We have all heard it said (or perhaps yourself?) that “I am spiritual, but not religious.”

But what does this mean?

Let’s start with the definition of “religious”:

Religion is a moral virtue that enables us to give back to God the worship and service He deserves.

Religion is also a matter of justice. Since God gives us all, Christians give Him back “all”, with the fullness of their gratitude and love.

“Spirituality” is the simply the way in which one lives out his religion.

So one can conclude there can’t be spirituality without religion, whatever form it takes.

Does this mean we should worship God however we want?

No.

Is there, then, a correct way to worship within a religion?

Yes.

Who says so?

God.

Prescriptions

God came down to us through the Immaculate Virgin to show us the way to the Father (through Jesus) and to establish a Church on earth to help us on the road to heaven.

The night before He was crucified, Jesus told His priests in the Upper Room to “do this in remembrance of Me.”

The Jewish interpretation of “remembrance” means to “make present” something that has already happened.

That means, a Jew would know to “enter into” that same moment and “re-live” it as if it had just happened, even thousands of years later.

Since the Last Supper happened on the anniversary of the Jewish Passover meal, they would have recalled the Book of Exodus when God asked them to slay a young lamb or goat per family.

It was a sacrificial offering to God; they had to put the blood of their lamb/goat on their doorposts so He would “pass-over” their houses as He purged Egypt of their first-born sons.

They also had to roast and eat their Passover lamb/goat.

In doing so, God set them free from the bonds of slavery to the Egyptian pharaoh all those years ago.

The next morning, they left their homes in Egypt–and were free.

A High Priest and a sacrifice

Hence, the Last Supper is a sacrifice. And God–Who instituted the first Passover and brought it to its fruition–has fulfilled it in His Son, Who is the High Priest and the sacrificial Lamb.

What a gift to us!

Why do we offer sacrifice? Because God asked us to.

Every year Jews had to travel to the Temple and make a sacrificial offering with an animal (Deut 16:6,16) to celebrate the Feast of Passover to “re-live” what God had done for them. It is what God told them to do.

It is the same with Catholics today at the Mass.

Through the priesthood, the Sacrifice of the Mass “makes present” Jesus and His bloody sacrifice in an unbloody way, so that we can consume Him as the Sacrificial Lamb, taking Him into our bodies and souls so we will have the strength to sustain us on our journeys into the freedom of heaven, and be set free from sin and spiritual death (CCC 1366).

Since Jesus is God He is outside of space and time. That is how He can be made present at every Mass at every moment of every day around the world!

Favors

Since Jesus said, “do this” at the Last Supper, shouldn’t we worship the way He asked us to?

Who is doing who a favor?

When we don’t follow His prescribed rubrics of worship, it becomes about us, not Him.

If God is the most Holy, omnipresent, omniscient, all good, and all just, what does that make us?

The ones needing His favor, help and mercy.

True worship offers sacrifice

This means the essence of worship is not in the singing, the preaching, the chanting or even the prayers.

True worship offers sacrifice.

And not just any sacrifice…it makes present the one and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross at Golgotha (Heb 10:10).

And what better way to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption today than by partaking in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? (It is, after all, a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics.)

As St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) beautifully said of Mary, our Mother, and the Mother of our God: “The world being unworthy to receive the son of God directly from the hands of the Father, he gave his son to Mary for the world to receive him from her.”

Have a blessed Feast of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary!

Marian Hymn:

Hail, of paradise the portal!

Tree of Life regained, immortal;

Whence, through thee, all sweetness floweth,

And salvation’s fruit still groweth.

Thou our hearts aright inclinest,

On our life’s way brightly shinest;

Us from God’s just anger savest,

Who to man our Saviour gavest.

Hail! Blest shrine of God the Father,

Thither sinners haste to gather;

Pardon for their guilt obtaining,

Freedom from the foe’s enchaining;

Strength from thee the weak shall borrow,

Comfort, thou, of all who sorrow;

From the final wrath tremendous,

Mother of our Christ, defend us.

Star of ocean! Mother fairest!

Who the name of Mary bearest;

In thy bright illumination

Pales each star and constellation.

Hail, O Father! Hail, sweet Mother!

Hail, O Son of God, our Brother!

Let the hosts of heaven adore thee,

Every spirit bow before thee.