I love being Catholic

Hello www, Jesus, thank you for all the Healthy blessings you've bestowed on my friend recovering from cancer. My mom always says you are the Greatest Physician, and it is true! Thank you for ALL the blessings you bestow on each of us, continually, and that we forget to thank you for. I love going to mass. I go to mass to talk to God (as opposed to going to observe people's clothing, or who is in attendance and who isn't...). Mass fulfills a deep need in me to connect to something greater than myself, AND, more importantly, to feel God connecting with me. It's awesome. Here are some of the specifics I like about the Catholic mass: If I were to go to another Catholic church anywhere in the world, the prayers I know and say at my Catholic church locally are the same prayers being said at any Catholic church (in another language perhaps, but I'd have an idea of which prayers are said because of the timing within the mass). The readings and the homilies are the only differences in each mass being said. Saying prayers out loud, with my fellow Catholics. There is Power in offering up the same beautiful prayers as a group, day after day, week after week. Did you know that Everywhere in the world a mass is being said all day, everyday? Just think: all our positive thoughts, our deepest longings, our most fervent prayers, are being sent out to our loving, gracious, compassionate, and merciful God, and He hears us, He is Listening. I do my best to listen to, and say each prayer at mass with attentiveness and thoughtfulness. I do my best to focus on the words being prayed and imagine Jesus listening. I am human of course, so if I stumble, which I do, I double my efforts and keep praying. I am the kind of parishioner who likes to read along with the priest when he is saying the Eucharistic prayers. I imagine Pontius Pilate washing his hands of Jesus as the priest washes his hands. I love the subtitles before each Eucharistic prayer, "Invocation of the Holy Spirit," "For those who have died." Our church has a booklet for the order of the mass called a Missal, so I keep up with the priest as he says every prayer; in addition, the missal has all the readings and 'extra prayers' in the back that I like to pray after Communion. The most powerful part of the mass is Communion, of course. Our prayer together before we receive communion is incredibly apropos: "Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." Healed from sickness, healed from my sins...I am awed by the fact that God finds me worthy to receive Him. I am grateful that the crucifixion is something we re-live each time we go to mass: it's cathartic for me to imagine Christ praying intently in the garden for God to take away the cross set before Him. Our Lord is Human and Divine, so He understands when we, the tiny, idiotic and insignificant human, gets stressed, and He showed us what to do when we feel like we can't go on: lean on God for Strength. God will give us all the strength we need, just as He did with Jesus, even though Nothing we are going through could be as awful as what Christ went through. Yet another testament to the Greatness of our God, and our Lord Jesus. My prayer is that this blog will help you see mass differently the next time you go. If you are Catholic, be proud that you are; the Catholic church has a long history of good and bad, just like the individuals who make up the body of the Catholic church. And as long as we the individual disciples of Christ keep God in our hearts, the Catholic church will continue to thrive and grow. Gaah Bless Us All.