Cyanea Poon - Church Visit #3

Church name: St. Peter’s in the Loop

Church address: 110 W. Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60602

Date attended: 30 October 2014 (7:15am!)

Church category: significantly more liturgical

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

The worship service is a morning mass that starts at 7:15am. It is different in a sense that it is held early in the morning on a weekday, of which my regular church does not provide. The church has a lot of internal decorations, especially with a lot of paintings and marble statues. There is a lot of liturgies done in the church, such as the blessing yourself with holy water as you enter and exit the sanctuary, kneeling before the cross (with Jesus on it) as you enter and exit your seat, having the service in accordance to a liturgical structure with call and response, as well as greeting each other with ‘peace’. However, some aspects, such as prayer, time of worship, giving glory to God, and communion remains the same.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I think the most appealing aspect about the worship service is that everyone comes into sanctuary at such an early time of the day, and that everyone is focused on the Lord. I enter the sanctuary at around 6:50am, and there are already around 40 people praying silently there. It amazes me how many people are at the service, by 7:15am and following, the amount of people doubles (around 80). Seeing many people coming before the Lord by choice at such an early part of the day really struck me, especially on the necessity to choose to come to the Lord constantly. I also find kneeling to pray as very interesting and appealing, because I see the reverence to the Lord when we come forth in prayers.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

The most disorienting thing about the worship service the liturgical call and response. Being not provided with what I should say, and the father is not very loud, I felt very lost in the whole process, and it seems that I am merely following through everything that everyone else is doing. The whole worship process becomes an imitation of others instead of focusing on the Lord and giving praise to Him. Another disorienting thing is the fact that I observed a lot of people touching the statues (mostly Mary), maybe for prayer or for blessing. I understand that it is a very tangible way to demonstrate one’s prayer, but I am unsure about praying to Mary, as well as perceiving the performing element of the action.

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?

I think the holiness of God is illuminated to me during this worship service more clearly than my regular context. Although I remain uncertain about the performing elements of kneeling before the statues and blessing yourself with holy water, I recognize that these liturgical actions signified the reverence to the Lord, the Trinity. So many times in evangelical churches, we focus a lot on embracing God’s love and grace, but we sort of forgot about the importance of revering and fearing the holiness of God, which is actually a major part of God’s revelation to us. No matter it is in the Old Testament where the tabernacle is to be kept holy because it is God’s dwelling place, or in 1 Peter 1:16 that commands us to ‘be holy because God is holy’.