St. Paul teaches us this morning: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, stand firm and
hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either
by an oral statement or by a letter of ours.”
Many
people in our society scoff at Catholics, claiming we are too traditional. Yet
this is one of the features of our faith I love the most.
I
have seen how beautiful our traditions are in a particular setting—near death
or within tragedy. During seminary
I had the opportunity to spend a summer as a hospital chaplain. Our job was to be present to patients
facing illness, injury or death itself and the opportunity often arose to pray
with these men and women.
One of the greatest gifts I received that summer was
recognizing how powerful our simple traditions are. Many tears were shed praying the Lord’s Prayer—a prayer
everyone knows no matter when they came to church last. Often enough these words helped a
patient pray for the first time in years.
The same is true with the Sign of the Cross. I have seen on several occasions a person who had lost cognitive
functions make the sign of the cross or attempt to do so.
Everything we do and believe in our faith has a
purpose. The daily traditions in
which we participate are working, not only consciously, but also in our
subconscious. They become so
engrained that when everything else may be lost, we have a means to pray.
Let us stand fast today in the traditions we have been
taught within our Catholic faith.
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