I am a Quaker. A member of the “Religious Society of Friends“. Ask me anything about anything.

I will consider it. Although I personally experience a certain level of discomfort and disagreement with many Catholic doctrines, and in fact even the basic notion of rigid ritual in and of itself (when such ritual is posited as a matter of necessity), I still admire such things for their ability to inspire and enliven on a deeply embedded emotional level.

I am reminded of a poem by Philip Larkin titled “Churchgoing”. Here is a brief excerpt from the end portion:


This special shell? For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in, If only that so many dead lie round.

/r/casualiama Thread Parent