Writing Prompt #4 What spiritual tradition or ritual do you wish you could participate in, but don't. What is holding you back?

The bell made a tinkling sound as I walked through the door into the “Alleluia!” bookstore.  I was making a sensory labyrinth for preschoolers in Sunday School and I needed some myrrh (or frankincense – either one would do) to put on a cotton ball for the them to smell.  As one does.

I had my own young preschooler with me in the store – a child who was used to going into bookstores and seeking out the children’s section to keep herself entertained.  This was a Catholic bookstore, which, in part explained the velvet paintings of Jesus on the walls above us.  Jesus was dying a series of gruesome deaths with vivid drops of blood shining out from the black velvet on Jesus’ hands, feet, and side.  I tried to call my daughter’s attention to the interesting patterns on the carpet beneath our feet.

As an ELCA Lutheran, I have always been fascinated by the “high church” of Catholicism and the differences and similarities to what we believe as a church with a somewhat traditional liturgy and liberal theology.  I feel like, from our history of Martin Luther breaking away from Catholicism, the Catholic church is like a grandparent - or cousin. with traditions linking back further than ours, and the framework that protestant religions are built on.  Catholicism has changed so much since Martin Luther found his 95 issues with it and nailed it to the door of the church.  Just as Lutheranism has changed as well. 

Still, I want to know Catholic traditions and how to incorporate them into my faith background without merely appropriating them.  Catholics have many saints, and hold them dear and still celebrate them.  Lutherans, meanwhile only have a few.  Each year we talk about St. Francis in October and have a “blessing of the animals”, but that is about it. 

As a feminist, I find that the cannon of saints is the one place that I can read about Godly women with actual names (unlike the Bible, who have few women named, many nameless, and the recovery work is ongoing but grueling.)  So many women who stepped up and took risks for God are now saints. 

My sister married into a Catholic family and she got to carry a family rosary when she walked up the aisle.  I have always been fascinated by rosaries – their beauty, the legacy of handing one down, filled with generations of prayer, and the act of praying cyclically without ceasing.  We don’t have something like that in our church, except Taise service music (a simple verse sung repeatedly).

That day, at the Alleluia! Bookstore, I found a nice frankincense/myrrh oil in a vial that I used.  The ladies at the bookstore both had white hair and as one lady showed me to the oils section, she then got swept up in looking at something else for sale – a figurine with a Bible verse and got distracted by her own wares.  You could tell they both loved working there.  I found what I needed, in addition to a book called “Praying in Color”, which I had heard about in my protestant circle as well (about praying through doodling and art). 

Is it appropriation to adopt my “grandmother "church’s practices?  Not that Catholicism is outdated, as we have seen by the current Pope and his outspoken positions that have shook traditionalists.  I try to choose what is appropriate to adopt, since we are from the same source and have similar agendas, but with different symbolism.  Catholics remember the suffering servant by putting Jesus’ wounds front and center, while Lutherans always show an empty cross to remember that he rose again.  Jesus’ suffering is remembered with words from the Bible.

I the spiral labyrinth that I laid out in colorful felt squares, with a chime (sound), frankincense/myrrh (smell), Matzoh bread (taste – well, sort of), Oil on a sponge to make a cross on their forehead with (feel), and crayons and paper to draw a picture of something that they love and put it into the offering (see).  Everything symbolic, but tangible.  Everything based on a foundation that I respect and maintain my curiosity about.  Because curiosity feeds growth, and faith always needs a little watering.