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The Roman Catholic Church from1500 to present
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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
· Hello – that is when the priest says welcome to the mass and tells
The bread represents Christ's body and the wine represents his blood. When they take this bread and wine, Catholics believe that they are becoming one with Christ and are renewing their faith. According to the Gospels, Christ shared bread and wine with his disciples to symbolise them becoming one body. The final section of the Mass, the Concluding Rite, consists of a final prayer ( postcommunion ), the blessing ( benediction ) and the dismissal. A hymn may be sung as the clergy leave the church.
...altar through the royal doors, and censing the altar. I found this part to be very interesting. Everyone stood while the censing was taking place and the offered up prayers and crossed themselves as the Priest and Bishop walked by.
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.
Inquisitively I asked, "I don't get it. So you perform this ritual for different reasons? What are you trying to accomplish when you do it, get into Heaven or just avoid going to Hell? Or could it be that it's just to do the same thing Catholics have always done?"
I am a nondenominational Christian and I decided to attend a catholic mass. I attended mass at the Conversion of St Paul Parish on April 6, 2014. The preside was Father Senan Glass and the starting time was 10am. The Conversion of St Paul Parish’s location is 4120 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44103. The church was very big and the stain glass windows were beautiful. At first, I felt uncomfortable because I did not know where to sit or what to do. I really did not have an idea of what to expect. Everything seemed very formal and the service was easy to follow because of the bulletin I was given, which had the order of service on it. The service was concise and it only lasted about an hour.
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
Once the service started, my friend showed me where the schedule for the service was and what each number meant. There were different colors of numbers in the book and those indicated what section the reading or song was coming from. This was different from the church that I attend because we have a choir and a band that plays the songs and if you wish to join in you can but for the Catholic Church there is, no choir and the members of the church are the ones who sing. After some singing, the priest came up to talk and this is very different from what I expected. I was used to flipping through the channels and seeing the catholic churches with the priest who were a ...
In order to truly receive the Eucharist with awareness and reverence for the fact the it is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ; Catholics must spend time adoring it. Pope Benedict XVI reflected on adoring the Blessed Sacrament, saying that “the act of adoration outside Mass prolongs and intensifies all that takes place during the liturgical celebration itself” (Zia 58). With admiration for the Eucharist before receiving it Catholics can understand the fullness of it’s beauty during mass. Adoration requires reverence and one way to show this is by kneeling in prayer in front of the Eucharist, a practice seen over ten times in sacred scripture to show respect to
Description: Jewish tours Israel would lend a different meaning to your vacation. Celebrate important family milestones, see sites mentioned in the Bible, and be enlightened Experience Something Unique with Jewish Tours in Israel Going on Jewish tours in Israel may seem like a culture-specific vacation, but they’re not. Culture-centered is more like it. Given the wonders and stories that surround sites in the Holy Land, it wouldn't even matter what your beliefs are, only that you enjoy your trip. There is an advantage to being Jewish and traveling to Israel for the first time, however.
Christ Jesus entrusted the liturgy and sacred mysteries to his apostles, and through apostolic tradition, to his clergy for two thousand years. In modern times, the extravagance of such services and ceremonies appear ritualistic, repetitious, or even boring to the uninformed observer. A deep understanding
The people there were all extremely nice and would try to help me understand. They understood and accepted the fact that I wasn’t religious, but was showing interest in their faith. There were not as much people there as I had expected, but that might have been because it was a smaller church. It also wasn’t as racially diverse as I had expected. I thought that because it is the world’s biggest religion, that it
Our observations took place at Newman’s Catholic Church. In particular, we observed the interactions of a priest for an hour and thirty minutes. We began by observing how he interacted with members of the church for the first fifteen minutes before service began. Then we focused on his interactions with the assembly during service and finally, we witnessed how he interacted with others after mass. During this time a few noticeable differences occurred.
It interchanged between prayers, songs, and readings as we stood for some things and sat for others. I later asked my Jewish friend what many of the prayers meant, however he too didn’t know a lot of what was said, so his parents helped me. From what was said in the service the prayers were for things like the ill and the sick, or the recently deceased, which is also prayed for in a Christian church. After a more critical analysis of the service, I made a correlation between the most pivotal moments of a Jewish service and mass. The opening of the Ark and the reading of the scriptures is like the presentation of the eucharist.
Only through the words of consecration, “This is my Body… and this is my Blood”, can we truly experience the fruits of the Eucharist. This is only possible through God’s accordance with the Scriptures, Sacraments(the Eucharist in this case), minister(priest or bishop), and the people of the Church(The Body of Christ). Just like Jesus and his disciples during the Last Supper, all of the members of the Mass join in intercession in order to properly bestow power upon the Sacrament of the Eucharist. As the priest serves as a representation of Jesus, we serve as his disciples.