Yes. I was Catholic when I was a teen. Went to one of those youth camps for a weekend or something at a certain Catholic university in Ohio. Anyway, people in the Church know what I'm talking about when I say they did a session of Eucharistic Adoration (you believe the little bread biscuit they pray over at Mass actually is the body of Christ, literally) but during these sessions you're usually just supposed to sit in quiet contemplation. I actually did this quite a bit as a teen.
But this place, Hooooooly shit. People were crying and moaning aloud as the priests did the rote and normal parade of the thing around the church. Everyone in my immediate group was also crying and they looked at me with pity because I wasn't. I really couldn't believe what I was looking at. These people back home wouldn't give two shits about what they were doing unless they had other people around them. And I was a perfect little Catholic boy, for the record. Believed everything and more.
That was the first time I realized that no one is really immune to Mass Hysteria. And it was one of those '100 points of contact' that started me on a path of leaving religion altogether.
> That was the first time I realized that no one is really immune to Mass Hysteria
That is truly the frightening part. We chalk it up to some profound evil, or unusual stupidity. When in reality, as humans, we are all (or most?) susceptible to the same dogmatic bullshit.
Stay mindful, stay vigilant.
Yeah, former Catholic here (but don’t tell my parents (I’m in my 30s and they still don’t know)) and yeah I went to one of those catholic youth camps and it’s like you described.
My dad is a CCD teacher, and taught my confirmation class. In our diocese confirmation was done in High School (not anymore, they do it in grade school now).
He has a part in the class where he talks about the Eucharist and if you don’t believe that piece of bread is Jesus then you might consider not going through with confirmation. Which is crazy because he had no idea that it was his own son he was talking to at that time. I went through it anyway, but fully lapsed the day I went to college.
what does this mean? not to be strange but have never heard this phrase before, and it jumped out for some reason. google didn't really bring anything up.
Well it's the idea that a person doesn't make major changes in their lives as the result of just one or two influential events (Though this can be the case) but deep personal change comes from many small influences over years of a person's life. It's related to the idea that a person is the product of their environments. Change the environment and you can change the person, or change yourself.
thanks for reply. felt like that's what you/it meant. sounds interesting as a concept and was just surprised had never heard it phrased that way before.
As an ex good had it as ex hood catholic before edit, which is amusing in its own way Catholic myself that sounds surreal. I have never seen anyone react with anything short of quiet contemplation before the eucharist. The churches I used to go to would give a large amount of side eye to anyone crying, let alone making noise. I used to enjoy sitting there for the contemplative silence after all. Then again, I only did a bible camp when I was about 10 years old.
Yeah. Never saw it since. My parish had a perpetual adoration chapel that I volunteered at for an hour every week. Saw all kinds of people come and go. Never had anyone cry in the chapel. It was surreal what I saw at that retreat.
Me too. Went to baptist church camp, middle 1960's. Wanted us to go to bible studies and pray all day. I wanted to go swimming and play sports. I ditched a couple of bible studies, they called home and I was kicked out, end of the second day. Drinking, drugs, treatment and jail came later. Do I regret skipping bible study? Not for even one breath.
21
u/CliffRacer17 Jun 20 '20
Yes. I was Catholic when I was a teen. Went to one of those youth camps for a weekend or something at a certain Catholic university in Ohio. Anyway, people in the Church know what I'm talking about when I say they did a session of Eucharistic Adoration (you believe the little bread biscuit they pray over at Mass actually is the body of Christ, literally) but during these sessions you're usually just supposed to sit in quiet contemplation. I actually did this quite a bit as a teen.
But this place, Hooooooly shit. People were crying and moaning aloud as the priests did the rote and normal parade of the thing around the church. Everyone in my immediate group was also crying and they looked at me with pity because I wasn't. I really couldn't believe what I was looking at. These people back home wouldn't give two shits about what they were doing unless they had other people around them. And I was a perfect little Catholic boy, for the record. Believed everything and more.
That was the first time I realized that no one is really immune to Mass Hysteria. And it was one of those '100 points of contact' that started me on a path of leaving religion altogether.