Soul and Sacrament

I wrote this nine years ago on my Facebook group, Daily Communicants: Yesterday I was blessed to spend a few hours chatting with a new friend. When we shared our stories and I told her that I left the Church for 15 years and that the Eucharist was the reason I returned, she asked me probably one of the most important questions I've ever been asked.    She asked "What would it have taken for you to stay, to never have left?" Wow. I told her if someone had taught me what the Eucharist and the Mass were really all about, what an indispensable treasure we have in them, and that they are the deal breakers of Christianity as given to us by Christ and established by the Early Church Fathers and the first century Church, then I would never have left.    Like Jeff Cavins says in I'M NOT BEING FED: “What will you exchange the very body and blood of Jesus Christ for? A better song, one that makes you feel better?    Will you exchange the body and blood of Jes...

I always smile when someone tells me that they attend a non-denominational church. I’m a dictionary fan so I know that the word ‘denomination’ means ‘an act of denominating’ (according to Merriam-Webster). To denominate (again, according to M-W) means ‘to give a name to, to designate.’ In one sense, for a church to be non-denominational, it must be nameless, without designation. However, what most people mean when they say they are non-denominational and attend a non-denominational church is that their church, and thus their belief system, is not a part of a mainstream denomination or belief system (think Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc.) When someone says they are non-denominational, they usually state it with the connotation that there is something negative or wrong about belonging to a ‘denominational church.’ All churches, even ‘non-denominational’  churches follow belief systems, doctrinal guidelines, and practice worship in the same wa...