Catholic Church Service

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

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