Why Do We Catholics do that? A Lenten Proposal

The other Sunday I came across a little blurb in my parish bulletin, you’ve probably all seen something similar. The headline is usually something like this;

“WHY DO CATHOLICS DO THAT?”

If you ask anyone, the response you get will probably be; to encourage apologetics, or to foster “the New Evangelization,” or, looking at the state of the Church today, to counter the abysmal catechesis of the last fifty years or so.

Anyway, the article takes a Catholic practice, like ashes to begin Lent, for example, and gives a tortured, often convoluted explanation, from tradition, Magisterium, and occasionally even from scripture! It’s all well and good, based, as it is, on Saint Peter’s admonition to be “...ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you,” 1 Peter 3:15. But, there’s a better way!

Amid the turbulence of the 1960’s the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council did something marvelous! They called for the revamping of the Divine Office, the Liturgy of the Hours, making it more accessible to the laity, and, in fact, encouraging all Catholics to pray, at least, morning and evening prayer!

This ancient devotion, for most of its history, reserved to the priesthood and religious, (perhaps because the majority of people, until the last few hundred years, couldn’t read.) But now that’s changed, and with its revamping the Liturgy of the Hours has become the antidote for all that bad catechesis! That fact was driven home to me this past Friday, the first Friday of Lent. Praying my Morning Office, (Friday, week 4 of the Four Week Psalter.) I found myself reading a “why do Catholics do that” article, a prophetic Catechism, if you will, in psalms and Old Testament readings, for example;

Why do Catholics genuflect when entering a church or before the Blessed Sacrament?

“Come, let us bow down in worship, bending the knee before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.”
Psalm 95:6-7, (Invitatory Psalm)

Followed by,

Why do Catholics baptize by sprinkling?

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God”
Ezekiel 36:25-28, (Old Testament Canticle)

And finally,

Why do Catholics pray morning, evening, and night prayers, (Liturgy of the Hours?)

“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to thy name, O Most High; to declare thy steadfast love in the morning, and thy faithfulness by night,”
Psalm 92:1-2

That last reading from Psalm 92, is to my point! Those Council Fathers, were making it possible for us, all of us, clergy, religious, and laity to pray the “prayer of the Church,” “His love in the morning, His faithfulness by night,” and, along the way, to learn, really learn, our Catholic Faith! So, whether you choose the current Christian Prayer, the traditional Officium Divinum, The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the simplified monthly Magnificat, I encourage you this Lenten season to join in this wonderful prayer of the Church! And find out for yourself just why we Catholics do that!!