Emily Beckman - Church Visit #1

Blog title: Emily Beckman - 1

Church name: St. Michael Catholic Church

Church address: 310 S. Wheaton Ave
Wheaton, IL 60187

Date attended: 2/9/14

Church category: More liturgical

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

As you walk into the sanctuary, there are bulletins available to pick up which outline the order of the service, including songs, the homily, and the Eucharist. Once seated, there are red books located in front of you which contain greater detail of the order of events in the service (which practicing Catholics have memorized), a section of songs, and the scripture passage for each day of the church calendar. The songs would all be considered hymns and are either memorized or located in the red books. There is some set recitation and verbal response. There are also specific times when the congregation stands, sits, and kneels. The Eucharist is taken every week and is surrounded by many rituals, with time for prayer following. Besides the fact that both my normal service and this service have a time for singing, prayer, reading scripture aloud, and a sermon, the structure is altogether different. My home church does not have a bulletin outlining the service because the exact order is not even planned out by the church leaders and is subject to change spontaneously ‘by the leading of the Spirit’ at any point. The congregation is also a lot closer to the speaker since the room is small and there is no stage, compared to the distance of the priest from the congregation.

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

One thing I really valued was the presence of art and interesting architecture in the sanctuary. Stain glass windows lined the side walls as well as near the ceiling in the front, depicting the life of Jesus and stories from the Old Testament. A large life-like sculptural crucifix hung in the center of the front wall. The walls were painted light pastel colors. These pieces of art and design choices gave me a greater sense of awe and beauty in Christ, as well as keeping me constantly focused on Him. Any moment my mind began to wander, I would look up and see depictions everywhere that brought me back to the center of sermon, the scriptural reading, the song, whatever was going on in the service at that moment. As a very visual person, I was very drawn to and effected by these elements.

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

The most disorienting part of the service was simply that there was so much learned structure that it’s hard to participate while trying to follow along in the book, while there were a few things that were slightly out of order. So, while trying to balance a book in one hand, flipping back and fourth and a bulletin in the other, I felt like I couldn’t concentrate on anything but trying to follow along. I have also been there before and even that prior experience didn’t really help me follow along better.

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

The importance of the Eucharist was definitely a center theme that is not portrayed clearly at my home church. I realize there is simply a different theological significance of the Eucharist in the Catholic tradition, but nonetheless, the respect shone and the necessity communicated for regular sustenance from Christ was powerful. Communion at my church is held once a month and is a very intimate, family-like time since the church is small; so, witnessing the Eucharist in a larger context with great reverence of the majesty or grandeur of Christ as well as His physical closeness through the consumption of the elements gave me a new perspective.