by Steve Stollenwerk (2,444 words)
Most non-Catholics will admit, if they have any interest at all in what drives
religious people, that Catholics seem to have some special "tricks". Catholics
get into discussions about God far more easily than most people, even though
everyone knows that most Catholics are so brainwashed that they already think
what they think. So why is that then? And why do Catholics seem to take so many
other little ceremonies, like saying "grace" before meals, or a small prayer
whenever a hearse passes, so seriously but also spontaneously... without
self-consciousness? There must be reasons.
For those persons who look at life, and at people, and attempt to understand why
certain things are as they are, and where some differences can be identified
between groups of people, Catholics are among the most interesting. They tend to
be normal on the outside but have a number of little "quirks" that set them
apart from almost all other religious people. And though they don't often talk
about it, Catholics seem to have a sense of comfort about God and can talk about
religion far more easily than any other group that isn't actually in the
business of attracting membership. Or, in other words, more Catholics who are
NOT missionaries will more easily take up a discussion about God, or
spirituality, than the average non-Catholic.
And, surprisingly, Catholics are also far more likely to have an active interest
in other matters of spirit that tend to put the frighteners on the more timid...
miracles, the occult, ghosts, and the like. For those who have spent their lives
learning the basic virtues of the average religious perspective, stemming from
"love your neighbor" to include tolerance, etc., what Catholics also have the
gumption to ponder publically can shock as well as surprise many of other
faiths.
The irony with Catholics and their higher-than-average ability to have opinions
about personal spiritual matters is that they are not likely, necessarily, to
agree about moral and ethical issues. What is surprising is that they are
by-and-large just comfortable exploring the issues, and with expressing their
opinions. What is it about being Catholic that gives, or creates, such
self-confidence about religious controversy?
There must be reasons of behaviour, and basic teachings related to one's early
education, or family background, or some other factors, that gives Catholics a
keen interest in difficult matters. There must be reasons why they can more
easily than the rest of society just accept that they have a role to play in any
group decision-making about spiritual nit-picking. What is it?
Catholics tends to have opinions, whether they agree with their church or not,
about most "religious" or moral controversies that face society. What other
group is so consistently involved in issues such as abortion ? Or penal
servitude and the death penalty ? Or pre-marital sex ? Or corruption, such as
embezzlement ? Or the impact of violence in media on children ? Or human rights
? Or starvation and famine ? Or education in the third world ? Or experimental
science such as DNA recombinants ? Or the impact of immigration policies on
cultural and political groups ?
Let's face it, being Catholic is some kind of tonic.
So after years of reading, and practice, and exploratory discussions and
interview (as recently as yesterday), I have come to some completely
undocumented, non-academic, un-sourced, theories about what makes Catholics
different.
First, they are taught, from the youngest age, that God is omnipresent.
Everywhere, all the time. Here, now.
Secondly, also that God is all-powerful. Can do anything.
Three. Loving, and Merciful. Cares.
4. Every little thing matters... every prayer, every curtsey (or genuflection),
every nod and twist of the forelock, is all known by God... who knows every hair
on your head. Everything matters.
5. Education for most Catholics is a matter of competing with themselves, so
their primary schooling, even when not parochial, tends to "set" better.
6. God is not fooled. Catholics are taught that even the best posturing won't
work because God knows what is in your mind.
7. Catholics use a very special, simple, but historically unique, means of
praying that gives them a superior ability to enter into, and also to leave off,
praying. This is a key, and emotionally major, advantage over all other
religions.
8. Catholics believe in, literally, everything. The "seen and the unseen". That
is the main reason why their tenets are so strict, because having so much occult
knowledge can be confusing if not dangerous.
9. Their church is the oldest formal institution in the world.
10. Being Catholic is the same anywhere in the world, regardless of race, color,
or culture... and they just blithely feel welcome at any Catholic church in any
country at any time.
There are more reasons. But those ten, now that I have written them, seem to be
pretty strong reasons, behind their behaviours, why Catholics may be a unique
set of people. There may be those splinter groups, the sectarian "religions"
that borrow and revise and compile their own versions of things, who will claim
that most of those reasons are also part of their heritage. And part of that may
be true. But there is no group that has such a heritage, such a sense of "right
to" such teachings, as Catholics.
One of the most practical advantages of being a Catholic, for those who actually
do to some extent believe in God, is their special way of praying. It is simple
and elegant... and completely effective. They "open" a prayer, a formal
conversance of either one-way or reciprocally with God, they immerse themselves
in that prayer, and then they "close" it... with the "Sign of the Cross". It is
an unbelievably important, fundamental, "trick" that Catholics have used for
millenia.
Imagine it, please, in other circumstances, or at least in other generic
contexts where communication is difficult. Where else does a person have a
simple gesture that begins a formal discussion and then also ends it? Wouldn't
it be great to know that whatever you said at a management meeting was "off the
record" until you used the special corporate gesture that put you "on" only
until you signed "off"? Though that is a crass simplification, it is not unlike
what Catholics do.
For most other religions, even including those that use prayer rugs or respond
to the tolling of bells or chimes, prayerful persons do not have a means of such
definite focus. That Catholics are trained into a means of entering into a
prayer that can have an unforeseen intensity, depending upon motive and need,
etc., and yet can also end it, allowing themselves to return to "non-God mode"
so easily, is unquestionably advantageous. Catholics pray much more easily. When
they have started praying they can concentrate better, and remain focussed,
knowing that they are formally addressing God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, for
a short time. When they are done, they can end the prayer and then immediately
return to what it was they were doing otherwise. Catholics frequently say a 15-
or 20-second prayer, in all seriousness, and then go right back to quaffing that
pint at the pub or walking down the street talking with a spouse about the film
last night. Etc.
That Catholics can pray so much easier, and intensely, is an advantage that
should not be under-estimated. They can "keep the faith", devoutly, for one
minute at a time like no one else can ! And I have seen numerous catholics make
surreptitious "signs of the cross" just above their heart without making it
obvious to anyone around that they are praying, sincerely. Good trick, really.
For non-Catholic Christians the vague use of "Amen" as a means of closing a
prayer is not as good a process for a number of reasons. It may seem simple but
it is not so well defined. In services, whether they be Baptist, Methodist,
Presbyterian, or any number of other flavours of "reformation" Christianity, the
"Amen" may be used multiple different times in the same prayer as a form of
emphasis. Or simply to have the congregation acknowledge, like a confirmation,
the preceding passage read by a minister or deacon. That's why, for instance,
people in some sectarian churches will even shout "amen" like a vote of
approval. It loses meaning thereby.
Further, if the only way to open a prayer during a church service is to announce
"Let us pray" then most of that service becomes perceived as, at least
subconsciously, as a spiritual "event" and not an actual prayer. Maybe that is
why Catholics do not refer to their services as "services"... they are most
strictly called "Mass", or "Adoration", or "Novena", etc.
That introduces another basic, most fundamental difference between Catholics and
other Christians... at least in terms of church-going and "churchy" behaviour.
Catholics are taught, worldwide, some basic tenets of the "sanctity" of church,
and the "sacred"-ness of their sacraments. There is no easy way to summarize
that in a few words, but to recognize a few universal (yes, global!) principles
that they believe may shed some light on why they are consistently more devout
in their church-going behaviour.
Eleven : God is present in the church, which is why there is a little light, or
a candle, burning in the sanctuary. (If there isn't one, it's not a Catholic
church.)
12. One can give oneself certain small blessings, like using the "holy water"
upon entering and leaving church.
13. Because Mass, that service that is done at least once a day in every
Catholic church, and that must be attended at least once a week on Sundays by
all "practicing" Catholics, contains a "Sacrament", the Holy Eucharist (aka
"communion"), Catholics do not generally socialize inside church... and never
between the Gospel and the Recessional, during which the entire proceeding is
the sacrament that is a single, focussed prayer for all. (There is great power
in such devotion, such devout behaviour.)
14. The holy "presence" of God is actualized for Catholics in the existence,
within the "tabernacle", of "transubstantiated" wafers of unleavened bread that
have become the "body of Christ" during the sacrament of Holy Eucharist. Though
this mystery is a bafflement even for many Catholics, the idea that bad
behaviour may be in the very actual presence of God tends to completely diminish
such behaviours ("before God").
15. Special devotionals, such as candles that may be lit in conjunction with
prayers dedicated by the participant, are always available in Catholic churches
unlike anywhere else.
So Catholics learn, far more easily than any other persons in any other
religion, how one may be expected to behave in the presence of God. How to be
serious, and courteous, and even grave in the proper circumstances... in order
both to avoid the possible wrath of God and his ordained ministers (including
nuns, which is a different topic entirely) and to earn the special "brownie
points" that are, from "grace", the "gifts".
Grace is what one earns, by special acts and behaviours, or regains by expected
behaviour and other performances of duties. It has many classifications, based
on its "nature" ranging from "sanctifying" through "actual" to "accidental" and
other types. Grace, for Catholics, is a form of "credit" is one way of looking
at it. You need to have sanctifying grace to get into Heaven when you die, for
instance. Actual grace may give one the immediate miraculous awareness of a
pending disaster, for instance, that one can avert by precipitent action.
Etcetra!
But from grace also flow, or are realized as needed, certain varied "gifts" of
spirit. Catholics are the most widely occult people in the world if you allow
that every instance of a different psychic awareness, or a supra-natural skill,
or a preternatural phenomenon, is a different occultic happening. "Occult", in
the traditional meaning of "hidden" or "secret", has never been a good defining
word for things that are beyond the mundane, that are "supernatural" or
otherwise "psychic", but as a genre most Catholics know more about it than
average persons from any other religion. The prime reason is that Catholics
learn, in conjunction with the concepts of grace and closeness to God, that
anyone can be given "Gifts of The Spirit". These include, of course, what
everyone has traditionally called "Miracles"... when either time and space, or
the "physical laws of the universe", are subverted, changed, ignored, or
otherwise just circumvented.
The long history of miracles of worldwide fame does not need explanation here.
Miraculous healings, particularly, are what get the most press (lame regain
their mobility, blind see again, cancer disappears, etc.) but there are also
dozens of different types including visions (of incorporeal entities such as
angels, or ghosts of faithful departed such as saints), bleeding (stigmata, or
saints relics), statues crying, water discovered, eclipses of the sun, accidents
unbelievably avoided, and many other types of incidences where witnesses swear
that the consequences in the circumstances were impossible and that prayer must
have been the cause. Catholics are raised with an awareness that such things
happen even if they themselves do not witness it... they know they may.
So that is why, for instance, I was having a conversation with a Catholic woman,
middle-aged, of no particular importance nor background, and when I mentioned a
"New Age Festival" that was taking place in her neighbourhood she said, "Oh,
okay, can we pray for a minute?" I said yes. She prayed, "Dear Jesus, please
surround us both with the white light of your Holy Spirit so that we may
continue our talk without being endangered. Amen." That was it. She explained,
without my saying a word, that "...whenever one talks about things that may
include the works of the devil, it is important to seek protection because he is
far more clever than anyone thinks". Catholics can be spooky.
There are so many other aspects to what Catholics actually do when they respond
to unusual circumstances that I thought for a long time I should just write a
book. But that's already been done, numerous times, over the centuries. I guess
the entire subject is both too broad for a single treatment, and, it would
encompass too much, as it is, for Catholics at least, that their venues include
everything that is occult... all that is "unseen".
These days, every time an older, sincere Catholic wants to teach me anything
about spirit, or about the "occult", or about ethical issues upon which there
are disagreements, or about UFOs, or "hands on" healings, or even crop
circles... I listen.
[end]
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