Church name: St. Michael Catholic Church
Church address: 310 S West St, Wheaton
Date attended: September 19
Church category: Significantly more liturgical, close to Wheaton College
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
My initial thought was that this wasn't a "worship service" because there was absolutely no singing involved. When I think of "worship" I immediately think about the 10-15 minute period before the sermon when the congregation is led by a group of individuals who are particularly gifted in the area of music. Then I realized that this may in fact be the point of doing church visits. Does worship necessarily have to be singing? Is that the only acceptable way to worship? Attending mass was quite different from attending a church service of my own. The church was quite large inside and when I arrived a few minutes before the scheduled start, I walked into individuals scattered throughout the pews, siting silently. I noticed that everyone paused before they entered the row to bow before the altar that was situated in the front of the church. When the service began, the priest and altar boys walked down the aisle, bowed, placed the Bible on it's stand and took a seat. The entire service was a lot of call and response liturgy that everyone seemed to know by heart. There were certain prayers to pray before confession and communion and certain motions that had to be done before the service proceeded. Overall the service seemed much more strict, if that's the right word. There wasn't much crowd participation.
What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
I attended a Lutheran high school in which liturgy was a fairly regular occurrence in chapel and church services. When I started school there, I thought it was strange to just read and repeat words on a page. I felt that it was impersonal and mindless, but by the time I graduated and left, I began to appreciate it. There can be a sort of comfort in liturgy that I have come to value. For example, we recited the Apostle's Creed frequently and not only do I have it in my memory for future use, I also can recite truths that have been passed down through generations that unite the Christian body. There is a certain beauty in liturgy that helps illuminate certain aspects of God that cannot be in other ways. The other aspect of the service that I found interesting was the focus on the Eucharist. The majority of the service was spent in preparation for the taking of the bread and wine and the priest took great care to make this the focus of the service. This is so vastly different from my church, where we take communion once a month and it is for a brief period at the end of the sermon. It was a good reminder of just how central the Eucharist is to our faith. I have yet to decided how I feel about making it the sole focus compared to just a part of the service.
What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
The aspect of the service I find challenging was also the aspect I found appealing, liturgy. Ever since I was introduced to liturgy, I never quite knew how I felt about it. I think it has tremendous values for the church body, but it also holds the risk of negating the personal aspect of the Christian faith. This is something I felt strongly while being in mass. Other than the individuals repeating what was written on paper in front of them or going up to the altar to take communion, there wasn't much "crowd participation." Whenever you just repeat something, you run the risk of just saying words and not putting thought into what you're saying. My parents were raised Catholic and I remember them telling me about confession and how the priest would give you a certain number of times you had to repeat a prayer. I never could understand how simply saying something twenty times would make you reflect and think about what you did. Personally, I would almost become numb to the words.
What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly as in your regular context?
The focus of the service was actually on St. Januarius. He was a martyr during the time of Diocletian. This was an interesting topic for a sermon, I thought, as I was listening. The point of the priest choosing to talk about this was to encourage the congregation to focus on what it looks like to give your life up for Christ. In the western world this is not something we think of often, if at all. I highly doubt I will ever need to be in a position where I must choose my faith over my life and because of that, it is easy to forget about the people who are doing that everyday. Especially in light of all that is going on in Iran right now, it was good to take time to reflect and pray for those who are persecuted for their faith. I would not have reflected on this had I not been in this particular context.
No comments:
Post a Comment