{"id":285138,"date":"2018-03-26T06:51:34","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T10:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=285138"},"modified":"2018-03-26T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T18:54:21","slug":"easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Easter is calling me back to the Church…’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one woman\u2019s perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times<\/a>.<\/strong>\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining:<\/p>\n

\n

In this house, we have never been Christmas-and-Easter-only Christians. My husband and I grew up in the church and raised our children there. Even during the hardest years, when mobilizing three young sons and various configurations of elderly parents felt like running the Iditarod every Sunday morning \u2014 even then, we didn\u2019t miss Mass.<\/p>\n

But the 2016 presidential election\u00a0changed all that for me<\/a>. I just couldn\u2019t forgive my fellow Christians for electing a man who exploited his employees, boasted about his sexual assaults, encouraged violence against citizens who disagreed with him, mocked the disabled and welcomed the support of virulent white supremacists. This is what Jesus meant when he told his followers to love one another?<\/p>\n

At church, all I could think about were the millions of people likely to lose their health insurance thanks to Catholic bishops who opposed the birth control mandate in the Affordable Care Act. I was supposed to be thinking about the infinite love of a merciful God, but all I could hear were thousands of Christians shouting, \u201cBuild that wall!\u201d By the time Easter had come and gone, I was gone too.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But, she concludes, she needs to go back:<\/p>\n

\n

I miss being part of a congregation. I miss standing side by side with other people, our eyes gazing in the same direction, our voices murmuring the same prayers in a fallen world. I miss the wiggling babies grinning at me over their parents\u2019 shoulders. I miss reaching for a stranger to offer the handshake of peace. I miss the singing.<\/p>\n

So I will be at Mass again on Easter morning, as I have been on almost every Easter morning of my life. I will wear white and remember the ones I loved who sat beside me in the pew and whose participation in the eternal has found another form, whatever it turns out to be. I will lift my voice in song and give thanks for my life. I will pray for my church and my country, especially the people my church and my country are failing. And then I will walk into the world and do my best to practice resurrection.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Notably, she doesn\u2019t seem to have missed the sacraments, the Eucharist, or anything like that. She doesn\u2019t miss Mass or Reconciliation or hearing the priest (or deacon) break open the Word in a homily. She doesn\u2019t miss the music or the prayers or anything that most of us might consider, somehow, transcendent.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m grateful she wants to return. But, reading her reflections, I wonder how many others like her carry similar sentiments.<\/p>\n

And I wonder what we as a Church can do about it.<\/p>\n

Read it all.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s one woman\u2019s perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never been Christmas-and-Easter-only Christians. My husband and I grew up in the church and raised our children there. Even during the hardest years, when mobilizing three young sons and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":11952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,48],"tags":[11189],"class_list":["post-285138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parish-life","category-the-people-in-the-pews","tag-parish-life"],"yoast_head":"\n'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-26T10:51:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-26T18:54:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2012\/03\/young-woman-praying-in-church.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"282\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/\",\"name\":\"'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-26T10:51:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-26T18:54:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"‘Easter is calling me back to the Church…’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'","description":"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'","og_description":"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2018-03-26T10:51:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-26T18:54:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"425","height":"282","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2012\/03\/young-woman-praying-in-church.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/","name":"'Easter is calling me back to the Church...'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-26T10:51:34+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-26T18:54:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"Here's one woman's perspective, from the op-ed page of The New York Times.\u00a0 She stopped going to Mass last year, explaining: In this house, we have never","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/03\/easter-is-calling-me-back-to-the-church\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"‘Easter is calling me back to the Church…’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}