Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Going to Mass When You are Angry with God

I know some people stop attending Mass due to something bad happening to them. They blame God and are angry so they walk away.

I've been reading After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope in which women share very painful stories about losing children that they loved.

Abigail Benjamin shares how she did not want to go to Mass the Sunday after her miscarriage had occurred:

"You can stay home," [her husband] said.  "I'm sure it's all right."
"No." I wished I was Protestant again and could skip church whenever I wanted to.
But my "Sunday obligation" saved me. Because if I hadn't gone to Mass on that terrible Sunday when I was so mad at God, I don't know when I would have returned. It might have been only a week, but it probably would have been much, much longer. . . . 
As Catholics we can't opt out while we manage our grief. . . Each Sunday we're required to be in a pew at Mass. And that is not a pain-in-the-neck requirement. That is a grace. Because it is when we are bleeding and in pain, when we are angry and lost, when we most don't want to be in a church that God has the most to say to us. 

She then goes on to relate the ways God helped her that day when she did go to Mass.

If you've stopped attending Mass because you are angry with God, please consider this your invitation to return. The door is always open. God is always waiting.

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