Place and Date of Service:
I attended a service Saint Louis Catholic Church in California on 17th of October 2018. Being a protestant and a student of theology, I was interested in knowing how really the Catholics carry out their service. This was after I did my course on the history of religion and Catholicism is one of what we studied, I was left in suspense and wanted to confirm if what we were taught was the reality.
Narrative of Visit
When I first stepped into the church, I was amazed by the beauty of the building more the pulpit was full of silver, shiny and glass decorative making it even more attractive. The pictures of Jesus and Mary were all over the wall and this reminded me of the perception that people always have about Catholics adoring Mary. The service was more of recitation of prayers with kneeling and standing. However I found this quite challenging, the rest of the congregation were actively participating since to them, this was a routine.
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Aesthetics and Symbols
One commonly used symbol in the Catholic Church is the crucifix. It is a cross with Jesus attached to it and is placed in front where the priest stands when leading the mass. It reminds Catholics of the death of Christ to redeem mankind and they believe that the redemption is a continuous process on a daily basis. Other symbols include the cross, the sacred heart, the fish, the crossed keys, the dove and the lamb among others. Catholics place great value on beauty and use many aesthetics for this purpose. Some of the aesthetics that I saw are the altar, traditionalist, traditional, and church Bondi. This is the reason why most Catholic churches are aesthetic and attractive.
The content of Sermon/Homily
The sermon led by Father Stephen. He introduced by encouraging the members to place their faith on Christ and be ready to abandon their pleasures and desire for the sake of the cross. He read from the book of Job and showed how many jobs were subjected to a lot of suffering until he thought that God had forsaken him. His main focus was that we should learn to trust God even in the most difficult situations because, in everything, He is working for our good. He also stressed on total surrender to God so that He can come in the midst of our difficulties. Finally, everyone was asked to stand as he led in a recitation prayer.
Evaluation of Service with Christian Theology
During the entire service, I noticed that most of the Catholic rituals and beliefs are totally different from my own church. For instance, there is a Marian dogma where much reverence is given to Mary who they believe intercedes for them. Papal primacy is another thing that I found very unique. Catholics believe that the Pope is the successor of St Peter, his office is highly regarded and can only be inherited by the person who meets certain qualifications. Apart from the Eucharist and baptism that I know from our church, Catholics have five more sacraments including confirmation, penance, matrimony, unction and holy orders. Just like other Christians, I realized Catholics also practices Lord’s Supper. However they do it differently in that the bread and blood are transferred to the real body and blood of Christ, so they pray to it. This is different from that of the Protestants who carry out the Lord’s Supper only to serve as a memorial service of what Christ did during the last supper which is usually done after baptism service.
