Darren Yau - Church Visit #1

Church Name: Ascension Catholic Church

Church Address: 808 S. East Ave., Oak Park, IL 60304

Visit Date: April 1, 2016

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

We attended a Taize service at Ascension Catholic, which was modeled after the practices of the Taize community, an ecumenical brotherhood started by Brother Roger Schütz in the 1940s. So while it was in a Catholic setting, the pews were filled with all strains of Christians. The service proceeded in a pretty straightforward fashion: it began with songs, in which the repetitive, rhythmic lyrics switched between English, Latin, and Spanish, then moved to candle lighting, in which the unity of the body of Christ was visibly expressed. The pinnacle of the service was after all of us had our candles lit; we walked up to the front and placed the candles in crusty sand beneath reverently placed icons. After that there were several more songs, a moment of silence, concluding hymns, the Lord’s Prayer, and passing the peace. There was nothing similar to my regular worship context other than that we sang songs, prayed, and read the Word.

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

To the clueless visitor, the architecture immediately stands out as oozing with Catholic vibes. The sanctuary had soaring ceilings that climaxed into a dome where the disciples and the Trinity (including the Father!) were unabashedly depicted. In the front, the suffering Jesus was surrounded by vases of pungent flowers, silver ornaments and gold studded furniture. Around the room stood statues of various saints, perhaps a reminder that the saints surround us as we worship, testifying to the catholicity of the Catholic Church. While it was not a Mass, it was evident that the word was not at the center of worship. In fact, if anything, the word was seen as wispy and evanescent; the bulletin describes the moment of silence like this: “When we try to express communion with God in words, we rapidly reach the end of our capacities. A fairly long period of silence to listen to the voice of God deep within, therefore, is essential in discovering the heart of prayer (10 minutes).” The apophatic comment certainly fits a strand of catholic theologians who have emphasized the uncomprehendable and transcendent nature of God, and the mystical inward turn we must make in order to truly move beyond ourselves.

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

One aspect I was struck by was the sheer emphasis on the experience of the service. Smells, bells, icons, warmth all contributed to the overall experience of transcendence. Hence I began to notice the thickness of the service: one can fully engage each sense (if we had communion, we would have engaged all five) in a tangible way, and how that makes God so concrete. It makes much more sense to me why someone who grows up in services like these would think how obvious it is that the church is the visible body of Christ: the constant patterns of worship holistically shape the worshipper to realize God is here. Frankly, I’m jealous at this ability to concretize transcendence. But afterward, we went to a Chicken & Waffles place where the funk musicians were grooving so hard souls were dancing—and I wondered whether or not concrete transcendence could be felt, here too, as a rugged, chocolate voice sang, “God got his hand on us.” What makes this experience more rationally justifiable than that one? What does it mean for a church to claim the logic of one liturgy is more fitting for the layperson than another one, when, frankly, I can feel closer to God with head bopping, bass-slapping funk than the soaring Latin phrases sung over the glowing warmth of candles? So I guess the service raised more questions than it answered, but it definitely pointed me to the importance of the engagement of all senses during a service, whether using icons and candles or fried chicken, waffles, and dirty funk.