I'm sitting here with a cup (paid for, I believe, by Belmont Springs, or whoever owns the brand) which says, "The International Sports Medicine Institute recommends daily water intake of 1/2 ounce per pound of body weight."
It got me to thinking about the power of marketing. I like to think of Catholicism as a religion that harnesses the power of marketing. That's not to say that I think we're doing a good job of evangelizing, what I mean is that marketing uses symbols and colors and smells and sayings and so forth to communicate a message, and if there are religions full of symbols and colors and smells and sayings used to communicate their message, it's Catholicism and Orthodoxy (Anglicanism to a certain degree as well). People thrive on these things. They excite people; they get people hooked. We're pre-programmed to respond to things that stimulate our senses. That's what Catholicism is meant to do: Communicate the Gospel through our senses. (Of course, I think we could do a much better job, practically speaking, but I'm thinking of theory here.)
I was reminded of this when I visited a Protestant church a few weeks ago. (Now for my Protestant friends reading, I mean to simply point out a difference in perspective, not make a criticism.) It was very disconcerting because there was a choir where I am accustomed to the focus of my worship being. This meant that I felt like I was supposed to be worshipping the choir. Obviously, intellectually I knew what had happened, but inside I was all confused. The preacher was front and center too, which also threw me off, since I am accustomed to worshipping using my senses, which means that the center of attention is not the minister. (For the Protestants, for their part, the focus of attention is the preaching of the Word, a noble thing, which is why the layout is the way it is.) Again, obviously, this was simply a matter of what I'm accustomed to, and it was just that I was disconcerted by a radically different layout, but it illustrates how Catholic I have become, and illustrates how the liturgical churches differ in style from the non-liturgical churches.
