Friday, December 14, 2012

Christian Practices in a Consumer Culture

Vox Nova has an inspiring article about Christian Practices in a Consumer Culture.

The article suggests, basically, that we practice Catholic spirituality in order to give ourselves a bit of a distance from modern culture so we can make conscious decisions about  how it affects our lives.

It suggests such things as not shopping on Sundays, not eating meat on Fridays and not watching television.  Recently, Cardinal Dolan of New York, suggested that the Catholic practice of eating fish on Fridays should continue.  Twitter exploded in a barrage of support for this suggestion, which surprised even the Cardinal.  I think we, as Catholics, hunger for a particular identity, which has been lost in our attempts to fit into the mainly Protestant, and now, Atheist/Agnostic culture around us.

Another very interesting suggestion is to renew the idea of a family meal.  Pointing out that Christ's salvific sacrifice is inevitably tied into the Last Supper, and therefore, the Eucharist, at Christ's own initiation, the article says that although we need food to live, we are so divorced from its origins and importance, that the symbolic meaning in Communion is all but lost.

Lots of "food for thought" from Vox Nova.


4 comments:

kkollwitz said...

We quit TV for Lent about 17 years ago and never looked back. We have Netflix now which tends to be self-rationing.

Staying in Balance said...

We don't have tv reception here and I refuse to pay for cable.

We watch Netflix as well. Unfortunately, for us, the internet is *not* self-limiting!

Barbara Schoeneberger said...

Excellent post. If my husband weren't addicted to sports, I'd be perfectly happy to have no TV except for watching Hulu Plus and Dramafever on the internet.

Many of us Catholics who grew up before Vatican II still practice the meatless Fridays. It is always a sacrifice because I have dietary limitations and my husband won't eat fish. Coming up with reasonably tasty stuff under these circumstances is a challenge, but also a chance to practice self-denial.

Anonymous said...

tv is dreadful... I broke the habit at university and now i can't understand how families survive staring silently at a little box for hours on end. EWTN is wonderful, but never as background noise.

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