Mark Meyers - Church Visit #2

Church Name: St. John Cantius Church
Church Address: 825 N. Carpenter Street. Chicago, IL 60642.
Date Attended: 11/1/16
Church Category: Tridentine Mass 

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

We entered into a large, dimly lit room with high, vaulted ceilings and elaborate stonework. The light reflected through the stained-glass windows flooded the space with a mystical, time-stilling glow. The space seemed to immediately evoke a sense of awe and reverence. As we entered into the space, their were a number of congregants sitting, kneeling or standing in the pews, some praying and some simply waiting quietly. As the service began, bells rang periodically. The priest stood at the front of the sanctuary with his back to the congregation. This was the first striking point of difference for me between the services that I ordinarily attend and this one. He recited many prayers, invocations, and liturgical readings, all – as far as we could tell – in Latin. This is because the room was very large, and the priest's voice was not amplified, it was difficult to hear at all what wasting said. There was no sermon or homily that we could identify. This is is definitely unlike my ordinary experience. In my own church, preaching from Scripture is one of the central acts within the service. There was only one moment that we discerned any English being spoken: a kind of congregational chant toward the end of the service, where congregants chanted a kind of call and response, in which we heard the words, "Mary, Mother of God, pray for us...". This was another striking point of difference for me. In my own context, no one other than God would be addressed in a prayer or a song of praise. Finally, all of the congregants walked to the front of the sanctuary to receive the Eucharist at the end of the service. They all knelt and formed a line in front of the altar, waiting to receive the sacrament from the hands of the priest. This too is different from my normal experience, where usually the bread and wine are passed throughout the congregation in baskets and the Table is celebrated together. At the end, the bells rang again, and all the congregants filed out. In all the service took up only about 35 minutes.

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

This service highlighted for me a number contrasts within the broader, global church. First, the service demonstrated the difference in understanding the mediation of the Church in salvation between Catholics and Protestants. This service clearly illuminated the idea that salvation is mediated through the Church. The priest's intercessory and representative work, facing the altar with his back to the congregation, and more keenly the administration of the sacraments from the hands of the priest reveal the Catholic church's emphasis on this mediated grace. In contrast, Protestants seem to emphasize an understanding of the Church as the gathering or assembly of those who are themselves a priesthood with direct access to God through the mediation of Christ alone. This subtle contrast illuminates some of the historical divergences in belief and practice within Christianity, specifically since the Reformation.

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

Ultimately, this service made me grateful for the remarkable access that I now have within my local Church: access to Scripture, access to the Lord's Table, and access to a clear presentation of the Gospel. Though the forms of Catholic liturgy hold a great deal of beauty, I am grateful that, every week, I am able to hear the Word of God read and preached in my own language. I am grateful that I can receive both bread and wine at the Lord's Table, and that I may celebrate this Communion together with the rest of my brothers and sisters in Christ. And I am grateful that, from a very young age, I have had the remarkable privilege of hearing the Gospel spoken into my life day after day. For these, I am deeply thankful for the work of the Reformation. That being said, this service also filled me with a lingering admiration for the beauty and mystery of the Catholic tradition, for its deep historical roots and its heavy sense of connectedness. It made me long for a day when both Protestant and Catholic Christians can gather together in unity, sitting at one Table as one family of believers who are beholden to one Redeemer and Lord, Jesus Christ.