MGB:_In college intro to philosophy on first day we covered the fact that we had a spirit because we can think about our thinking. Indeed, all abstract thinking is spiritual, as is using spirituality to go beyond limitations, whether it is playing in the zone or finding a higher power to recover from alcoholism. Indeed, it is alcoholics in recovery who coined the term spiritual but not religioius because they can recover with spirituality while not necessarily going back to their childhood religion with its version of a punishing God, whether Catholic or Evangelical.
As for other Catholics, the Tridentine Mass was a good place to hide. While some certainly remembered the Latin and followed along, others likely turned off their ears for the hour. Conformity is described by Daniel Dennett as a belief in the belief in God. Such a shema is no longer necessary. Now many go to brunch instead of Mass. What they ignore is that someone who may be religious now has to feed them. Ooops.
Lenten fasting and weekly abstinence or the replacement penance, beyond environmental considerations (making sure wheat was available to all, rich and poor and that fish would be sold) were meant to encounter suffering as a means to cultivate the need for a higher power. It morphed into the ridiculous idea that we could somehow add to the merits of Christ through our efforts, which is actually very prideful thinking. Sadly, minor penances and prideful penances (such as the self-scourging of both Shia Muslims and Opus Dei) fail to produce the kind of spiritual bottom that Christ suffered on the Cross and that alcoholics, the sick, the dying, the poor and the righteous (not the self-righteous) experience as the need for a higher power. That kind of spiritual hunger is what it takes to be radicalized into the kingdom of God, to be born again. Simply going through the motions and following doctrine just does not cut it.
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