Summary: My Experience At Catholic Mass

Before I stepped into St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, I thought that attending Catholic Mass would not be all that different from the Protestant services I grew up attending. However, I felt out of place as soon as I walked through the front doors. Everything felt foreign to me; from the way the building was set up, to the way people behaved during the service, to the way everyone exited the church. As an outsider, I felt lost and almost lonely as the masses around me moved in unison and I was left trying to follow along as best I could. I did not feel that Mass was welcome and open as the services of the Protestant churches that I am familiar with. Similarly, I felt uncomfortable as an outsider, but not unwelcome. Visiting …show more content…
There were many different times throughout the service in which someone, the priest or the person who read scripture, said something and the congregation responded. Similarly, there was more than one prayer that was said out loud from memory. Another ritual in the Catholic church that does not carry over into many Protestant churches is kneeling in the pews during certain times of prayer. Likewise, the Eucharist, or communion, in Catholic Mass was another ritual I was unfamiliar with. Though I have participated in communions in Protestant churches for much of my life, I had never seen it happen the way it did in Mass. Every person participating was ushered up to the front, row by row, and given a wafer and a sip of wine. If one did not wish to participate in this, they may go to the front and cross their arms to signify that they were not participating. All of these rituals combined left me feeling out of place because I did not know what was going on, what to expect next, or how to behave. Most of the people participating had grown up with these rituals and were very familiar with the proceedings, therefore nothing was explained for an outsiders benefit. These rituals are definitely unique to the Catholic