What is the Catholic faith and why all the rituals?

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is the founder of the Catholic religion and that it has the marks of the true church, one, holy, Catholic and apostolic. The word Catholic means universal.

From the Douay Rheims, Matthew 16, 17-19, we can see that Jesus gave Peter, the first Pope in the Catholic church, instructions to act as shepherd of the Catholic church with Jesus as the Head of the church. And Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Matt 16, 17-19

The Holy Mass is not a ritual. It is a remembrance of the Last Supper. At the consecration, the host and the wine become Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. At the Holy Eucharist, Jesus is truly present. We receive Him, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.

Here, we can read about the first Mass, at the Last Supper, in Matthew 26, 26-28, And whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and gave to his disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is my body. And taking the chalice, he gave thanks and gave to them, saying: Drink ye all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.

Refer to Luke 1 for part of the Hail Mary. The latter part simply asks Mary to pray for us.

To clarify this, Catholics confess their sins to God. That part is mentioned in the bible, but it does say in revelation, if you add to or take away from the bible , you will pay the price, and I highly suggest for all to read all passages in the Bible for more clarification. As the case in point goes, the Bible was not written until after 300 a.d., not sure of exact year, so the Bible is really based on tradition and what was passed on in the Catholic church.

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Catholics do not pray to Mary. We honor her, because she was Jesus's Mother. It says in the bible to honor your father and mother. She was the greatest mother of all! Plus, When we say the hail mary, we are not praying to her. we are asking her to pray for us. Hail mary, full of grace the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy wom Jesus, Holy mary, mother of God PRAY FOR US SINNERS, now and at the hour of our death.

God isnt Catholic, or lutheran, or baptist, etc.. he is God. I dont think he cares how we worship him as long as we do! Some dance, some sing, some dont. some pray the "lords prayer". Some dont. Some raise their hands in praise, some dont. When it comes down to it... As long as we all beleive in the trinity, Jesus as the son of God, The fact that Jesus died for our sins, The fact that you need to accept Jesus into your heart to be saved. Baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We all worship the Same God and the same Jesus.

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Because man is human and the rituals are for him. People love rituals. We have lots and lots. I am sure there are plenty of little rituals in each day. My daily rituals include a slow morning strech of my whole body. It gives me a feeling of health and wholeness. And a pot of tea, boiling the water heating the pot, sraining it again, adding the leaves and addind the rest of the water is a little ritual that makes the tea taste better and it is more special. The rituals are to help man feel his faith more fully, and to show how special and important our faith is to us. The communion is a beautiful thing and the preceeding ritual shows how important and special it is. There should be more ritual to receiving the body of christ than there is for receiving a mcdonalds hamburger, dont you think? Other than that the Catholic faith (and that is the correct wording, it is not a seperate religion) is one of the two original organised churches. The other is the estern orthodox. They count their popes starting from St. Peter the apostle and are slow to change. A lot of the robes that seem so silly looking to outsiders are actually very close to everyday clothing styles from centuries ago. The church has changed the styles of the robes several times and each time they change them to something similar to lay clothing, except a coupla centuries dated. They, are just very very conservative dressers. :) A lot of the pagentry is also from when people couldnt read and church was one of the things that they did for enjoyment during the week. It was a break from work and a chance to get together with neighbours. When you are fighting going fishing it is good to have drama and splendor and the average uneduated person would expect an allmighty god to have a very splendid house indeed. Also, it is a way of showing reverence to god himself. That you take the time to slow down and go through the steps gives you time to change gears and reflect on why you are in church and what it all means. The job of the church is not to play god but to help you be in and stay in the correct mindset concerning god. Try going to a catholic service sometime, they are beautiful and a lot of the rituals will make a lot of sense if you just experience them. They are beautiful in their own right and need no other excuse to exist.

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As history shows us, real studied history ( go look for it, its out there) the Catholic church is a Christian religion, the first one, to be exact, as stated earlier, founded by Jesus. IDOLS are forbidden. And idols are still forbidden in the Catholic church. What does an idol mean, something fake that someone worships? Only thing is, Catholics don't worship idols. Statues and holy cards are simply reminders as photographs remind us of people we love. They worship God. No image is to be made of heaven or of anything on earth to be given reverance to. Exactly. Read that again and again. Catholics NEVER give reverence to a false image, but rather to God. Catholics confess their sins to God as according to the Bible. No other god , idol, man, animal,etc. are to be prayed to, asked for help, thanks, except God. Exactly, and Catholics don't pray to any other god, man, idol or animal. He also said that the Saints are not dead. They are living in Heaven. Even Christ States when an apostle askes him how do we pray, he says ,"Our Father, who art in heaven..." Not even to himself did christ say to pray, but just directly to "Father". Just study things as they are without letting the dogma around you distort truth. And if you don't listen to the dogma, you ignore the truth. Study all religions, find the source of truth. The truth has been broken up throughout all religions, piece together the right inside yourself.

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The Catholic religion is an old religion. It dates back to the beginning of Christianity as according to Matthew 16, 17-19, it was founded by Jesus.

First answer by Vizzini. Last edit by Mary905. Contributor trust: 52 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 107 [recommend question]