Cultural Plunge Reflection

Every culture has different beliefs. A few weeks ago, I went to a Catholic church for my cultural plunge project. It was a new experience for me because it was my first time going to a church. According to what I have learned from the textbooks, Christianity and Catholicism carry some elements in common, such as the similarities in the worship of Christ and the practices of prayer as well as bible reading. For that reason, it is difficult to distinguish the differences between the two. In order to understand more about individuals who identify themselves as Catholics, I decided to choose Catholics as my focal group. I hope that I would be able to use this cultural plunge activity to gain more knowledge about Catholicism.
Since I was born and …show more content…
John Neumann Catholic Church on Sunday with my friends. The outside of the church was decorated with a huge cross, which is very similar to most of the Christian churches that I had seen before. If I was not informed that this was a Catholic church, I would not have recognized it by looking at the structures. When I first walked into the church, I was distracted by the beauty of the interior of the church. However, I was shocked when I saw a lady who was kneeling down on the pew kneeler. Later on, I noticed that there was a group of people, who were wearing white vestment, walked in with a huge cross in their hands as well as a person, who wore green vestment, walked in the center. The mass started with a song and a speech. Then, it was processed with a discussion about the book section. Before I started to do some researches about the similarities and differences between Christianity and Catholicism, and before I attended the mass, I have heard that Catholics discourage Bible reading. However, Bible reading was present in the mass. This event has proven that this stereotype was incorrect. In fact, Catholics practice the reading of the Bible. They discuss about it during the mass as well. I asked around and was informed that Catholics sing and discuss about the reading of the Bible during the mass most of the time. In my Cultural Plunge Picture figure 5, it shows a photo of the mass schedule which listed the Bible reading assignment for each mass. Towards the end of the ceremony, the priest asked everyone to hold hands and pray as well as introduce ourselves to the ones around us. Towards the end of the mass, I noticed that was a basket that was passing around to collect money. I was a little confused about this process, but I believe that this basket was passed around to collect donations and would be used for good