What I love about Western Christianity
Regular readers of this blog know how much I appreciate and love the Eastern practice of Christianity: its spirituality, its liturgy and its history. Most of my readers are Western, so I like to point out the many beauties of the East so that Western Christians will appreciate them as well. But I am a Western Catholic, not Eastern, and there are many, many things I love about being Western, so I thought I would post a few of my favorite particularly Western practices here.
(Please note: this post should in no way be taken as an anti-Eastern post or as Western triumphalism. Nor do I think Eastern Christians should adopt any of these practices [except perhaps number 10]. In the Body of Christ there are a diversity of gifts and loving one gift does not in any way denigrate other gifts).
1) The tradition of daily Mass
I am very thankful for the practice of daily Mass in the Western church. The fact that we can receive the precious body and blood of our Savior any day of the week is a great blessing, and one we should take advantage of as much as possible. Also, I love the whole simplified ethos of a daily Mass.
2) Kneeling
When I first became Catholic, it took me a while to get used to the whole kneeling thing. But over the years I have come to love the regular kneeling we Western Catholics do. It is an obvious sign of humility, and I find it very hard to be prideful in front of the Lord when I’m on my knees.
3) Eucharistic Adoration
This practice took centuries to develop in the West (and it never did in the East), but boy am I glad it did! I still find it amazing how I can walk into an Adoration chapel and immediately just know it is a holy place. The peace that comes from Eucharistic Adoration is hard to surpass.
4) Celibate clergy
I know that the East has a strong tradition of celibacy among their monks and bishops, but I am grateful for the West’s tradition of an all-celibate clergy, including parish priests. I think the sign that celibacy gives is needed even in the day-to-day of parish life, and the freedom such celibacy gives to the parish priest is very beneficial as well. (See this post for my defense of the Eastern practice).
5) Ash Wednesday
What is more humbling than walking around all day with a smudge on your forehead? I can’t think of a better way to start Lent than with this great day.
6) Diversity of religious art
There are rooms in my house in which you might believe you walked into an Eastern Christian church because there are so many icons. The Eastern icon is my favorite type of religious art. But I do greatly appreciate the wide variety of Western religious art over the centuries, and believe that this art has brought millions of people closer to Christ over the centuries.
7) The Rosary
It led me into the Church and has been my favorite form of prayer ever since. What more can I say?
8 ) St. Francis of Assisi
My all-time favorite saint is also quite Western as well. I can think of no better model for how to live like Christ (other than Christ himself).
9) Scholasticism
I recognize the potential excesses of a scholastic outlook, but I also acknowledge the synthesis of faith and reason that St. Thomas Aquinas and his colleagues brought to the Church.
10) Recognition of centralized authority/papacy
I have often written on the importance of the authority of each bishop in his diocese, and I think we in the West would do well to learn from the East in regards to regional synods and collegiality among bishops. However, I also think it is highly important that the Church have a place where the buck truly stops. And in the West, we have always (rightly) seen Rome as that place.
11) 59-minute Sunday Masses
Just kidding.
Thank you for posting this. I like seeing lists of what makes our Church splendid. Like you, I find many beautiful riches within the Roman Catholic Church. I am very gratified by #1 and #2. It would seem that the only time one knees in the East is during the Canon of St Andrew during the first week of Lent, and often there is ‘daily’ Liturgy only twice during the week. I wonder why daily Divine Liturgy didn’t ‘take off’ in the East? I used to be a regular Adorer at my RC parish, and sometimes when I want to sit in a chapel in silence and Adoration, I can’t do that in the Eastern Catholic Church. However, since our Lord is hidden in the Eucharist, I console myself with this fact when praying in my prayer room at home.
I am undecided about #4. I’ve known a RC priest who’s married due to conversion from the Anglican Church. It was almost impossible to schedule anything with him because he always had something going on with his family. But I know of an Eastern priest who tells everyone his cell# and asks us to call him any time, day or night.
I’m going to have to sort of disagree with #6. I thoroughly love that icons are basically scripture in color and they were written not only for the illiterate masses for hundreds of years before literacy was more common, but also to keep the faithful from idolatry. Unfortunately, while there are some wonderful, Catholic religious art, there are also some pretty heinous interpretations out there. Jesus was a 1st Century Palestinian Jew, not a blond haired, blue eyed Swede. And some of the NewAge-ish or modern statues or decor in our churches make me shudder in horror. I would actually prefer accuracy over artistic license.
I know I’ll be pretty unpopular for saying this but I’m not a big St Francis fan. I never would have listed #8 as a reason to love Western Christianity. (I know the post is what you love about it, I was just pointing out that I can just think of other saints that would fill that slot in my own list.)
I’m Roman Catholic but have been attending the Byzantine Church for a couple months now… and while there are many things to love about the West, there are also many reasons that I’ve seen former parishioners, friends, and even myself leave the West for Eastern shores.
#1 – You joke about #11. I can’t tell you the last time I went to Mass without feeling that the priest was rushing through. Our Mass has become this terse, very casual event, that if the Eucharist was not present, I would feel that we were in a Protestant Church. It’s become really sad. I’ve spent a great deal of time searching for a Mass that’s a little more reverent and have been unable to find one. Why? Read on.
#2 – The contemporary music. Don’t get me wrong. I have a ton of Christian rock on my ipod. However, I don’t feel it belongs in Mass. Why? Sometimes it’s incongruent for the particular part of Mass (ie: the Communion song is loud complete with drums… not really conducive to prayers of Thanksgiving after receiving Jesus). But mostly, I see those whose faith is not spiritually mature coming to a particular Mass because the music is ‘cool’. Then, the Church is almost pressured into providing the latest and best music, the most entertaining of homilies, all in order to keep the people entertained so they’ll convert and/or return. Mass is worship, it’s not about winning a popularity contest. And yes, I have seen people go elsewhere when the music no longer kept them there.
#3- Handholding during the Lord’s Prayer. To me, it’s just another ‘horizontal’ element in the Mass that loses the vertical worship, why we’re there. I keep wondering when we’re going to swing our arms and start chanting ‘Red Rover, Red Rover…’ or break out the marshmallows and sing kumbaya around a campfire.
#4- Social Justice. What is UP with priests nowadays uncomfortable with talking about Christ? The last RC parish I attended would say things like the first reading doesn’t apply to us today, and then go on to talk about some political issue in the news. The parish I attended before moving wasn’t any better… rarely did he talk about the spiritual life, preferring to make jokes about sports teams, or some latest tidbit. No wonder we’re so poorly catechized! Many times, the homily is the ONLY time the faithful hear anything spiritual and priests are truly shirking their duty to educate their parishioners.
#5- The inability to pray before Mass. I cannot tell you how many times I either arrived early or stayed late, but couldn’t pray because the people sitting next to me or behind me were chatting about their coming week, etc. Not whispering, but chatting. We used to be able to come into the church and pray before Mass to recollect ourselves before Mass began. Now, instead of talking to our friends outside the church, it seems to be acceptable to chat inside, including during Mass. I’ve even seen grown adults texting during Mass.
While the Western Church has some wonderful rubrics and traditions, we also need to look at our Mass and do some serious revival. The reverence we used to have is sadly lacking, even from when I was a kid and I’m only in my 30s! It might convert some Protestants, but I can name many who’ve either gone to the Eastern Catholic Liturgies, Anglican Use Liturgies, or even the Orthodox Church, all in search of a more reverent form of worship that’s becoming more and more difficult to find in the West.
Ah dear Denise. Although it breaks my heart to hear that churches and homilies are done in such amanner. I do believe it happens. I have never seen one like that. Come to West Texas some time and you’ll see all the veneration, quiet worshipping. But, do pray for the priests and your RC brothers and sisters to become on fire for their faith.
I can relate to Denise’s complaint – We are told on Ash Wednesday, and again the First Sunday of Lent, that we’ll have no closing hymn and we are to leave the Church IN SILENCE. Our parish tries, but even the day that announcement is made, some of us fail, unable to avoid talking to (whoever) about something. At least our Adoration Chapel (where the tabernacle is) has silence, even when several worshippers are present.
TeaPot562
To experience Western Catholicism, one needs to become familiar with what is now called “Traditional” Catholicism. We are greatly indebted to the Holy Father for reminding us that the Old Latin Mass was never legally abrogated – it was simply swept aside by perhaps over-zealous people in the 70s. I strongly recommend supporting Pope Benedict’s wish to make the traditional Roman Liturgy once more available to the people. When I was able to do this some years ago, I truly felt I was coming home.
To me there is no such thing as a Western or an Eastern Christianity, for Christianity is the Religion of the Word and the Word is universal, catholic. Ergo, both the Catholic and Orthodox Church have Christianity, just as each religion has a share in the truth, but the Catholic Church, being the Church of Christ, has the fullness of Christianity and of the truth. Hence it is not necessary, nor possible, to experience Christianity in any category of Christian, whether its the traditional, the modern, the progressive, the moderate, or so forth: Rather, it is only necessary to be with Jesus Christ and it is only possible to live His life in accordance to the state of one’s life. In addition, those practices which we deem traditional – the Rosary, the Latin Mass, the blessing of homes – are not traditional but ancient and not ancient in the sense that few Catholics practice them or that the Church has forgotten them but ancient in the sense that they have been with the Church, in one form or another, from her first years, even in the days of the Apostles.
Adoration of the Eucharist is one of the oldest devotions in the Church, dating further than Saint Basil the Great, who speaks of the devotion as being ancient even in his day.
You lost me at #10, because the Papacy belongs to the Universal Church, both East and West.
C.,
Perhaps you should read my post more carefully. #10 says “Recognition of centralized authority/papacy”, not simply the existence of the office of the pope. Of course the papacy belongs to the Universal Church, and I am glad that the church in the West has always strongly recognized this universal authority.
Right, I think that defames the Maronites, Italo-Albanians and others, while perhaps giving too much credit to the French, Germans and English.
The moral of this story is that in the West, the Church is great, every once in a while, in a few places. Same goes for the Church in the East, its just that Eastern Christianity is more consistently great where it counts–in the liturgy (more tradition, less modernism).
On reflection, by “this story” I really only mean the first four comments. As to the post, there is a different moral to be drawn, namely that the peculiarities of the West are really awesome. Amen to that. If the Church in the West would just act like itself, in keeping with 1,500 years of its own tradition, well, that would be something profound and unexpected, like a miracle.