Religious Site Visit Essay

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Recommended: The Roman Catholic Church from1500 to present

For my religious site visit, I chose to attend mass at the St. Mary’s Cathedral here in Austin. I was raised in a relatively agnostic household. My family believed in God in the past, but after certain events, we stopped attending church when I was very young, so I don’t have much recollection of attending church. In my experience, I have seen the Catholic church in the news regarding scandals with priests around the world. I have also met many Catholic people that are very kind and loving. Personally, I am agnostic, but the Catholic church teaches kindness, humility, and charity for others, which are all characteristics that I have and believe in. I was interested to see for myself how the church functioned and how a religious ceremony worked. …show more content…

The church responded with “Lord hear our prayer” following each need. The priest then stood up and began to prepare the communion as music played in the background. The entire church kneeled during this process to show their respect towards one of the most holy parts of the ceremony. Catholics believe that during this preparation, the wafers and wine are turned into the body and blood of Christ. I thought that this process was incredible. The priest began by washing his hands with holy water. He did many prayers and gestures over the Eucharist and the wine and dropped pieces of the Eucharist into the wine. He bowed and kneeled before the Eucharist and followed this with beginning the Lord’s prayer. I was caught off guard when the person standing next to me grabbed my hand for this portion of the mass. The entire church spoke the prayer, and I was slightly uncomfortable holding hands in a chain reciting a prayer. Following this, the crowd exchanged signs of peace. Everyone around me shook hands, hugged, and some even kissed each other. For this portion of the mass, everyone seemed very happy and in a good mood. People were laughing, smiling, and hugging each other. My friend jokingly said that we were nearing the end of the mass and people were excited to

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