David Batdorf, Church visit #1

Church Name: St. Michael's Catholic Church
Church Address: 310 South Wheaton Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187
Date Attended: 9/13/2015
Church Category: Liturgical

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

The service followed (from what I understand) the outline of a typical Catholic mass: Introductory rites, Liturgy of the Word, and Liturgy of the Eucharist. Within in each of these portions there were several rites which flowed from on to another. While the flow from each of these rites to the other was seamless, as one who had never participated in an English Catholic (this summer I attended a French Mass and was completely lost...) I was very unsure as to what to expect next. Even though there was a bulletin to follow, I had to rely on the people around me to know when to kneel, when to stand, and how to respond to respond to the priest. If you were to attend my church you would know what what to expect and have all the information to participate in the bulletin. Here, deep familiarity with the service was required for full participation. It also differed in that there were many brief portions of service, as well as no differentiation between worship time, scripture reading time, preaching time. Aspects of each of these more evangelical notions interwoven throughout the Mass.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?

I particularly appreciated the attitude of reverence which people expressed throughout the service. The congregants dipped their hands into a large pool upon entering and crossed themselves before entering. As they left, most knelt briefly at the end of the pew and crossed themselves before exiting. As I entered the service, many were kneeling in the pews, praying. Throughout the service, we knelt during several of the prayers which were given. As displayed with these actions, there seemed to be a deeper sense of one's self, the holiness of God and as these two were meant to interact in some way during the service, the necessity of entering the service with a posture of reverence and humility.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?

As mentioned above, perhaps the most disorienting aspect of the service was not knowing the routine of service. Because I did not know what to expect and feared doing something inappropriate,  I felt unable to fully be part of the worship experience. And although I valued the reverence with which the congregants seemed to approach the service, I did not feel this was reflective of the priest who led the Mass. The monotonous inflection of his voice, seemed to reflect that he was merely going through the motions. I found myself not taking much interest in his words because he did not seem to take much interest in them himself.

What aspects of Scripture or Theology did the worship service illuminate for you, not as clearly perceived in your regular worship context?

I left the service viewing two things differently. First was God's holiness. While much of my expanding conception of who God is, derives from our class lectures and following reflections. This service was seemed one of the first (albeit unintentional) physical applications of my expanding concept of God and therefore my response to him. The service placed high importance on repentance and acknowledgement of sin before coming to God. While I do not recall it being directly expressed, there was a sense throughout the service that God is so other than ourselves and our only path to him being through Jesus. The second aspect of theology which impacted me through the service was a broader sense of the world church. This summer I had the opportunity to spend a summer in Vietnam. While there I attended the French Mass in the center of Hanoi. While attending St. Michael's I realized the liturgy we were participating in was largely identical to that the French Mass (expect now I understood what they were saying). The thought of Catholic churches across the globe worshiping in the format and agreeing to the same tenets of faith weekly is particularly beautiful and profound to me an Protestant. Although I didn't share many of their beliefs, I really felt as if I were part of something greater than the immediate congregation at hand.