My DH (RC) and I (non conformist who defected to the CofE) live in an RC country and go to an RC church. In general I get on very well there, the liturgy is the same, people are very friendly and willing to explain things and I was fairly high Anglican so used to a certain amount of genuflecting anyway. The only thing I don't get and would love someone to explain is the Marian Devotion.
DH just shrugs and says it's always been that way, my lovely and usually helpful friend lights up beatifically and I can't get any sense out of her and I can't find books that help me understand why it's so central, so important and people are so fervently enthusiastic.
Or is it just me that doesn't feel it?
I would love to understand as I feel I'm really missing out on something. Do you need to have grown up with it to get it? Why is she so important? Is it cultural rather than specifically religious?