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Importance of God
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Our World Religions class requires us to attend a church service that is unlike the religious service that we are familiar with and then write a paper about the experience in an unbiased way. To fulfill this task, I chose to attend a Roman Catholic church service in order to better understand my boyfriend’s religion. During my paper, I would like to describe how the church looks, compare the service I attended to what our book says about that religion, and then explain how it is a part of Christianity. St. Joseph Catholic Church is located on West Pearl Street in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Upon approaching the church, the main outside entrance has two very tall columns each having a steeple . There are three sets of grandiose wooden double doors …show more content…
A lady sitting in the front of the church was leading the congregation in reciting the Rosary. We sat down and listened as everyone recited the Rosary before the service started. Catholics use rosaries, which are beaded chains, when they say the Rosary to help them meditate and not lose track of where they are in the prayer. The Rosary begins with the Apostles Creed and then is a series of Our Fathers and Hail Marys with a bead representing each prayer. After the Rosary was completed, Mass commenced with a song while the priest walked down the center aisle with the deacon and two servers. After the priest reached the altar, the attendees made the Sign of the Cross to initiate the start of Mass. One of the lectors read the First Reading of the scriptures which was Genesis, Chapter 21 verses 5, 8-20. After the First Reading the vocalist led everyone in the Responsorial Psalm. The Second Reading from the Bible was Psalm, Chapter 34 verses 7-8. A hymn was sung, and the priest walked up to the front of the altar. The priest then read the Gospel for the week which was Matthew, Chapter 8 verses 8-24. Afterward, the priest started his Homily where he was talking about how people today are distant from the church. They tend to turn to the church only when they experience times of trials in their life and seek the comfort that is found in their religion. Many people today do not always reflect on what God would want them to do until later in l their ife. He explained that the saints were important, but God was more important. Saints should be seen more as a role model for living ones life and the choices we make. Once he finished with the Homily, the priest led the congregation in the Profession of Faith. In the Catholic Mass, the First Reading, Responsorial Psalm, Second Reading, Gospel, Homily, and Profession of Faith are considered to be the
highlights the importance of the sacraments and the clergy, can be seen as a response on
Communion begins with the presentation of the bread and the wine. The bread represents the body of Jesus, broken and put on a cross to forgive us for our sins. The wine represents the blood of Jesus, spilt while he was on the cross to once again forgive us of our sins on this Earth. The priest sets the bread on the table along with an empty, gold-colored chalice. The priest then washes his hands by pouring water from a small clay pitcher over his hands in to a small clay bowl. The pitcher and bowl are held by two altar servers. Altar servers are aids to the priest. The servers will hold the prayer book up to the priest while he prays ...
During this movement, the church tried to simplify its processes for everyday use. For instance, the Church translated some parts of the Mass from Latin to the language of the country of where the church resided. The priesthood also went through advanced training to ensure that they could properly execute every aspect of the Mass. This effort by the Christian churches established they wanted people and the community to have motivation to preach and worship their particular faith.”
Furthermore, one of the main parts of the Mass is the liturgy of the Word, the Word of God that nourishes and help us to live a holy
The offerings of bread , wine and other gifts are brought to the altar. The next section is the Eucharistic Prayer. The Communion is the fifth and probably the most important part of the Mass. It starts with the Lord's Prayer ( Paternoster ) and ends with the Communion for the Clergy and Congregation. Communion is where the gifts of bread and wine are blessed and then received.
The Mass has to be important to the Priest because it is the main purpose of his ministry. In the Mass the Priest has to become like Jesus Christ Himself in order for him to give and pass the graces from the Mass to the people. Jesus and His apostles were gathered together, because Jesus knew it was His last meal with them before He died. During the meal He said, “This is My body, which is to be given up for you,” and then He said: “This is My blood of the new testament, which is to be shed for many to remission of sins.” Saying this He is saying what was going to happen the following day. Jesus wanting us to remember this ultimate sacrifice He said “Do this for a commemoration of Me”. The Mass is the best gift in the Priest’s ministry; if the Priest does not put his whole mind, heart, and soul into the Mass; imagine how he is going to be outside in the
· Hello – that is when the priest says welcome to the mass and tells
John Neumann Catholic church on Sunday with my friends. The outside of the church has a big cross hanged on top of the building, which is similar to all the Christian churches I saw before. Without mentioning this church is a catholic church, I would not be able to distinguish the difference between Christian and Catholic churches. When I first walked in the church, the interior was beautiful, but I was shocked when I saw a lady kneeling down pew kneeler. Then a group of people who were wearing whites vestment walked with a big cross on their hand, and there was one person who wore green vestment walked in the middle. The mass starts with a song, then a speech, then they talk about the book section. However, I have always heard the rumor that Catholics discourage Bible reading. This mass has proven this stereotype was incorrect. Catholics actually do read the bible and they also discuss about it during the mass. For the most of the time, they discuss the bible reading and sing. Also, as you can see in my Cultural Plunge picture #3, there is a photo of the mass schedule where listed the bible reading assignment for each mass. Towards the end of the ceremony, the priest told people to hold hands and pray, and they also ask everyone to introduce themselves to the people around them. Towards the end of the mass, there were people pass a basket around to collect money. I was a little to confuse about this process, but I believe this basket would be use for some good
Once the service started, my friend showed me where the schedule for the service was and what each number meant. There were different colors of numbers in the book and those indicated what section the reading or song was coming from. This was different from the church that I attend because we have a choir and a band that plays the songs and if you wish to join in you can but for the Catholic Church there is, no choir and the members of the church are the ones who sing. After some singing, the priest came up to talk and this is very different from what I expected. I was used to flipping through the channels and seeing the catholic churches with the priest who were a ...
Every year, on the day before Easter, one of the biggest and most important masses of the year happens on that night. The mass is called the Easter Vigil. The Vigil brings out the true and full nature of the Catholic Church and all of its people. It celebrates Jesus Christ, as he rises from the dead and ascends into heaven. Since this mass is so large, it is split into four parts. The first, the Service of Light, and is the most solemn part of the mass the Church celebrates. The second part is the Liturgy of the Word, in which you listen to a reader who reads from the books of the Bible such as Genesis and Exodus. The third part of the celebration is known as the Celebration of the Rites of Initiation. At this point people become part of the Church and receive such sacraments as Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation. The fourth part of the vigil is the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Eucharist is the climax of the Easter Vigil. The Easter Vigil is the biggest mass in the Church and it requires four parts in the Service of Light, The Liturgy of the Word, the Celebration of the Rights of Initiation, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist, but also requires much more faith and concentration to fully appreciate it.
In addition to recognizing their betrayal of God, they believe that a sacred life is the ultimate victory. The speaker confesses, “Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain.”(ln.9) The priest also desires to love God above all, “He knew now at the end there was only one thing that counted – to be a saint.”(p.210)
Through the various calls for response made by the priests, “let us be attentive”, “let us pray to the Lord”, “peace be with you” and “servant of God” tradition is linguistically demonstrated. Each of these and other prayers was concluded with a response or “Amen” typically by the priest or the choir. Also, we saw reminders of God’s beauty in the images of those who loved and served the Lord throughout the ages as painting on the ceilings and walls.
Growing up, I was raised in a southern Baptist church setting. Every Sunday you were required to attend church which included going to Sunday school, first service, and second service. You were also required to be active in the church whether it be ushering or singing in the choir. For my foreign experience of worship I decided to attend a Catholic church. At first I was a bit skeptical about stepping outside of my background history of worship because I thought that attending a Catholic church may change some of my beliefs or practices. I will admit before my attendance to this Catholic Church I had negative thoughts and was determined that my paper would be only about negative experience that I had. Once I entered the church all of my negative thoughts were out of my mind. Prior to researching background information I really didn’t think that Catholics and Baptist had a lot in common, besides their belief in the faith of Jesus Christ. In my essay about my Catholic Church experience I will describe the physical setting of the church, tell you about the church service, and lastly tell
As I was attending mass, I noticed, it was very organized. There was a lot of sitting and standing, where I found myself struggling to understand. I noticed that they read some passages from the bible and sang a lot of psalms and hymns. The only thing that was familiar to me was the Eucharist.
I was a little lost when I arrived because mass was not held in the big church that I thought it was going to be in. It was in a little chapel to the side of the big church and a sign on the door read “daily mass held here”. I walked into a quiet, dim room that had several other people sitting quietly and waiting for it to start. There were stained glass windows, pictures of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and candles all throughout the room, and a cup filled with water by the door so people could get it and do the sign of the cross upon entering. There was also the crucifix at the front of the room. Several other people walked in after me and I noticed that before they walked into the aisles to take their seats a few of them knelt and did the sign of the cross. I am a little familiar with the sign of the cross because I have seen it done at funerals and weddings. Right when it was time someone started off by reciting what seemed like a prayer. It was a lot of repeating. There was a lot of reciting of different prayers. Some that I had heard the words of before such as Daily Bread. This was a similarity because we have also read the scripture of the Daily Bread. It seems that this prayer or scripture is recited at every mass. What I noticed is that a different person throughout the room started each of the different prayers that were being said. Someone would lead and the other people in the room would repeat and follow after them.