Church visit #3

Church name: St. Michael Catholic Church

Church address: 314 W Willow Ave, Wheaton

Date attended: Sunday, 4/6/14

Church category: Much more liturgical

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

St. Michael Catholic Church is very different than both the church I attended as a young child, my parents’ home church, and the church I attend regularly here in Wheaton. As far as I can remember, I have never been to a catholic mass and was happy to finally do so. St. Mike’s is a beautiful church with an eloquent sanctuary with captivating stained glass windows, great acoustics, and a life-sized crucifix hung at the front. It, foolishly, took me quite a while to realize that what was hung at the front of the church was a crucifix and not just a cross with a purple tapestry hung awkwardly across it. Eventually, however, I realized there were fingers pointing out just a little from the tarp and I realized that an image of Jesus was veiled beneath the purple cloth. As I looked around the church, I also saw, what I am assuming was, a statue of the Virgin Mary—covered with purple as well. These images, complete with their current veiling, are something new to me.

Time-wise, this church was more similar to what I am used to than Iglesia del Pueblo was, but St. Mike’s actually ended sooner than I had expected. From start to finish, the mass was a short forty-five minutes in duration.

Also, St. Mike’s, of the three churches I’ve visited now/relative to the church I regularly attend, had the most diversity in age. There were plenty of babies, children, teenagers, adults, and (more than any other church that I’ve attended) elderly.

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

I was most interested by the images and would like to go back to St. Mike’s post-lent in order to see them unveiled. Generally speaking, however, the high liturgy of the mass was interesting to me. I grew up in a nondenominational church back home and have attended a Bible church here in Wheaton all four years, and to see things done in, what felt like, a very scripted manner was interesting.

Within the liturgy, what I found appealing, was the movement and involvement of the congregation. Maybe I’m just a kinesthetic learner, but the external motion of crossing oneself and kneeling in prayer is very special. I enjoyed that part of the mass.

I also really enjoyed the stain glass…I could stare at stain glass for a long time. At the right time, the sun shown through the sky-light windows as well and it was a glorious feeling.

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

Of the three church visits I did this semester, St. Mike’s is where I felt the most out of place. This stemmed from a realization that I didn’t really know what was going on. The prayers, greetings, ups and downs, communion, etc. all seemed to threaten me with a chance to mess up. And the thing was that everyone around me sure seemed to know what was going on. I had original plans to go with a catholic friend of mine, but those fell through. I had a lot of questions that I didn’t get to ask, such as, what is that seemingly empty room behind the veiled statue of Mary? Why do they veil Christ and Mary during lent? What does this Latin hymn mean? Why does the priest speak so quickly? Am I supposed to take communion if I’m not a catholic (risked it for the biscuit on that one). So on the one hand, all the questions threw me for a loop. On the other hand, I think it was good for me to be outside of my comfort zone and experiencing God in a different setting.

But I will say that the strict order of the service did make me a bit uncomfortable. The priest did indeed read quite quickly and, for whatever reason, it gave off an heir of air of disingenuousness. I’ll have to talk to my friend about how he counters that notion.   

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

There was a mention of the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead and the priest spoke on how Jesus as fully human wept for his friend but then as eternally God raised Lazarus from the dead. My mind rushed back to class and I was thrilled to have a better understanding of what that really means. One of the readings was from Romans and on life in the Spirit and the peace that it brings. The combination of that reading with the beautiful hymns we were led it was impactful to me reminding me deeply of the peace and security with have in our Lord and Savior.