The first thing that I noticed upon entering Sacred Hart Catholic Church was that everyone was kneeling before entering the pews and before the altar. They do this as a form of reverence to God. It is kind of like a rule, but it is just what you are supposed to do if you are Catholic. Along the same lines, I noticed that there was almost complete silence before mass in the church.
This is what they consider to be reverent and believe that fellowship with other people is for another time because mass is only for fellowship with God. This does make sense because it separates you from the distractions of the world and let 's you focus on the spiritual aspect. I saw that there were kneeling stools toward the center of every pew because the act
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According to The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Catholicism,”On Ash Wednesday, the first of Lent’s 40 days, Catholics wear a cross of ash on the forehead, a symbol of penitence since Old Testament times.” The book also describes other traditions that are practiced over the time of Lent including fasting and donating money to charity. Lent is the way that Catholics prepare for Easter Sunday.
Another interesting thing that caught my attention was the Catholic’s use of sculptures, carvings, and and a giant overhanging statue of Jesus in the front of the whole church. In many religions, people actually worship statues and idols and there are people who think that Catholics do this as well. These people do not understand because Catholics only worship one God.
Catholics do not believe that a statue has any power or is somehow alive. The reason Catholic Churches have so many statues and pictures is mostly only because it is their tradition. The reason for this tradition is that only a few hundred years ago, your normal man did not have the ability to read and write. The pictures and statues told stories that the people of that time could understand. The only people who knew how to read and write were the priests and it was in their best interest to keep what was written in the Bible to themselves. The reason for this was to make more money by selling what we might call tickets to
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After hearing her mentioned in the prayers at the Catholic Church, I did some research on the subject. In actuality, they do not worship Mary, she is simply the essence of what they strive to be. She was completely humble and acted as servant to God according to their beliefs. She was completely obedient and desired only to be used by God. This is why the Catholics revere Mary as a mother of their religion. Many of them also believe that she was taken into heaven along with her physical body although the Bible says nothing of this.
Another interesting sacrament of the Catholic Church is the confessionals. After being baptized, one is required to regularly attend a confessional to admit to everything that he has done that violates the Catholic rules. According to this religion, after admitting your faults, you are forgiven until the next time that you disobey the regulations of the Catholic faith. This act reconciles you with God and allows you to gain entry into heaven. Your faults are confessed to a priest, and it usually takes place in a small
garb, to recite the Credo and one third of the Rosary, and to make confession
Also, pre-1962, a Catholic Mass was very different. In a catholic mass prior to 1962, a priest would speak to the congregation in Ecclesiastical Latin and it was not practiced in the local languages. The people were not encouraged to participate. Practices such as Benediction, Novenas, and Rosary were practiced by the family as a whole. Benediction was on Friday nights where the whole family would attend. The novenas would be attended by children prior to important schooling events (held by the school itself) and the rosary was a family ac...
When choosing a religious service I was very limited on my choices so I was intrigued to go back to my roots and try the Catholic denomination. This denomination is the one that is most prevalent in my community and also in my social circle as well. Since I have actually been to a Catholic church as a child I thought I knew what to expect but I was shocked at how naive I was to the subject. My preconceived ideas and thoughts were that there would be a lot of getting down on your knees then back up again then saying your Hail Mary’s with not much depth to a service. Also growing up with a social group that was full of Catholics you would always hear of confession so that was something I was particularly dreading for the fact that I did not quite understand the concept and believe in it. This did not take place however which was a sigh of relief on my part cause I was not ready for that big of a leap from my own comfort zone.
The Catholic Church in the novel is very traditional. Antonio’s church practices old rituals, such as the children attend catechism classes before their first communion. Antonio and his friend Florence are late to one of the classes. This causes Antonio to receive a warning and Florence, a punishment. Florence is required to hold his arms outstretched in the middle of the aisle for the entire class. “”Let us pray,” Father Byrnes said and knelt. We followed suit, kneeling on the rough splintery knee boards of the pew. Only Florence remained standing, holding the weight of his arms, which would become numb
The past three decades dozens of religious aspirations took place. A weird event in the 1970s where a 1700 year old relic was oozing blood at St.Adrians Church (Taylor 68). Since the beginning of January the statues began to weep and for the next 7 months oil spewed out from its fingers. It then stopped then started again and the 2nd time the oil it spewed out was used to anoint 14 icons ( Taylor 68) At the St. Nicholas Orthodox the statues weeped and kept weeping for 7 months (Taylor 68). In Hanover park on July 1997 on 2420 Glendale Terrace an image of the Virgin Mary appeared from security lights (Taylor 68). Also in the St.George Orthodox the statues were weeping oil during holy week (Taylor 68).
That "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them" (Exodus 20:4-5 and Deuteronomy 5:9) might, at first glance, be seen as an absolute command or prohibition against worship of any kind of image (A. Fortescue, Veneration of Images, 1910, Volume VII). "For iconoclasts (image-breakers), every image could only be a portrait and a portrait of God was inconceivable in view of God's ineffable and unknowable qualities." Claim that icons were a sacred art was, iconoclasts argued, simply to clothe them in superstition and even heresy since they denied any presence of the person represented, the prototype, in his iconographic image. They could not see that the icon portrayed the visible of the invisible and the invisible in the visible (Evdokimov, 1972:193-194). Calvin, in arguing against the use of icons, said "the majesty of God is defiled by an absurd and indecorous fiction, when he who is incorporeal is assimilated to corporeal matter; he who is invisible to a visible image" (Institutes I.XI.2; Callihan, Credenda/Agenda, Vol. 6, No. 5). But God's command to Moses to build, according to the image shown to him on Mount Horeb, the tabernacle and all that it was to contain, including the cherubim cast in metal (Exodus 25:18; 26:1, 31), St. John of Damascus said, was an exception to the general rule, thus rendering the prohibition of images as not an absolute one" (Ouspensky, 1992:45-6). The prohibition of the image was to "forbid the chosen people to worship creatures in place of the Creator", and "to protect the spec...
On Easter Sunday, a dozen adults and half that many children gathered at the Perry City Friends Meeting an hour before their usual worship time. They came, bringing plates of food for a time of fellowship before worship. The children had an Easter egg hunt, while the adults visited over coffee and snacks. After a while, the group moved to the meeting room for a time of singing. The meeting room, a plain room with a stage at one end and a few small tables holding brochures along the wall, has simple benches arranged in a circle around a central space. Someone had put a small table with a vase of fresh picked daffodils in the middle. Music is not a part of the worship at this meeting which is unprogrammed, so this time of singing together was special for the Easter holiday. One person played the piano, while people looked through the hymnal for their favorite hymns. Anyone was free to suggest a hymn, as no one is in charge of planning a worship service. When worship time approached, the hymnals were gathered up and put away, and one adult led the children downstairs for First Day School. Without announcement, everyone lapsed into silence. The silence at Meeting for Worship is not a passive silence; it is the deep, comfortable silence of people accustomed to joining together this way. It was not broken when a few more people entered the sanctuary to join the group. The silence continued for about an hour with each worshiper communing with the Holy Spirit in his or her own way, not interrupted when the children reentered to join in the silent worship. One man broke the silence to say a few words about the simplicity of Jesus’ teachings, and then the silence returned. At the end of the hour, without announcement, one woman turned to gr...
Early Christian art during the period of Roman persecution was highly circumspect, and innocuous objects—the fish and the dove—were used to symbolize Christ and the Holy Spirit. Later Christian art, however, became replete with iconographic symbols. In particular, many of the saints became associated with specific objects—Saint Peter with two keys, for instance, or Saint Catherine with a broken wheel.
The church external appearance was quite different than other churches that I have seen. It was basically a big white stucco block with a gold dome on top and four decorated spikes on each corner of the building that surrounded the dome. The people of course were all Greek and were very well dressed. Most of the men and boys all wore suits, and If not they had some kind of vest on. I don’t know if this was some kind of rule or tradition, but it mostly seemed as a respect to God. The women all wore the basic dresses, and all the skirts fell down below the knee. Everybody was proper and ordered. As I walked in the church I entered a lobby of some kind. What I saw hear was something like social hour. Everybody was in there. They were all speaking Greek, and I felt as if I was in a family reunion party. The children were all together; the adults talked together and the young adults all were together. The way they all socialize is when someone comes up to say hello, they give each other a kiss on the cheek and a hug. These people are all very close to each other. It seems as if the church is the center of their lives. I admire that trait as well. To enter the auditorium you must enter this little room, which has a piece of garment from St. Constantine and St. Helen. Also there were candles lit. As they walked through this little room they lit a candle and knelt down for a moment to pray, and then touched each garment and made a cross over their chest.
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
When someone in a monotheistic religion sees an image that is worshiped they see it as if that person was worshipping a statue of Jesus or Allah which is considered a sin, or wrong, to them because that object is not what is holy, the person it is created to look like is holy. The statue, although it may be seen as important or even sacred, is manmade and therefore not holy. These people views religious objects as important but not necessary for their religion because to them they are material objects and what they stand for is what matters more so than they do. An example of this is that someone might have an attachment to their specific bible, but if it were to be destroyed it
The first cultural immersion activity that I participated in was going to St. Charles Catholic Church on Ash Wednesday (March 5, 2014). I had a friend who was catholic attend the church with me so I would have a better understanding of what to do and not stand out so much. In addition, I asked my friend to attend with me so I would not do anything in church that was disrespectful. Before going to the church, I thought that I would have to dress up in dress clothes but my friend told me that it is not necessary to dress up for a catholic church, which surprised me. When we first got there, my friend used the holy water and kneeled before entering the pew. I did not do these things because I felt like I would mess up and it would be disrespectful to the religion to mess up those things. Another thing I noticed was when everyone was entering after they have found their seats they would kneel and pray. Later I asked my friend what everyone was doing and she said it was praying to catch up and talk to God about things that has happened since the last time you talked to him.
The Baptist faith believes in the precepts of Trinity, Heaven, and Hell. Surprisingly Mary does not have a special place in the Baptist religion. They don’t teach the assumption of Mary because Mary is seen as just Jesus’ mother. As for the belief in Saints, they really don’t designate saints because they believe that we all have been saved and we are all God’s messengers. Unlike Christianity, Baptists don’t have bishops or Cardinals. The Baptist religion has a much more loose structure than the Catholic faith.
The Church was run by a Pope, monks, and nuns, and priests. The Pope was the head of the Catholic Church. The Pope was views as God’s representative, and the populous looked up to them on how to live and pray. It was the Pope’s choice, to decide what the church would teach. Pope Benedict forced all monks and nuns to take three vows, in order to practice in the Church. A vow of poverty, to give up all worldly goods; a vow of chastity to stay single; a vow of obedience to promise to obey the church and the rules of the monastery (Benedictine Rules). Nuns were women who prayed, weaved, practiced teaching, and wrote books, while monks devoted majority of their lives to the discipline of prayer.
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.