welcome to the story.

The modern Protestant church is so scared of anything that has a hint of "Catholic" in it. In many respects, SOME of the sacraments that the Catholic still practice, were a vital part of the early church. Sadly, after the Reformation, we don't touch these sacraments with a 10 foot pole. And in the process we rob ourselves of the mystery, symbolism, and spirituality of these practices. The only sacrament that the modern, Protestant church holds as biblical, is the sacrament of "the preaching of the Word of God." Since I've been reading Dallas Willard lately, I'll quote from him again. "We came to think that, in the language of some Protestants, "the Word of God is the only sacrament." And what that meant practically was that the sole means of spiritual growth was being taught and "preached at" - that we're saved and transformed by hearing the truths of the scriptures, we're redeemed by the truths which the conservative and evangelical segments of the church rightly stood for. We're saved by believing them, we're sanctified by believing them, and all issues of spiritual growth are dealt with simply by taking the word in through reading it, through hearing it, through exhortation and ministry from the scriptures. Or so we've thought . . . it certainly involves the ministry of the Word, certainly involves worship. We're pretty good with these practices, but the ones that look more "Catholic", like solitude, silence, and so on, we're not so good with those. And usually, I find, they deal with the areas where our deepest problem lies."