The case for ritual.
Dominus Vobiscum: Notes from a massgoer's underground
Sacramentalism used to be the thing, but in contemporary Catholicism it’s the person. Or so it seems.
We have taken our cue from Evangelical Protestantism, where grace (divine help) comes from praying with partners after service, for example, as at Calvary Memorial in Oak Park, and not from the sacrament.
Potential partners wait at the end of each service, usually couples. It’s ministry up close and personal, to use last year’s hot phrase. And a good thing.
Ritual was the prime medium in Catholicism, not one’s fellow worshipers. This was a major sticking point of the Reformation, contained in the question whether the sinfulness of the minister affected a sacrament’s grace-giving effect.
Ex opere operato was a key term, from or because of the thing done, vs. ex opere operantis, from or because of the one doing it.
It’s a 500-year-old divide. In bald terms, for the sake…
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Blithe Spirit 