Church Name: St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church
Church Address: 36 N Ellsworth St, Naperville, IL 60540
Date Attended: March 20, 2016
Church Category: Tridentine Mass
Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
The tridentine mass that I attended was at St. Peter and Paul, I was immediately struck by the grandiose nature of the sanctuary. It was massive with many statues, which were covered by purple cloth, which I assume was for Holy week. There were images depicting Christ and angels and various scenes from the life of Christ. Once the service started, I was placed into an unfamiliar territory, although there were certain pieces of liturgy that I recognized and the smell of incense is familiar to me, most of the elements I did not recognize. It was also very different from my normal church setting in the formality of the liturgy. Much of the liturgy was spoken only by the priest in a low voice so that the congregation could not hear. The text was obviously all in latin and so while it may have been familiar to regular attendees it would only be understood by the priest and maybe a few others. When communion was taken only the priest took wine, while the communicants only received bread, which was also different than my normal church setting. Finally, the sermon was approximately five minutes, where the priest read the Scripture readings in English and then briefly read a reflection on the gospel of a church father.
How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?
I think that this service helped me to understand better the history of the church. Because it was conducted in the language that Christians worshiped in for many centuries I felt especially connected to the historical church through this experience. I also think the great formality in every motion by the priest helped me to see the great veneration they have for God, that God truly is to be feared because of His absolute power and might, and although I am not sure that this is always the picture of God that is most helpful, I also find that it is especially valuable to remember because I think it is often de-emphasized in protestant churches. I also found that not being able to understand the words and the very little attention that was given to the sermon allowed me to focus less on trying to understand and move the experience of worship more into the bodily realm. Here the sitting and standing and sounds and smells caused me to worship and delight in the Lord in a way that simply thinking about God cannot. I think this experience reminded me of the different ways in which people worshipped and like my experience in the Orthodox church gave me a greater appreciation for the church as a whole rather than my own particular strain of Christianity. Finally, I think that there were things that made me uncomfortable in a way that gave me greater appreciation for the seriousness of the Reformation. In reading Luther, I have often been struck by his great disdain for the Catholic church, and while I still find him to be a bit strong at points, I can see why he had great frustration with the church and how it at times makes God feel very inaccessible.
How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?
I think again like the Orthodox church service this experience confirmed my identity as a Protestant. While like I mentioned above I appreciated the great veneration and fear of God that is so evident in the high liturgy of the Mass, but at the same time it also made God feel incredibly inaccessible to the average person and that the priest becomes someone who has special access to God in some respect. I also found that I was made very uncomfortable by communion, while I understand why they only allow Catholics to accept communion, as their belief in the purifying nature of the actual body and blood requires them to show great care and judgement in administering the elements, however I was very uncomfortable that only the priest is allowed to drink the wine. I wonder if it would make more sense if I had a better understanding of Catholic theology, but it just seems again to limit the people's access to God. It makes it seem as if the average person is not able to actually be in communion with Christ, but must be in communion with the priest who is in communion with Christ. Finally, I think that this experience was very valuable and as I mentioned in my Orthodox blog entry and above, that worshipping in different contexts gives me a greater appreciation for the narrowness of my own notions of what Christianity is, and reshapes me towards being more tolerant of other forms of worship. While this in no way means that we should not believe what we believe strongly, I think it allows us to better love our brothers and sisters in Christ and appreciate the great diversity within the body of Christ.
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