Michael Vanaman Church Visit #2 Into Latin

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?

Here, I attended Latin mass which is naturally one of the most removed and different settings that one can have from the natural state of a fairly liturgical background. Such key differences include: the music they used was handcrafted by Mozart and was played professionally, the praising of God was not conducted nor participated by the congregation, and finally the words were deliberately not spoken in the vernacular. Protestant churches tend to emphasize the hearing of Scripture and the sermon as the proper understanding of it. Here, the sermon was dedicated to explaining the necessity of revealing beauty in worship. In short, it was a form of justification for why Latin mass should still be offered as a something which will edify the people of the Church. Finally, the service took place in far more ornate and theologically-telling building than my usual church background. Here the history of the Church was beautifully illustrated throughout the building—showing the deep rooted history which formed and structures the Church to this day.

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

To some extent, I believe I saw an emphasis on maintaining the sacredness of mass and the Eucharist over a presentation of more clearly stated form of worship. Whether this does or ought to characterize Roman Catholic theology I cannot say, however, it seems that this has been a problem historically which has not fully been addressed. The most interesting evidence I had to observe was the common attenders of the service—specifically the families with their children. I watched mother's scold their children for incorrectly performing the proper respects to the alter or by being a bit too rambunctious. The children, it seemed, had little understanding of why or what called them for such respect and—if I may extend this a bit further—I am not sure that the parent's were all that better off. Nonetheless, I came away from the service feeling that many treated the alter with a sense of duty rather than a sense of true reverence from the heart. Thus this is not necessarily an aspect of Roman Catholic theology but perhaps a trend that I see—there seems to be an emphasis on the sacred over and beyond making the message clear to all. But such is likely the case of temple work in Israel—it was up to the community to explain and inspire awe in the next generation such that their worship and their Tradition would be edifying and participated with true reverence. As a fellow student learned (Darren) through conversing with a Franciscan monk,  by preserving Latin for usage in the mass, Roman Catholic's believe that the mass is made all the more sacred since Latin is reserved for this sacred moment. The question of sacred over congregational participation remains an open one for me currently.

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

Again, the most palpable question that has currently arisen for me is the Scriptural understanding of sacred space and sacred tools to conduct sacred work in those sacred places. Words in of themselves are tools which we most readily use to convey ideas and images. If mass is truly sacred, then it would seem that Latin is a tool for the Church to make mass all the more sacred since Latin is reserved for ecclessial use at this point in time. Nonetheless, I feel as though the mass smacks of traditionalism gone wrong and I cannot fully place my finger on why I had this volatile reaction against this mass. I know Latin to some extent so this mass was not entirely foreign to me—nonetheless, I do not know if I can fully latch onto the idea that Latin should be elevated so highly while the Orthodox cling to their Greek and the Protestants the universal message which must be delivered across the boundaries of language. Thus, theologically, perhaps Protestants tend to view language as barrier which impedes spread of the Gospel and erects barriers to unity—meanwhile Catholics, if this view is correct, seem to view language as tools which can be set aside to give the proper sense of respect and reverence to a holy moment—the giving of the Eucharist. This is not so much a theological aspect as much as it is a theological debate that I had not necessarily encountered and, perhaps, is not truly a conversation being had at all. Nonetheless, I perceive the debate, if it exists, extends beyond just the forms of Latin mass.