My Visit To The Catholic Gospel Choir Church

1000 Words2 Pages

Culture is important for many reasons to the classroom setting. It allows for more enrichment in student learning and understanding and allows for an understanding of why it is necessary to educate and learn about each culture. For my first cultural event, I attended a Catholic Gospel Choir Mass. It was very interesting and unique unlike any other Mass I have ever attended. From this Mass, I learned a lot and also felt like it taught me more about the Catholic Faith and how community plays into our Faith. I attended St. Augustine’s Church on West Washington Street in South Bend. This Church offers two Masses on Sundays, an 8:30 Mass which is considered to be their normal Mass and a 10:30 Gospel Choir Mass. I attended the later as I …show more content…

The atmosphere of this Church was pleasant and quaint. The whole Church consisted of seventeen half pews and ten choir members as well as about sixty Congregation members. This Church as well as the Altar were one of the smallest I have ever seen, yet I think that provided a sense of unity and solidarity. Even the Stations of the Cross were small and delicate enough to hang on one half of a wall, surrounding the Altar. The decorative pictures that were on the walls of the Church were also different from any paintings I have ever experienced. I was most surprised by the painting of the Last Supper which depicted Jesus and all if the Disciples as African American. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this image, it just caught me off-guard as my home Parish is primarily consistent of Caucasian people and therefore our Church depicts the Last Supper with all Caucasian people. I expected this Mass to mostly consist of African American people as well as Hispanic people due to the demographics of the surrounding area. However, I was surprised to see the lack of Hispanic people and the equal amounts of African American and Caucasian people in attendance of this Mass. I was also very surprised to see that the majority of the Congregation was elderly people. This surprised me the most because I attribute Gospel Choir to something less traditional and I typically …show more content…

Which seem contradictory to the world we currently live in. The people I celebrated Mass with today did not think twice about shaking my hand or singing next to me, even though we came from different backgrounds and shared different cultural identities. I believe that after this event, I am more aware of how important and beautiful it is to profess and share your Faith with those that are different than you. Since attending this event I would be more likely to challenge my student’s beliefs about race, ethnicity, and Faith. In order to show them that Faith is not black or white and neither is ethnicity. The humble beginnings of this Church allowed for a humble community that saw no need for segregation, it only saw the need for a common place to share Faith with one another. I would also challenge my students and families (depending on their age) to attend events like this that challenge their beliefs and allow for a renewed perspective of the world. I also would make a very conscious effort to institute different types of artwork and reading material into my classroom so that students do not grow up only thinking that Jesus and all of His followers were Caucasian. Lastly, I would be sure to continually provide new examples of famous people that share various ethnicities, so that a student from any ethnicity can make connections and relate to each

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