Monday Musings - You Are Not At Home - You Are in God's House!

When we enter any Catholic Church, we are entitled to a sacred, silent space. Our loving Lord who resides there deserves nothing less than our adoration and worship. We should, as Blessed John Henry Newman, comport ourselves as the angels do in heaven:

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

“When, then, a man enters Church, as many do, carelessly and familiarly, thinking of himself, not of God, sits down coldly and at his ease, either does not say a prayer at all, or merely hides his face for form's sake, sitting all the while, not standing or kneeling; then looks about to see who is in the Church, and who is not, and makes himself easy and comfortable in his seat, and uses the kneeler for no other purpose than to put his feet upon; in short, comes to Church as a place, not of meeting God and His holy Angels, but of seeing what is to be seen with the bodily eyes, and hearing what is to be heard with the bodily ears, and then goes and gives his judgment about the sermon freely, and says, ‘I do not like this or that,’ or ‘This is a good argument, but that is a bad one,’ or ‘I do not like this person so much as that’, and so on; I mean when a man acts in all respects as if he was at home, and not in God's House, - all I can say is, that he ventures to do in God's presence what neither Cherubim nor Seraphim venture to do, for they veil their faces, and, as if not daring to address God, praise Him to each other, in few words, and those continually repeated, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.”

From Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII by Blessed John Henry Newman)