For this assignment I attended a Catholic mass in Spanish at Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in North Hollywood. Growing up my parents hardly had any interest on attending masses or teaching us their beliefs passes from their parents, considering my grandparents are very religious. The only time I would attend a mass is when there was a service memorial, so I have little experience with Catholicism. I decided to go to a Sunday mass on October 4 with my friend Stephanie and her family, since they go every Sunday. We arrived early about 20 minutes to find seats. The mass began at 10:30 AM with some people rushing through the door at the last minute to find any available seats. In my own experience, I thought church began with socializing between
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There was one woman who dropped to her knees at the threshold and made the sign of the cross, while another woman only made the sign while standing. One family near us got on their knees together and prayed as soon as they entered the pew. Then I saw a young girl who quickly bent at the knees next to the pew, and then sat down, while the rest of her family simply walked in and sat down. That action interested me the most because it was a child performing a religious act with no reinforcement or model of the behavior from her parents, and yet she still performed the act. As service was about to start the building was filled, some people didn’t get a chance to find a seat so they ended up …show more content…
There were a variety of children in attendance, and even more people who looked to be in their twenties and thirties. The majority, it seemed there was people over fifty. The entire crowd was Hispanic and it was difficult to characterize a social class among attendees, because everyone was dressed nicely, but no one appeared overdressed. If I had to classify the mass as anything, I would say that it was mainly middle class. The clothing among crowd was a little more casual than what I am used to. I saw a good number of people wearing jeans and some people in t-shirts. There was one priest leading the service, and one woman who would step up to assist the priest with the lectures. The woman was dressed as the rest of the crowd, while the priest was dressed in simple robes.
The building was quite large and decorative. The ceiling was extremely tall with a lot of high arches. The front of the altar had an imagery of Christ, although the priest’s podium itself was nothing fantastic, although the podium did place the priest for everyone to view. There were stained glass windows depicting Jesus and Mary lined both sides of the cathedral and reached up to the ceiling. There was also a large woodcarving portraying the crucifixion of Jesus, which looked particularly gruesome to me. I think that the reason the woodcarving is portrayed is to remind worshippers of the suffering he had endured.
There was one woman who dropped to her knees at the threshold and made the sign of the cross, while another woman only made the sign while standing. One family near us got on their knees together and prayed as soon as they entered the pew. Then I saw a young girl who quickly bent at the knees next to the pew, and then sat down, while the rest of her family simply walked in and sat down. That action interested me the most because it was a child performing a religious act with no reinforcement or model of the behavior from her parents, and yet she still performed the act. As service was about to start the building was filled, some people didn’t get a chance to find a seat so they ended up …show more content…
There were a variety of children in attendance, and even more people who looked to be in their twenties and thirties. The majority, it seemed there was people over fifty. The entire crowd was Hispanic and it was difficult to characterize a social class among attendees, because everyone was dressed nicely, but no one appeared overdressed. If I had to classify the mass as anything, I would say that it was mainly middle class. The clothing among crowd was a little more casual than what I am used to. I saw a good number of people wearing jeans and some people in t-shirts. There was one priest leading the service, and one woman who would step up to assist the priest with the lectures. The woman was dressed as the rest of the crowd, while the priest was dressed in simple robes.
The building was quite large and decorative. The ceiling was extremely tall with a lot of high arches. The front of the altar had an imagery of Christ, although the priest’s podium itself was nothing fantastic, although the podium did place the priest for everyone to view. There were stained glass windows depicting Jesus and Mary lined both sides of the cathedral and reached up to the ceiling. There was also a large woodcarving portraying the crucifixion of Jesus, which looked particularly gruesome to me. I think that the reason the woodcarving is portrayed is to remind worshippers of the suffering he had endured.