"Routine-istic"

I think she blended "routine" with "ritualistic."

My Filipino friend was explaining why she became Baptist after moving to America a few years ago as a lifelong Catholic, citing routine Catholic rituals that didn't hold her interest. Her parish went through the same old things week after week.

Her new Baptist church, on the other hand, studies the Word of God and offers a warmer, friendlier environment, she says in so many words.

For me, at least, it's hard to reason with someone wooed by the warmth of a good Southern Baptist church without sounding argumentative or academic. I understand that not everyone who betrays her Catholic Faith is a victim of the warm fuzzies, but for those who are, I'm at a loss for words. While there's little I can say, of course there's much I can pray.

Still, I consider what my friend said, and I end up explaining it to myself in a way I can understand. (It's all about "cultivating the Catholic conscience.")

First, the Catholic Church is the premiere "Bible Church." It's the Church that preserved the Bible, canonized the books of the Bible, and exists as the Church of the Bible. We are engaged visually by the biblical scenes portrayed in works of art. We are engaged auricularly as we hear the numerous readings that systematically work their way through the Word of God, the Bible. And, most importantly, we are engaged spiritually by literally communing with the Word of God through the Real Presence of the Eucharist.

If you're looking for a solid "Bible study" -- examining the depths of Holy Writ -- then there are many such Catholic Bible studies. It's just not the goal of the divine liturgy. Mass is a class, but for the spirit and not necessarily (although sometimes) for the intellect. That's what Wednesday- and Sunday-night Bible studies are for. You cannot read the works of Catholic writer and teacher Scott Hahn, for example, and claim that Catholics have little to offer those who hunger for in-depth Bible study.

If you're looking for social networking, you can go to any number of your parish's activities -- but Mass is not the live Catholic version of Yahoo!'s "Chat Central."

You can find friends and studies easily enough as a Catholic, but most importantly you get:

• All the sacraments, notably the Eucharist and Reconciliation
• Bishops and priests who are given authority to say Mass
• The pope, successor to St. Peter, the "rock" upon whom Christ built His Church, who shepherds the "Church militant" (i.e., the Church on earth)
• Authentic teaching handed down by the apostles, preserved and codified by the Church's Magesterium throughout its history

Yes, it's easy to get hooked on a religious feeling, but why not seek to be reeled in by the Truth who will set you free?

I'll pray that my friend returns to full communion with the Church, which, in obedience to Jesus' ancient instruction, goes through the "same old things week after week": celebrates Mass (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).