Our dude was inspired to visit a Roman Catholic Church for a daily mass. The dude’s inspiration came when the priest to the church came to visit the dude’s domain. The domain of the dude was not his own but a shared space where coffee is sold. The priest walked to sit nearby our dude. Having never seen this man before, our dude asked the man in black with a white collar if he was Lutheran, so as not to be tricked.
The man said, “No, Catholic at the church down the street.”
The two talked and our dude shared a yet to be published blog post.
The conversation with the Catholic priest came at a time when the dude was considering a very strong and hard right turn towards Jesus after spending just over a year reading Chabad-Lubavitch. Our dude was reading Chabad-Lubavitch inspired by recent world events. He recalled a lesson from the Warner Bros Bugs Bunny, “If you can’t beat ‘em — join ‘em.”
Our dude felt like Jesus made a very loud call to him by sending a priest to his domain. He was inspired to observe a weekday mass.
The dude set his intention to be resolute and observe the mass objectively by not participating in showing reverence during the service.
Despite his intention to be irreverent, a spec entered the dude’s eye sometime between entering the sanctuary and sitting in a back pew.
The spec irritated our dude - distracting him from being able to objectively observe the practice and ceremony. He thought of how he could find relief. Shaking his head in amazement and smiling, he bowed his head. He allowed his eyes to water to flush the spec, the smoke from the incense helped the process.
As he sat there recovering, he noticed everyone else still sitting in the church after the priest walked away from the altar. So, our dude continued to sit. Some time would pass, a person or two would leave. More time passed and another person or two left. Then, after however long a period, the priest re-appeard, put something away, said more things and again walked away from the altar. Then the people began to leave.
Our dude was very intrigued. He did not know Catholics sit in meditation together, a practice our dude experienced with the Religious Society of Friends.
The dude had more to experience and learn at a place that can mystically cause our dude to be reverent.
