Michael Vanaman- Church Visit #1

Church Name: St. Michael's Catholic Church
Church Address: 301 S Wheaton Ave, Wheaton, IL
Date Attended: April 3rd, 2016 (Divine Mercy Sunday)

Describe the worship service you attended.
Predominantly, I have not attended worship services that are as highly liturgical. There is a systematic ordering to how one is expected to worship in this context and church speaks as one—generally in the form of call and response, this holds from the singing of praises, to the reading of liturgy, or in responding to the revelation of God.The key difference that this Catholic worship tended to emphasize, in comparison to the likes of a Protestant standard (let us say College Church, posture as a key component in the worshipers repertoire. Yes, nearly everyone understands the whole aspect of kneeling and hand motions—but in this style of worshiping there is a significance that is placed on every movement. It is quite easy, if one does not know the particular motions and rhythm of the mass to feel quite 'not at home' with the procession. Suddenly each small hand gesture becomes a self-critiquing moment. Perhaps one might even say there is a habitual skill to develop in being a participant of mass. Regardless, the point is that this form of worship, by nearly eliminating the casual freedom of standing in a crowd (trying to sing well), places a sort of duty and honor upon the participant to actually be an active part of the worship.

What aspects of Roman Catholic theology did you notice expressed in the service?
By happenstance, I visited this church once again to be greeted with the fact that April 3rd, the Sunday after Easter, was quite a special day for Catholicism. Oddly, this time granted me quite the opportunity to witness the different levels of authority that guide the Catholic church. Saint Faustina Kowalska heard from Christ that the Feast of Mercy must be instituted on the week after Easter to convey God's loving-kindess towards his people. None of this seems particularly striking until it was expressed, more or less, that faithful Catholics ought to have the Scriptures, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and her dairy: Divine Mercy in My Soul. It was quite odd, as a self-proclaimed Protestant, to hear one who proclaimed that they had hear God's voice and to urge the church that it should embrace this devotion. This example serves as point where Catholic teaching is not bound to the interpretation of the Scriptures themselves, though such teaching should be found and embraced at some level of heart in the Scriptures, but teaching can be drawn from these special examples where one's revelation can be made authority by the authority of the higher offices of the Church. In this case, John Paul II is given the honor of establishing it as "Holy See approved". Protestants, I take it, would be very uncomfortable with a "non-Scriptural" source taking the hold of the worship service but Catholic theology, in appealing to the Spirit's consistent, constant, and continuous work in the church, such an authority may shine his light and revelation through his Saints to benefit the whole.

What aspects of Scripture/theology did the worship service illuminate for you?

Back to the reflection on posture, I have heard and read a lot on the subject through the works and lectures involved in the quest for a Biblical Theology of Worship. In my mind, Catholics seem to get it right that posture matters quite a great deal. When one worships, it is easy for the mind to wander—to, in fact, appear there in presence, figure and posture—but when one is called to bow, to worship with one's hands, it can seem easier to see inwardly that one is not altogether there in mind or spirit. True worship, I take it, is founded in the double love commandment where one ought to love [worship] God with their full selves(mind, body, spirit, resources). When posture becomes more dynamic and requires the body to habituate itself to the movements of mass, perhaps we see something like the stairs towards the temple that was once in Jerusalem—which were intentionally designed, so I hear, to be at different lengths so that one could not simply just walk into the temple. Each step required the mind to focus a bit more—it forces the motions and movements to not merely be ready-to-hand. Although once one learns the pattern, then I perceive the temptation would arise to simply let the body—once again—take control while the rest of us dwells somewhere else. The illumination from this worship, then, is that there is something Scriptural connected with worship involving the whole self and as various parts of the body are engaged—the ability to simply gloss over worship becomes impaired. This would not be foolproof but repetition can also be renewing. I take it Scripture does tend to line up with this style of worship and it remains something that many Protestants churches have simply ignored or have been adamantly against.