Why, in my home parish, is there a strong rosary group while in the other parish in the same neighborhood there isn’t one? Why, in the parish that I just visited during my travels, is there a beautiful children’s liturgy, but not in my parish? Why did the priest in that same parish speak about very important and current issues, and I never hear about them here at my home parish? Or why is the altar on the side and not in the center of the church, while in most churches it seems to always be in the center? We do have similar questions at times. Yes, the Church is one, universal and we do believe in the same dogmas, as we should, and we follow the same liturgical year and the same celebrations, but still they might be observed differently in different places. It doesn’t mean that we all have to do exactly the same or that our churches and parishes must follow exactly the same order, or that our priests have to preach the same way. I think there is a beauty in the fact that we do differ a little bit. “The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?” Aren’t we practicing the same religion?
