How do Catholics practice their religion?

Answer 1

Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the Catholic Church.

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Catholics worship directly to God through prayer. The most important form of Catholic worship is the Mass. Catholics also ask other people to pray (worship) on their behalf, such as friends, family, the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc. The Eucharist (the Mass) is the worship of Our Blessed Lord, the sacrifice of Himself that He offers to His Father. The most important thing we can do is participate in that, to witness what He did for us, and to receive the graces that He offers us in the Mass. All of the other sacraments are oriented to the Mass.

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Catholic AnswerNot really sure what you are asking. First of all, Catholics use the word, worship to mean "aknowledgment of another's worth, dignity, or superior position." This is the original meaning of the word and in the Catholic religion includes latria dulia, hypderdulia, depending on whom you are giving worship to. For instance, in England, a magistrate is referred to as "your worship", in which case you are giving "worship" to a man in a superior position. Protestants use the word "worship" to mean adoration given to God alone - this is NOT what Catholics mean by the word.

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Secondly, you are asking your question, in the past tense, how did Catholics worship. Catholics have been around for two thousand years, all over the world, and you are asking a question about how they give respect, so you are going to have to narrow your question down a good bit to get a meaningful answer.

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from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980.

Worship. Acknowledgment of another's worth, dignity, or superior position. In religion, worship is given either to God, and then it is adoration, or to the angels and saints, and it is called veneration. Divine worship actually includes three principal acts, namely adoration (or the recognition of God's infinite perfection), prayer or the asking for divine help, and sacrifice or the offering of something precious to God. Worship as veneration also has three principal forms, whereby the angels and saints are honored for their sanctity, asked to intercede before the divine Majesty, and imitated in their love and service of God.

Answer

By praying to God and attending Mass each week.

Answer 2

True Catholics are very serious about their religion. Being a Catholic myself I can tell you what exactly we do. Every Sunday we go to Mass where we have the opportunity to receive the sacrament of Holy Eucharist ( where bread and wine turn into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ). We also receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly in order to cleanse our sins. The others Sacraments are Baptism, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick. In everyday life Catholics try very hard to live the way Jesus did. We try to always be charitable towards others and be helpful in general. And when we fail we always have reconciliation.

Catholic Answer Catholics indeed must participate in the Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, and the Holy Eucharist are all in the normal way of living the Christian faith. The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. (Cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1545) But "faith apart from works is dead": (James 2:26) when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of the his Body (Catechism # 1815)

from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, English translation 1994 2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities. (Cf. Isa 58:6-7; Heb 13:3) Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. (Cf. Mt 25:31-46) Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God: (Cf. Tob4:5-11; Sir 17:22; Mt 6:2-4) He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food must do likewise. (Lk 3:11) But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. (Lk 11:41) If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? (Jas 2:15-16; cf 1 Jn3:17)

Answer 3

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Catholic AnswerCatholics practice their religion by following Our Blessed Lord and Savior, who summed up the Christian religion, and the final judgment of all in the Gospel. Thus Catholics practice their religion by love God above all, and they do that by loving Him in their neighbor. And their love of neighbor is concrete, you put the neighbor on the same level as yourself in your loving, and your loving is concrete: you feed him if he is hungry, you cloth him if he is naked, you visit him if he is sick, etc. Catholic Christianity is a very real, physical religion. God feeds and strengthens us, both physically and spiritually in the sacraments so that we may go out and feed and strengthen our brothers, both physically and spiritually. Because along with the Corporal Works of Mercy in the second Scripture quote below, there are also the Spiritual Works of Mercy: to instruct the ignorant, to admonish the sinner, etc.

from The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims Version, St. Matthew's Gospel 22:37-40: Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependent the whole law and the prophets. And St. Matthew 25:31-46: And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, they shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty: And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me.... Catholics show love for God, by following His Son, Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, and obeying His Commandment: to take up our cross daily and follow Him. By loving God which is shown in our love for a neighbor. You cannot see God, you can definitely see the person right in front of you, and you are asked by Our Blessed Lord to see Him in that person right in front of you. So you pick up your cross daily and follow Him and do what He commanded you by loving your neighbor - which is every single person you run into during the day, and when you get home

Catholicism is basic, original Christianity as it was established by Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, and guided by the Holy Spirit for the past two thousand years. A basic outline of beliefs may be found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church which may be found online (see link below). Basic beliefs are contained in the following formulas and the COMPLETE Bible, NOT the truncated version that Martin Luther came up with in the sixteenth century and printed by the English as the Authorized Version. Catholicism is basically a missionary religion, it seeks, through the seven sacraments established by Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ, to make its followers holy and Christian through participation in the frequent Confession and reception of the Most Holy Eucharist, through frequent prayer - which is to become continuous, so that, abiding in the Love of Christ, that may draw other followers to Him, and enter heaven when this short time of trial is finished on earth.

Catholics believe that this short time on earth is the only chance we have to determine where we are going to spend eternity. After you have been in heaven or hell for ten million years, you are going to look back on your incredibly short time on earth and wonder why you squandered a minute of it. This short time on earth is a gift from God to allow us time to make the right decision, to enable us to start following Him, and loving Him with our whole heart, our whole mind, and every bit of strength that he has given us. This means that every single moment from here until death is given to God Almighty. You need to start obeying the Ten Commandments of God, the Seven Precepts of the Church, and practicing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. The Corporal Works of Mercy are particularly important as these are how you are going to be judged. Also, as your heart must be in them, and you must be free from sin to do any of these, you need to be going to confession weekly, or at the very outside, monthly, and to Mass and Holy Communion as often as possible. Please note that Mass as much as you can get there, but Holy Communion only if you have prepared and are in a state of grace (have been to confession recently).

In addition to the above, I should add that to believe in Jesus Christ means more than just "accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior". You must then repent of your sins and live out that belief by following our Blessed Savior throughout your life. If you read the Scriptures you realize that we are going to be judged and judged on our actions, not on saying we believe, but in living out that belief. If you read the Epistle of St. James, which comes near the end of the Bible for a reason:

James 1:22-25

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.

James 2:14-

What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled, " without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe-and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.

Ten Commandments of God

(Exodus XX )

1. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

4. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shalt not commit adultery.

7. You shalt not steal.

8. You shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shalt not covet your neighbor's wife.

10. You shalt not covet your neighbor's goods.

Seven Precepts of the Church

1. To assist at Mass and rest from servile work on all Sundays and holidays of obligation.

2. To fast and abstain on the days appointed by the Church;

3. To go to confession at least once a year;

4. To receive the Blessed Sacrament at least once a year, and that about Easter time;

5. To contribute to the support of our pastors according to our means;

6. Not to marry within certain degrees of kindred, nor to marry with solemnity at forbidden times.

7. To join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

To admonish the sinner,

To instruct the ignorant,

To counsel the doubtful,

To comfort the sorrowful,

To bear wrongs patiently,

To forgive all injuries,

To pray for the living and the dead.

The Corporal Works of Mercy

(Matt 25:31 )

To feed the hungry,

To give drink to the thirsty,

To clothe the naked,

To visit the prisoners,

To shelter the homeless

To visit the sick,

To bury the dead

To give alms to the poor.

Answer 4

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Catholic AnswerThat is sort of a wide open question. Many Catholics do not practice their religion at all, they are "check box" Catholics. They were brought up by "Catholic parents" so when the form says: Religion: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Other - they check "Catholic". But they don't really practice their religion and probably, as the old saying goes, could not be convicted in a court of law of being Catholic. Other Catholics are remarkably fervent, going to Mass on a daily basis, praying several times a day, observing the Ten Commandments of God, and the Seven Commandments of the Church, and the Corporal Works of Mercy (feed the hungry, ....)