Church Observation

Usually, the role of places of worship is to provide spiritual comfort, to become the staging ground for acts of veneration and to be a congregation for religious study. I grew up in a traditionalistic view on going to church. It was more or less: wear your neat conservative clothes, visit church every Sunday, follow the introductory rites, listen to the Liturgy of the Word, join the Liturgy of the Eucharist, wait for end of the concluding rites, then finally return home. I was stuck to that idea of that church stuck until the day I tagged along with my grandparents as they went to church.

Along the way, my grandfather pointed to a rather modern building then said it was their church. I believed it was some sort of joke. I had this notion that churches are supposed to have some sort of symbolistic architecture and provide an atmosphere of solemnity. I glanced at the grand multi-story modern building and I plainly dismissed it as some sort of mall or office building. After my grandfather took two rights heading straight towards the building, I had the idea that my grandfather was possibly referring to some sort of structure

The ideas that perhaps they meant one of those compact chapels integrated into office buildings or if we were just going to walk to the actual church on foot were starting to appeal to me. The intense whirring of the air conditioning vents felt like a reassurance that the real church was away from this building. My head stupefied and wanting to spare myself the embarrassment of asking, I quietly followed my grandparents to the elevator. My grandmother broke the silence and said that we were at the church. All the puzzle pieces in my head fell apart. This cannot be a church, I pondered in severe disbelief. In the meanwhile, my grandparents slipped into the elevator and I followed suit, staring blankly at the well-maintained elevator