Quote from: Ortho_CatQuote from: FountainPen
Where/when/by whom was the practice was first recorded?
Jesus was the first to take up his cross...we are called to follow him, and doing this reminds us of that.
We are told to take up our cross, not to perform ritualised hand movements merely to remind us of what Jesus did.
Why clog the Christian life with rituals piled high on top of one another and then to discuss how many times we're all supposed to do them or in what way we do them? Doesn't life have enough real challenges in it for you (the Church)? The world is going to hell in a handbasket while we all colours of robes, liturgies, incense and prostrations while we (the various Churches) could be discussing how we can organise ourselves to aid the current issues of drug abuse, alcoholism and promiscuity.
Good grief, that we should all fill our lives with rituals!
Rituals are not pointless or meaningless, it is that which binds us in Love. In my marriage, I have rituals I do concerning my wife such as getting her coffee ready in the morning for work. It seems like nothing but it is something that binds and can be counted on.
Now also reading though the thread I think the problem is that we fundamentally disagree on exactly who Christ Jesus is to the world and each of us. Christ Jesus came in the flesh, His incarnation, the Church in a profound mystery is the continued incarnation of our Lord. These rituals, that are universally accepted long before your sect was born, are in there essence given by Christ Jesus Himself, he being mysteriously the Church also, for our benefit and the world. We are both Body and Soul, the rituals are given for us, to tame our bodies to submit to the soul and the eye of the soul kept on God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, it being a living Worship of God. The reason being is that in the fall our bodies took control and ruled over our soul, those who enter into Christ are working with Him to reverse that damage, drawing us into a closer, deeper, communion with our Lord and rituals have always been part of that process.
As a former Baptist, I thought they were empty, until I started practicing them but that truly can't be explained until on experiences the rituals as they are meant. This is how I see it, but if I am in error I am sure someone will correct me.