Traditions and Catholics

Hello!

This past Sunday we attended a Catholic church near our houses. It was my second time in my life to attend a Sunday mass, and Laurens first. My first time attending a Sunday mass I felt more like an outcast not because I wasn’t Catholic but because I couldn’t take part in most of the usual Sunday traditions. When I woke up Sunday morning I had text Lauren asking what she was wearing so I could get a general idea of “nicer church attire” compared to my usual church outfit which consists of jeans, casual shirt and whatever shoes. I decided black slacks and a nicer loose blouse, and put heels on hoping I wouldn’t make a fool of myself walking into the church.

I met Lauren at the church in my spiffy outfit and we walked in together following the groups of families. Like the first church we had a good warm welcome and made our way to the right side of seating next to where the music was. As soon as we found our seats we grabbed the pamphlets that were in the pews and looked over them. I compared them to the ones my church has and informed Lauren on the differences. Immediately after we looked over the pamphlets we both turned toward each other with questions about our surroundings and what different things they did on a Sunday. We wondered what the holy water was for when entering the church and decided between ourselves it was to cleanse yourself before sitting. We discussed between ourselves about the crosses over our stages look liked because the Cross over their stage had Jesus nailed to it. My church has a Cross above the stage with a scarf wrapped around it. All of the sudden the music started and the congregation started to sing their songs of praise. The music I felt was a mixed between new aged and traditional styles but still had the traditional feel.

Down walked two children holding candles, and a man who could be priest holding a big book that I am going to assume was a bible and another man walked down holding a book of worship songs.. I am not well educated on the subject of catholic traditions, so those are my general assumptions. After this the worship kicked off. Starting with more songs of praise, a prayer was said and the children left for bible study. Next a few more songs were sung like “lift up your hearts”, “He is exalted”, and a more traditional song in my opinion was “In Ev’ry Age”. For the more traditional song a women went up and belted the verses reaching every high note making the song beautiful and glorious. The sermon this Sunday was about your faith being tested as in personal experiences, through societal experiences, and community expierences. The Priest (I assume) was more personal when speaking because he used a personal experience about a Jewish man marrying a Catholic women and how his family disowned him. The sermon went more in depth about the “walk of faith”, fighting for faith and love. I could relate to some of the things the Priest was saying but then I feel like he lost me in his words because he started to announce how their (this) church has the largest food bank to help people, and how they helped more victims during Ike. All wonderful accomplishments but his wording seemed more of a boastful announcement. Then the Priest went back to saying how the positive news never makes it into the real news or is slightly left out. Then all of the sudden the sermon ended. We sang praise some more then Lauren and I sat out while they took communion because I knew for sure we weren’t allowed to join. (I feared that we were offending someone while we sat but if they knew we weren’t catholic they would understand I reminded myself). As we walked out of the church we shook hand and were presented with smiles with whom I think is the Senior Priest and made our way to breakfast.

All in all attending a Sunday mass was a good experience because I could see new traditions mixed with old traditions but still have the old traditional essence behind the scheme of things. Everyone has their own fancy in Sunday worship and in my opinion I don’t fit the traditional style of worship.

Sunday vagabond Maya