Censings

St. Matthews Ecumenical Catholic Church August 31, 2014 – 22 nd Sunday in Ordinary Time Romans 12:1-2 David Justin Lynch, Esquire     “That’s the way we’ve always done it.” We hear that in church a lot… in particular when anyone talks about changing the liturgy. But I’ve yet to find any saying of Jesus that sounds like, “That’s the way we’ve always done it”.  Jesus was not a creature of the religious establishment of His day. Here was a guy who broke the rules: healing on the Sabbath, not washing his hands before eating, and horror of horrors, he threw the established money changers and merchants out of the temple with a whip of cords. But the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” attitude is also where people work.  However, do we have to accept as a final answer? In the beginning of the last century employees were one step above a slave: Long hours, disgusting and unsafe working conditions, no health care, and very low pay. The Labor Movement in this country didn’

         As a little boy, I was lucky to worship with my mother in lieu of consignment to Sunday School. I loved Mass: the music, the vestments, the incense, the ceremonies. But more than anything else, I wanted to receive Holy Communion.  Not only did I want to join my mother at the communion rail, I wanted to receive Jesus. I was told – and believed – that the Mass changed the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus. But there was one problem: I was not confirmed! In those days, the Episcopal Church did not admit anyone to communion until confirmation. So I asked the priest what I had to do to get confirmed and was told, “learn the Catechism.”  Hence, I made it my business to learn the Catechism and was duly confirmed at age 9 on May 13, 1962, and thereafter, began receiving communion every Sunday no matter where I lived, vacationed, or worked. Throughout my life, I have almost never missed Mass. I have often gone to great lengths to receive communion, like staying h