Sam Ernest- Church Visit No. 2

Church Name: St. Mary's Church 
Church Address: 140 N Oakwood Ave. West Chicago, IL 60185
Date Attended: 10/30 
Church Category: Tridentine Mass

1) The church I attended was completely different than any other I have attended, except perhaps than the order. This was the most un-involved service I have ever been to. There was no singing, and most of the time the  priest was praying to God rather softly with his back turned to the congregation, not to lead them in supplication to God but to supplicate in their behalf. This may have been unique to this particular church and priest, I am not sure. And everyone kinda stared at him. I was also expecting more call and response-instead the only time the congregation got involved with the service was when they said a few “Hail Mary’s” and prayed to gabriel. The order was similar to what I have been through, a time of prayer, the sermon, the Lord’s Supper, and then dismissal. The whole service took about an hour.

2)This service, or at least the parts of it I could actually hear (again, the priest was extremely quiet), made me realize how hard it must have been to be a christian before the printing press. I do not know how I would know God if I  did not have my bible and if Latin wasn’t my common vernacular, I wouldn’t understand anything in the liturgy, except the sermon from my priest. I get now how easy it was for people to be led astray by their priest in regards to matter of faith, because they had no way to know for themselves. I did appreciate the regard that was given to Communion because of my new understanding of transubstantiation, and the ceremony around it made more sense given that they believe that the bread and wine actually becomes Jesus’ body and blood. I also became very aware that Catholics are truly Christ followers and hold the utmost reverence for his work on the cross (because some protestants may act like Catholics are not Christians).

3) I realized how much I appreciate the church I go to. I believe in a very personal way of relating to the Trinity, not merely supplicating to the Father. Since I believe that the Holy Spirit does indeed live inside me, I think that services that are more rooted in interceding miss the glory of the Holy Spirit. They honestly seem more works related to me than anything else, not heart based. I never felt a personal sense to change my life radically to follow Christ, and to never cease chasing after him. Instead, it felt more like a supplication for forgiveness after the fact of my sin. I guess I am truly protestant. I did enjoy the reverence with which they treated Christ, and I would love to see how that might be translated over into a protestant setting, instead of the perhaps cavalier way we interact with him.