Speak Ye Uncomfortably to Jerusalem
The mail has brought a packet of advertising from a big Protestant outfit called the Christian Purchasing Network. Among the ads is one with this headline: “Most Comfortable Church Chair in America!” Below that are a photo of the chair and a list of its virtues, among them:
Premium Comfort Best Value
New ComfortWeb Seat An Innovation
Never “Bottom Out” Again
It’s Like Sitting on a Cloud.
That’s good ad copy — straightforward and enthusiastic — but it arouses curious sensations. No, not because it promises “an innovation,” though the NOR is known for carefully scrutinizing claims involving that word. The odd sensations are aroused by the offer to make worshipers supremely comfortable in church. A comfortable seat at the ballgame is good. A comfortable seat at the opera would be nice. A comfortable chair at your desk can make the workday pleasanter. But in church?
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Key to the great apostasy is the liturgy. “The way we treat the liturgy,” Benedict said, “determines the destiny of the faith and the Church.”
We are each created for a supernatural end that is, as such, beyond our nature but not beyond our possibility since we are also given the grace to accept it.
"Harden not your hearts! And soften not your seats."