Brady Woods – Church Visit #2

Church name: St. John Cantius Church

Church address: 825 N Carpenter St, Chicago, IL 60642

Date attended: 17 April 2016

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

We attended the Tridentine mass at St. John Cantius Church. Although this was my second time attending extraordinary mass at this particular church, it still felt extremely other-worldly. Although the Anglican church I attend is liturgical, it was only incidentally similar. Almost the entirety of this service was in Latin, with the theoretical exceptions of the homily and the recessional. I say theoretical because the supposed ‘homily’ consisted of the Priest declaring how the building had won an online award for the most beautiful church in the USA and then talking for two minutes about the importance of beauty for the glory of God and edification of the church, and half of the recessional was in Latin. Further, the church seemed to be much more of an economic agent than the church I attend; it was selling materials about the Latin mass, and The Cantian had a number of advertisements, including for Roman Catholic online dating in Illinois, a plumber and mortgages.

What aspects of Roman Catholic theology did you notice expressed in the service?

A significant aspect of Roman Catholic theology I noticed during the service occurred while observing the long line of people around the church lined up for confession. Although I have visited a number of Roman Catholic churches, this was the first time I was able to observe the confessional booths being used. Another aspect I noticed was the deep reverence, even compared to ordinary mass, which was shown towards the Eucharist as the presence of Christ. Whereas in most Roman Catholic churches I have been in, the congregants would sit for most of the serving of the Eucharist, here they remained kneeling, except when they stood to receive it.

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 church was indeed as beautiful as online voters apparently thought it was, and illustrated to me the glorious beauty of the bride of Christ. Much of my church experience growing up in a baptist community seemed to emphasize the continued ‘dirtiness’ of the Church in the present, which was and is certainly true in a certain sense. St. John Cantius Church shows the other side of the paradox which should also be realized: the Church is the Bride of Christ, washed and made good, true and beautiful.

Yet the choice of icons and music which were labelled as “beautiful” to the exclusion of other a icons and music worried me. Why are Mozart’s music and European Jesus icons more beautiful than, say, Zbigniew Priesner’s music and Giuliani’s native American Jesus icons? Why prefer Latin over Greek? The selection of certain things as beautiful seems to be tied closely to the historically powerful, which is deeply troubling. This service, then, brought to the surface difficult questions about how to think about historical power and theology.