My Experience at a Church: A Personal Reflection
Religion has been with us for centuries, and it is what gives man many of his personal beliefs, morals, and ideology. If we look at the past, we can see that Catholic church is one of most influential and the largest in history. Also, in today's world, Catholic Church is the largest denomination of any religion. I have to say that this description of a church essay reveal one of the experiences that I was not excited about. Growing up as a Baptist, I was taught one thing, and that is to be Baptist. I grew up thinking that Catholic, Orthodox, and others have different beliefs. We all grew up having different beliefs and a church where they all have different ways of doing service. Last year, we had a friend passed away and she was Muslim. When our family went to attend the funeral, only the men were allowed to go in. All the females, even their mom/ grandparents weren’t allowed inside the funeral service. Every church and belief has its different ways of service and I apologize if I offended anyone's beliefs on this essay.
I had a privilege to visit St. Monica Catholic Church during their daily mass (Wednesday) and Sunday Mass. From my perspective, I believed that we shouldn’t try to put many expensive valuable things in church. We go to church to worship God, not value, object, or statues. On Wednesday, I attended their daily mass and it was fascinating. St. Monica Catholic church does their daily mass in a smaller chapel called Augustine Chapel. As I looked around the chapel, I noticed that there were a couple of small figures, pictures of Jesus on the wall. There are also a few artwork, which is very colorful, inside the chapel. As I mentioned before, I grew up in a Baptist family, and being able to witness Catholic church for the first time was fascinating. I wouldn’t say it was completely different but most of all, it was interesting. On Sunday, I went to their Sunday Mass at 8 (I have never, in my life, attended any churches that start at 8). As I walked in, the first thing that I noticed was a statue of Jesus, Mary right beside Jesus in the middle of the stage. I also think that the fact that they have the big table (With candles and cross) in the middle was interesting. Their Sunday mass chapel was different from the Augustine Chapel. It has less figures and objects hanging around the wall. They do have colorful pictures on the glass.
As I mentioned before, seeing status and objects that are valuable (which i’m not saying anything bad about this church) just throw me off a little bit. Since I’m not Catholic, they could have the statue of Jesus and Mary for a reason. I am not judging, but for me, it speaks differently when I attend their service. The way they practice and give speeches about God showed that they are true believers. The other thing that was interesting was how they have their communion even on a weekday. I grew up where I can only have communion when I baptized and the communion only occurs once a month. The fact that they have communion (bread and drink) even on a Wednesday makes me reflect on how sinful I am. We have communion in remembrance of Jesus, who died on the cross for us. When I attended their service with my brother, he asked, “Why do they have a big status of Jesus and Mary? Do they worship those statues?” For some people who have never been to Catholic church would assume that they worship idols. Catholic do not worship idols and I believe the reason why they have statues is because back in the day, no one was able to read or write. There was no way for them to understand the stories and words of God. Therefore, I believed they used statues and colorful glass (stained) to portray the stories and words of God. The fact that they have their daily mass illustrate how holy they are. I read a story once where Newman said, “if someone destroys the mass, they destroy the church as well”. What this church says about itself is how holy they are.
