
• 

  unbeliever

  Are you trying to get yourself DF'd?