Gwen Farber - Church Visit #1

Church name: Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Chapel

Church address: 205 Futon St. Elgin, IL

Date attended: March 20, 2016

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

I come from a very, very low-church background, so many aspects of this service were completely different than anything I experienced growing up. There was so much kneeling, kissing of hands, and speaking in Latin that I had a hard time following along in the English-Latin program we had been given, and I definitely didn't take in any of the liturgy because I was so focused on catching up to where the priest was in the Latin. It was Palm Sunday, and we did a very intense palm processional outside and around the block. There was a small homily (given in English) in the middle of the service, but the majority was not presented in the vernacular. I wasn't a stranger to the silence of the service, nor to the head coverings that the women wore, but the lack of music (or at least, music that the congregation sang along to), the judgmental looks from other members of the congregation and the priest himself, and the fact that the priest was rarely facing us (much less speaking in English) made me feel very disconnected and uncomfortable during the service. 

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

The presenting and distribution of the Eucharist seemed very traditional and very liturgical. All of the icons and portrayals of God/Jesus were covered with purple cloth during the Lenten season, but that purple also reminded me of the importance of the church calendar in the Catholic tradition especially, as well as the colors that are associated with specific periods of time. The church we attended may very well have been a schismatic church, so much of it is not what "modern" Catholics would consider normal, but there was a huge emphasis on the Latin liturgy, and the homily was very focused on works and discriminatory of faith. There were many mentions of Mary, and the entire congregation treated the priest with an intense form of reverence. 

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

I have never felt so Protestant in my entire life. The service made me acutely miss the reminder and promise of God's justifying work on the cross. Although the priest was reading Scripture (the entirety of Matthew's passion narrative, to be exact), the service felt much more "dead" in a sense. While following along with the Latin, I completely lost track of the actual liturgy and what the priest was saying. He faced away from us, and I missed the connection to the Church that I feel in my own context. But because my church background is so very low-church, it was refreshing and new for me to be surrounded by sounds of bells, smells of incense, and sights of kneeling and prayer. Although it was at times distracting for me, I was able to focus on the Lord in a different way than I am able to do in my own home church.