How the Catholic Mass and Catholic Churches Are Reflective of Pagan Traditions - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

How the Catholic Mass and Catholic Churches Are Reflective of Pagan Traditions - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com


Most Catholics can go through the Catholic Mass in their head without any problem. They can point out major characteristics at a moment's notice without hesitation. They can picture what the inside of a Catholic
Church is without being inside. What most Catholics don't know is that much of the Catholic Mass and design of Catholic churches has been taken from pagan rituals.

Most Catholic churches will have many statures around that will represent different important people from Church history such as the Saints. This idea was actually taken from the ancient Roman and Greek temples. There would be statues around to signify the different gods and goddesses that they worshiped.

Older Catholic churches are in the shape of a cross. Many people believe that this is to remind a person that Jesus died on the Cross. It was actually taken from many of the ancient pagan designs that would have a wing of the temple face north, one to the south, one to the east, and one to the west.

The pews in the Catholic churches are actually a throwback to some of the ancient Roman temples that would have long aisles of benches for the believers to sit on.

Most Catholic churches will have a large amount of gold in them. This is also reflective of the ancient temples that held gold above all else.

The Catholic altar has a cloth that covers it, and candles around it. The ancient druids used to cover their altar in a white cloth, and would have candles around to ward off evil spirits. They would also have a knife or dagger on the altar.

At one time, priests used to keep a dagger underneath the altar to signify the power of God. Later, the daggers were given to the Knights that would protect the priest and the gold in the Church. These Knights then turned into ushers, but they do not usually carry weapons anymore.

The priest will take water and wine and bless them. Most people point to the paragraphs in the Bible that suggest that we should to this regularly in remembrance of the Last Supper. Communion was not given on a regular basis in churches until the start of the Middle Ages. It was usually reserved for special occasions. There is a reason for this change, though.

When the Church began to spread around the world, it discovered many odd religions that were not interested in converting to Christianity. They had strange customs that seemed foreign to the Church. The customs of the
Christians also seemed strange to the natives that practiced older religions.

The Church realized that it needed to do something to ease the conversions of these natives. What the leaders of the Church decided to do was to incorporate many of the customs of the pagans into the Mass so that there was something that could be recognized as familiar.

When the Christians moved into the land of the Celts, they saw how the druids prepared the altars, and that they blessed water, wine, and bread. The druids did this on a regular basis.

The Church then changed the altars so that they would look the druidic altars. The Church also made the decision to have Communion at Mass on a regular basis.

When the Reformation happened, many of the Protestants decided to do away with many of the old pagan customs since they were portrayed as being evil. This is why most of the Protestant churches do not look anything like Catholic churches.

Is there anything wrong with this former custom of the Christian Church? Not a t all. It showed that the early Christian Church was interested in making changes to incorporate different people into the faith. One of the strong criticisms, though, of the Catholic Church is that this tradition continues to this day.

Comments

Popular Posts