Michael Morgan - Church Visit #2

Michael Morgan - Church Visit #2

Church name: St. Mary Catholic Church

Church address: 140 N. Oakwood Ave. West Chicago, IL 60185
Date attended: October 30, 2016

Church category: Tridentine Mass

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

            In most ways, this service was drastically different from my own. The most obvious difference would be language, as all but perhaps five minutes of the service was in Latin. Clearly, I think, Tridentine Mass is not as popular now as it used to be. There were only about 15 people in attendance, but, unlike the Greek Orthodox Church, almost all of them took communion. The structure (broadly speaking) was similar to my own church. We began with liturgy, moved to a sermon, and ended with communion (though I did not partake). The communion is clearly meant to take up a much larger part of the service than I am used to, as the preparation for communion took at least 15 or 20 minutes. Lastly, it was also different in that there was no worship music, not even hymns.

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

            This service felt noticeably more familiar than the Orthodox visit to me. My father grew up Catholic, attending Latin Mass, so even personally it felt more relevant to my tradition. One aspect that illuminated the history of Christianity was the use of a dead language. The fact that we were listening to the same language that was spoken at the time of the Roman Empire was a connection which made me feel closer to Christian history. Moreover, the Immaculate Conception was mentioned so it was interesting to see that difference between my tradition and the Catholic tradition after 1854. The emphasis placed on the Eucharist once again help me to recognize that there are a multitude of valid ways that Christians can come to worship. By placing more emphasis on a single part of the service, it also shows differing underlying theologies as to how Christians commune with God in the present.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

            This service made me recognize the ways in which I have been conditioned by my tradition to expect and respond to certain things in a church service. For example, I would be used to beginning with worship in order to emotionally prepare myself for the sermon. In Tridentine, however, the Eucharist was far more central and as a result the whole service felt different to me. Another way this service was illuminating for my personal Christian life is that I recognized the autonomy I have as a Christian within the Protestant church. It seems to me in Tridentine, since I do not know the language, I would be primarily subservient to the Bishop with respect to interpretation and theology. In this sense, I am glad that I have the ability to study and learn in my own language, but then again I recognize I may only believe this because I am a Protestant.