How many times a week does a person need to go to church?

You know, growing up as a Southern Baptist, I didn't think any religion had more church services than we did. We used to have Monday night youth group, Wednesday night prayer services, and then Sunday morning and evening services.

I was wrong. My husband went to All Saints mass last night, All Souls' mass tonight, and tomorrow he will go to Saturday night mass.

No, I am not going with him. The Catholic church makes me very angry during election years and I don't want to walk out in the middle of mass again.

*sigh*

When is enough

enough?

a lot.

I guess you have a point there.

Why do you say they are giving away food? The bread and wine deal, or something about All Souls Day?

Reason I ask is I had a few Jewish friends and there was a tradition where they had to give me hella groceries when it happened. Something about them not being allowed in the house.

:hi:

because my employer fought my unemployment compensation and won. I got the address of a bunch of them. One was at a St. Vincent DePauls, not a Church, but a Catholic run Charity.

The other was at a Hispanic Church. And they were the nicest people in the world. The people in line were not just Hispanic but every race. And every time I walked in the door there was a sign saying what time a meal was being served. So if you didn't want to go to the food pantry, you could walk in, sit down, and just wait inside for a meal and eat. No religion, no questions, you might not even speak Spanish. Just food if you were hungry. It was lovely. I presume from the decor that it was Catholic and I don't remember the name of it, but I was very touched by what they were doing.

to humanity.

Chametz is what I guess my friends were getting rid of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chametz

:shrug:

So what do I know?

:shrug:

I don't feel I need to, either. Sometimes I feel I've already attended enough church services for 3 people, anyway!

My feeling, too. Thanks.

The church I went to growing up had them every chance they got.

I don't remember the pot luck dinners. I do remember getting into trouble for yawning so much during Bible study though!

:rofl:

I did it for maybe a few months tops. They had all kinds of crap they wanted you to go to:

- The Sunday service at 11:00

- The Wednesday/Friday evening Bible Study

- The Tuesday/Thursday "public display of worship"

- And finally the big one - the 6:00AM daily devotional.

I got a lot of shit for not participating in the last one, and that's only because I'm the last person you want to deal with at 6:00AM.

I had to laugh at your last sentence. There is no way I could go to his Catholic church at 6 a.m. I'd get permanently kicked out of the church, for sure!

:rofl:

That's why I quit. That plus one day I was there and they wanted people to go door to door "spreading the faith". At that point I was just like "fuck it, I quit".

I told them I couldn't sing...but noooooo... they didn't believe me!

:rofl:

my dad would go on Weds for bible study and prayer meetings,
then he went every day
he became a presbyterian minister....

oh yeah... I am the ministers daughter!!!!

:evilgrin: :evilgrin:

ok, not for nothing
we started packing the house....
and collecting personal records...
we were moving to Africa to be missionaries...
half of me is happy we didn't
the other half wishes with all her heart we did......


yeah we stayed in NJ



lost

Always getting into trouble? :hi:

fucking A

My Dad also founded the drug abuse committee in our town

we had the friggin hotline in our house.

DO NOT TOUCH!!!!!!

yeah i didn't go to church....


lost

Or, somewhere between zero and one maybe!

If you're asking about me, zero. :shrug:

three times a week is a bit much... too much!

Why bother? :shrug:

If GOD is everywhere, then why go?

Good point. :-)

I dated a man whose father was a Southern Baptist Minister (don't laugh) and being a catholic girl myself, I figured I could handle it....

You see, you may find catholicism to be out there, and I found all this youth group and bible group stuff to be out there too.

to each his own my friend....

we can only hope for church without politics and politics without church

..and be a little more pro peace. One of these days, during their "Lord hear our prayer" where they ask God to make the abortion laws more strict... I swear... I am going to scream, "Yeah, they love you until you're born!!"

It's probably better I don't attend until after '08.

funny, little mb went to catholic school and we never had to hear anti-abottion stuff - mostly had to "witness" from fundy MIL.

BTW- :hi: how are ya?

I'm fine, thanks. Just a whole lot of stuff happened at once and it was overwhelming. But, most of it has calmed down now (shh... I didn't say that too loudly, did I?) :hi:

(either Saturday evening or on Sunday). There are, however, several feast days during the year known as "Holy Days of Obligation" - and All Saints Day is one. These are days that Catholics also are "required" to attend mass (unless there are situations beyond your control). Sometimes, if the Holy Days are close to Sunday, then going to mass on Sunday will also fulfill your obligation for the Holy Day (this is fairly recent).

As far as All Soul's Day is concerned, its not a Holy Day of Obligation, so Catholics aren't required to attend, but many do since it is a day when we pray for those family and friends who have died.

Of course mass is offered every day of the week, so some Catholics (like my Dad) go every day.

Hope this helps.

Tim

I knew all this... just venting. Thank you for your response. :hug:

:)

I'll usually go for the Wednesday youth group (for the young adults) and the Sunday youth group (for the kids, where I'll help out my youth coordinator). I'll sometimes attend the morning services (I should do this more often actually) and very occasionally I'll go for a cafe-style event they have on Sunday nights. I intend to start going more often to the cafe-style event and maybe to the Sunday morning services

Having said that, my Church is very progressive. They even allowed a Hindu wedding ceremony to be performed within their building and they're quite liberal on social and foreign policy issues as well

Or is it non-denominational?

I'm not sure what the equivalent is in the US -it's a combination of Methodists, Presbyterians and another Protest denomination. It's one of the more liberal denominations in Australia

The only English phrase spoken was, "Go now, the mass has ended."

...and I was out like a shot.

Religion should never be confused with spirituality. As far as I'm concerned, the entire world is the church of life.

Truer words are rarely spoken.

If anyone asks about you not bringing food, just say "We were driving by and just decided to come in and see what your church is like. We haven't been to church in years and it was like a big hand pushed our car off the road into your parking lot!"

The part about the big hand pushing the car into the church parking lot gets them every time. They will get up and bring you desert, twice, and tell you every detail about the church.

Next Wednesday go to a different church.

Church = a creepy, musty-smelling building where you waste a shipload of time hearing a lot of nonsense and garbage about nonexistent things.

There, I've just freed up lots of time for you. You're welcome! :hi:

:evilgrin:

We only went once a week plus Cathechism classes (one per week). Except for certain times of the year like Ash Wednesday, Holy Week (Palm Sunday through Easter) and All Saints/All Souls days.

Some people during the entire Lenten season also went on Fridays for Stations of the Cross, but my parents never made me do that.

All I feel in church is boredom and like part of a cog in the machine.

:scared:

ask yourself "Why do I go."

The answer is probably in there somewhere.

And stay away from the creamsauce covered stringbeans at the potluck...

We were Presbyterians. I grew up in suburban Atlanta and never once heard of anyone going to any church more than once a week. When we moved to NC in 1975, kids at school talked about going to church on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday evening. :wtf: I thought that was excessive, as did my parents.

It's a moot question for me now since I'm agnostic anyway, but I asked the same question way back when. When is enough enough? :shrug: