I attended a Catholic mass procession at one of the local Catholic Church near my area. I am a member of Anglican Church. This was the first time I took an interest to explore more about the Catholic mass process. Catholic has specific days through which they conduct mass within the week. However, the Sunday services are the central mass and are highly attended. I joined the congregation for the early Sunday mass, and I was fascinated by the mass procession and the culture of the Catholic Church during the mass ceremony.
The mass begun when the priest entered the church building accompanied by a deacon and the altar servers. The priest who conducted the ceremony started the mass by liturgically making the sign of a cross and greeting the people. The priest’s absolution prayer brought to an end the introduction part as the Christians joined together and prayed. After the collective prayers, there were three different scriptures that carried the day. The first reading was from the Old Testament. It came from the book of Exodus; the reader was one of the choirmasters. A psalms song followed it. The song was a recitation led by the same choir and the clergy. The second reading red by a young choirmaster came from the New Testament. Specifically, the reading was from the letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians. The entire process was then followed by a gospel Acclamation. The highest point of the liturgy is the reading from the Priest. The reading came from the New Testament, the Gospel by St. James. After the readings from the Gospel, the priest took the stage and preached the gospel, cutting across the three readings for the day. Apostle’s creed recitation brought to an end the reading and preaching stage.
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The next process was the communion rite. Before the beginning of the process of receiving the Holy Communion, there was a song of the Lord prayers. It was the priest that introduced this song and followed it with a prayer or embolism. The congregation then responded with the doxology. The next process was the greeting. The people greeted each other as a sign of peace after which there was a song of the Lamp of God that followed immediately after the greeting was over. The process was then followed bythe priest presenting the transubstantiated elements to the congregation. The priest recited a say: "Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb." The Congregation responded by reciting a say: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed." The priest received the Holy Communion before he was helped by the clergy to distribute the comminution to other people. The entire mass comes to a conclusion when the priest blessed and dismissed the congregation.
A Notable culture is the dressing code during the entire process. The dressing code for most ladies was majorly a full dress. Other ladies were also in skirts and blouse of different colors. Other than these, there were other ladies whose preferences were dressed pants suit. These were common mostly for the advanced aged ladies. Modest dress clothes, cap-sleeved and modest in length were the preferences for most ladies. For the ladies, there were no athletic shoes, sandals shorts jeans or T-shirts. For men, most of them were in a suit and tie. Other also preferred sports coats, dress slacks, and tie. Other than these, other men were in dress shirts, dress slacks, and tie. Notably, there were no athletic shoes, sandals, shorts or jeans. However, some youths could be spotted on jeans and T-shirts. The choir had a uniform, purple t-shirts with black skirts for the ladies ( Ferrari, 2017). On the other hand, the male team was in purple t-shirtsand blacktrousers. The priest, on the other hand, was in a chasuble. The priest also wore stole on top of the chasuble.
Nearly 80 percent of the entire mass was conducted on the top of a well-arranged alter. The priest’s alter had specifications based on the roles and the performances of activities that took place at a specific point of the alter. There were spaces which were used by the priest alone, for instance, the places where he or she would sit during the entire reading process. The Alter was decorated with nice clothes of different colors and candles. The language was English, though there were instances where the priest used a different language mostly Latin. Though there are a lot of similarities between the mass at the Catholic Church with what I usually see during our mass procession as Anglican Church, there are critical differences. For instance, Anglican's Greeting for peace is conducted at the beginning or during the gathering. Prayers among the Anglicans are not uniform but have different forms that are distinct. At the Anglican Church, the conclusion mass doesn't end with blessing and dismissal, but with thanksgiving.
This was the first time I attended a Catholic mass. As a result, I had to carry out a research to acclimatize myself with the environment and the entire process. I went through the Facebook page and read some details of the mass. The first notable difference is that the mass took a longer period than the one quoted on the Facebook page. Though it was my first time and to some extent, I found the entire ceremony complicated; I must say that it was enjoyable.
Reference
Ferrari, J. R. (2017). Male and female ministers: Comparing Roman Catholic and Methodist deacons on personality structure, religious beliefs, and leadership styles. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling , 71 (1), 5-11.
