Rosalie Dillon- Church Visit #3

Church Name: Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Church Address: 1101 N. 23rd Ave
Melrose Park Illinois 60160
Date Attended: Friday April 4 7pm
Church Category: Lower socio-economic background. More than 10 miles away. More liturgical

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

This service was, by far, the most diverse church experience I have ever had. Not only was it located in a lower-class neighborhood, but it was a tri-lingual Catholic service, performing the 14 stations of the cross for Lenten season. Instead of beginning church with worship songs or announcements, it began with the priest doing a liturgical reading and the audience responding. Then they moved to the stations of the cross. The first station was read in English, the second station was read in Portuguese, and the third station was read in Spanish. This rotation of languages was done for every successive station. While moving between stations, a few lines following along with the story were sung. Though my own church does one responsive reading at the beginning of the service, it is only in English, and responsive readings are only done once, instead of multiple times. Everything about this service was different than what I am used to.

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
I really liked the three different languages represented at this church. Because of this, the type of people that attended were from many nationalities. There were also two priests, each representing the different languages. One spoke the English readings, while the other spoke the Spanish and Portuguese portions. It was also interesting that as the priests moved along the wall, following the stations of the cross, the congregation moved with them. This really put into perspective the story of Jesus going to the cross. As the story moved along chronologically, we followed the story physically as well. Another thing I liked, was the vast age range of attenders. It was not primarily composed of a singular age category, but evenly distributed among all of them. This also contributed to the unity I felt while attending.

What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
As this was the most diverse church experience I have ever had, many aspects were quite disorienting. The first thing that comes to mind is the responsive readings. For the first part of the service I didn’t understand why every time the congregation was supposed to respond, it seemed like everyone responded by talking at a different speed. It was so confusing because I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t try to respond at the same time. Later on in the service I realized that it sounded so disorienting because everyone was responding in their own language, and not the language that the priest was speaking at each respective station. Despite this, we tried our best to read the different languages as they were used in the readings. Another aspect that was strange was the lack of worship music. I am very accustomed to worshiping with music before the sermon. However, aside from the small singing done between each station, there was no portion of the service dedicated to just worship music itself.

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 primary aspect of scripture that this experience illuminated for me, was the unity of the body of Christ. The fact that everyone was able to hear at least part of the service in their native tongue, yet be worshiping with others of a different tongue at the same time, left me awestruck. I have never been to one service before that didn’t speak 100% in English. In scripture, Christ is continually reminding the people that they would be united together, nation among nation, despite any sort of language or cultural barrier. My experience at this church made this statement a reality. Additionally, I find myself very focused on music and singing as a bit part of my worship. Although this church did not dedicate a portion of their service for this, I still felt an aspect of worship through the responsive Scriptural readings. Attending this service was most definitely a growing and learning experience for me, and will certainly be one not easily forgotten.