A few days ago, I was conversing with a dear friend who shared some her thoughts on why she wasn't sure that she wanted to get married. As she pointed out, in American society, marriage hasn't any deep significance. Celebrities seem to change spouses as often as they change outfits. Divorce rates have become astronomical as people have come to view divorce like the Wite-Out of marriages, a quick fix to a casual mistake. All in all, the deep covenant-like quality of marriage has been largely lost.
A few days after this conversation, my hubby and I were talking about the class he is in at church to prepare for baptism. He was sharing with me some of his reasons for not wanting to be baptized in the denomination in which he grew up as well as his reasons for wanting to be baptized in the Mennonite congregation we now call home. I was deeply impressed with his thoughtful reflection on the matter. I was baptized when I was 14 or 15, and while I was old enough to have some sense of the significance of what I was doing, in hindsight, I think I was also rather naive and just figured this was something that I had to do at some point or another and may as well do it then.
To this list we could, of course, add Eucharist, funerals, praying the rosary, saying the Lord's prayer, and a host of other conscious and unconscious religious rituals. But here is my question: Are we always really conscious of why we are doing what we are doing? And if not, should we be cheapening these rituals by superficially performing them? For that matter, how can we even judge between a "superficial" performance of a ritual and a "genuine" one? Are there objective evaluative criteria that we can use? How can the church do a better job of keeping rituals from becoming devoid of meaning? Does the Catholic model of catechesis do a better job at this than the Protestant churches in which I grew up?
I believe that there is an old Mennonite tradition (and still being fairly new to the denomination I could be way off about this; do correct me if I'm off!) where the performance of the Lord's Supper could only occur after the community in which it was being shared had righted any wrongs and asked and received forgiveness for events in the community life which would prevent community members from sharing in full communion with one another. While I am, of course, inclined to be positively biased towards the Mennonite tradition, I think there is certainly something to be said for this kind of reflection preceding the performance of religious rituals so as to encourage participants in the ritual to be as conscious and mindful of the reasons for what they are doing as can be hoped.
What are your thoughts? How do we make religious rituals more meaningful, if they can even be made more meaningful? Or, just as my friend has noted about marriage, have these rituals become so divorced from their purpose and meaning that they should simply be thrown out altogether?
Comments (10)
To this list we could, of course, add Eucharist, funerals, praying the rosary, saying the Lord's prayer, and a host of other conscious and unconscious religious rituals.
The Eucharist is the Body and Blood of Christ that is offered to all mankind for the forgiveness of sins (see the the Gospels, go to the parts that are about the Last Supper). To reduce the Eucharist to a mere ritual is terrible!
Likewise, praying the rosary or the Lord's Pray are not a rituals either. They are prayers said voluntarily by a believer according to personal preferrence. They are willful acts not mindless ritual.
This shows that the orginal premise of the OP's post is error. Therefore we need not deel with anything further the OP has to say other than to point out further error and to instruct the OP in the truth.
I feel that if someone personally does not agree with a Christian ritual, then it is up to them whether they would like to perform it or not.
Example: I'm Catholic, but I don't usually receive the Eucharist because I haven't confessed myself since my First Communion as a result of me not agreeing with the sacrament of confession. (Yea, that's one big domino effect right there.) Also, I won't be partaking in the sacrament of marriage because I don't want to be with anyone (hai, aromantic asexual hurr). That's three sacraments right off the bat that I don't go through. I don't feel this makes me any less of a Christian because I believe my faith and how I worship Christ is up to me.
I don't believe rituals should be stopped or re-fortified, so to speak, just left as an option for people to choose whether or not they should partake in it. As long as they have faith, it really shouldn't matter. Then again, I'm really for people being able to choose and others might not agree with that. Oh, well. Carry on.
In paganism, we're taught that rituals of any sort that have meaning to our faith has several means of importance.
(1. In order to help us get used to incorporating our faith as a daily part of our lives, so that it becomes our second nature.
(2. To help build a personal relationship in our faith.(3. To participate in the meaning of the rituals themselves.
(4. There are psychological benefits as well, that translate through our lives.
..among other things.
Genuinity can only be determined by individuals...and isn't really any of our business most of the time, in others. We each assign worth to specific rituals of our own faiths. Personal reflection, of course, is awesome.@LoBornlyte@xanga - The word "ritual" has two meanings in the dictionary; an elaborate rite with religious meaning, or something done over and over again. Alot of people like to hold the word mainly as meaning a mixture of the two. Something you do alot with religious meaning.
Idk, I really love religious rituals. I'm not Catholic, but I love to hit Mass and listen to everyone speak at once the same thing over and over. It's like a concert of lights and sounds like when you hear your favorite band plays an everyone has their lighter out. I love the smell of everyones obnoxious perfumes and colognes rising up as they sweat too close to each other. I'm still the same aweful person inside the church as I am outside of it because to me every field is a church. Church buildings get blown up like Mosques and Synagogues. But while, they are standing, I appreciate them. I love to have the light on the wall to have something to kneel down in front of, but I still see every stranger as more important that that. I'd break into that church and steal the light if I needed to. I LOVE COMMUNION! I like to close my eyes and listen to all the same words over and over. Everyone has one heartbeat when speaking with faith like that. So the rituals and the place and the time really just serve to get everyone on the same page and count the hours down. But every sweet moment in the field, on the mountain, or in the Church or Synagogue is the same if you have the Faith. Its like meat or veggies to me. Personally, I like meat and potatoes.
"people have come to view divorce like the Wite-Out of marriages, a quick fix to a casual mistake." That's a great line.
Rituals have to have stories attached them. Once the stories are lost, the meaning is quickly lost or morphed into a legalism of sorts.
Rituals mean different things to different people. I believe in marriage, in baptism, in The Lord's Supper (communion), in public prayers and bible readings, but I've never thought of them as rituals... which seem just a programmed part of a service - but as living, real, meaningful and worth preserving and passing on. So if in a positive light a ritual is all of the above, then keep the rituals! They're valuable.
A few years ago the church that i was a member of at that time was having communion. I was aware of a young-ish chap who actually got up from the communion rail (that was the tradition at this church), an disappeared for about ten minutes. I was sitting down by the time he came back and then he sat down near me afterwards. I knew him well enough so I asked him later what he had forgotten, in a kinda jokey-nosey way, because i was interested in what would make a person get up in front of the whole church while they were about to take communion. He said that Jesus talks about putting things right with your brother before offering a sacrife, and he treats it as a transferable principal. to that end he was feeling bad about arguing with another man in the congregation and went to put it right, at least as far as he was able. It impressed me so much i always do the whole self examination thing myself now........ not. but I do occasionally, and that has to do for the rest i rely on Grace.
But I think i would go along with our Pagan friend and say that it is up to us ourselves to impart as much importance on the outworking of a particular ritual as we see fit. It id not my business how serious one person takes The Lords Supper or Marriage or Baptism. I just pray for those I see that God will bless them as they/we partake.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
Grace and peace
To make this short: tradition
"I believe that there is an old Mennonite tradition (and still being
fairly new to the denomination I could be way off about this; do
correct me if I'm off!) where the performance of the Lord's Supper
could only occur after the community in which it was being shared had
righted any wrongs and asked and received forgiveness for events in the
community life which would prevent community members from sharing in
full communion with one another."
I think that if such a practice were more widespread, local church groups would be in much better shape. In my church tradition, we have a general confession during each Eucharist and optional private confessions. However, I think a lot of people still receive the sacrament without any real sense of forgiveness towards others.
I think motive changes everything. I'm Baptist and I believe things like the Lord's supper and baptism should be done but with the right heart. Jesus even said at the last supper "do this in remembrance of Me."
If we take God out of the equation then of course it totally changes "rituals" to ... habit... or worse off... we end up doing things because that's just how it's always been.