"I don't get anything out of Mass."

"I don't get anything out of Mass" is perhaps the worst excuse I hear, and I hear it often.

The reason you don't get anything about of Mass is because you don't want to. You don't put anything into it. You don't even try. You just sit there waiting to be spoon-fed a happy feeling or get zapped by some zeal that makes you feel good.

You go with an attitude. You go with doubt. You go with prejudice and even a sort of hatred towards the Mass and then wonder why everything goes in one ear and out the other.

If you knew. If you truly knew what the Mass was about, you'd get so very very much out of it. It would draw you in. It would call to you. It wouldn't be an obligation to go to Mass. It would be a gift and you'd desire it! You wouldn't be able to keep away and feel tremendous loss when you did keep away!

Oh, how much you miss, you willfully miss, because you bought the lie that church has to entertain you somehow.

It is the utmost of laziness to say you don't get anything out of the Mass as an excuse not to go and then do absolutely nothing to remedy it, and even stop anyone from attempting to help you.

At least be honest. You don't want anything out of Mass. You don't want it because deep in your spirit you know it to be true and you know that if you start "getting something out of Mass" you have to be responsible to it and grow. You don't want to do that because then it means taking a good hard look at yourself and seeing yourself for who you really are. You think that making changes and becoming more Godly will hurt you and make you take down that wall you built around yourself to protect yourself. If you become Catholic you have to stop your raging temper and foul language and all the other weapons in your armory that you use to protect yourself and make yourself feel strong so no one walks all over you.

You'd have to give up idle entertainments you use to mollify yourself and make you feel better about yourself.

Do you honestly think that God's ok with you just floating around in the world shirking your deeper duties and only having a vague belief in Him? Do you honestly think he's ok with you ignoring the roles He commands of you? So you tease and you joke that you're going to hell as if hell can't be any worse than your life right now. You are choosing to damn yourself and possibly your children.
Well, I have news for you. I've called upon Christ the King and His Joseph and Mary to needle you, to nag you. You play your junk music and idle videos loudly to drown out the sounds of faithfulness and goodness, but they are just earthly noise. Nothing can beat the Heavenly music. You shut yourself up and sleep long hours to avoid staring at the responsibilities before you that you don't want to face, but they will haunt your dreams. On Sunday mornings you will yearn and angst and feel itchy and make excuses to yourself, but you'll know your place is not just following me to Mass to leading all of us there. Soon, you'll throw on old jeans and boots and trudge along and plop yourself in the pew, telling yourself over and over again that you "don't get anything out of Mass." But soon, you'll be digging in the back of the closet looking for the suit that doesn't fit you. As you scold your daughter for not wearing a dress, you'll feel that sting in your own heart concerning your own dress, attendance, and participation.

I admit, I'm miffed, but determined and this is for your own good! The children will go where you lead. You know this, I know this, God knows this, and the devil knows this. You played the game in the protestant churches, partly for me, partly for yourself. And I appreciate any growth you got out of it. But, we both know what's Truth. Deep down we do. And it's time to stop fooling around and embrace it. It's time to stop dilly-dallying in the world, acting like a petulant, bored teenager trying to invent purpose and direction in life, and embrace what is REAL and TRUE and already our God-given calling.