Religion in Action

Ritual, in my experience, goes hand in hand with religion. Every religion I can think of practices some form of ritual. And as people form opinions about exotic cultures they tend to forget to see their own from an outside point of view.  The Catholic religion for example has many rituals. These actions can create a sense of community and likeness with strangers who share similar beliefs. Every religion that has a ritual most certainly has a meaning behind it, some meanings may be obscure to a nonparticipant. Some of the rituals I am familiar with include, communion, which is the paying of respect of Jesus Christ and drinking what is the symbol of his blood. This is reenacted according to how it was exactly preformed at the Last Supper. Another action that is accomplished by a ritual is Confession, again a ritual associated with christian religions. This is the process of telling someone such as a priest your sins. This act is supposed to "clear" you essentially from the sins you have committed by telling about your sins penance. There are many different rituals that Catholics act all of which accumulate to the their "proper" serving of God.