Catholic Church Reflection Paper

The Catholic Church is one of the oldest religious institutions in the world. The church is headed by a bishops who are also called successors, but the pope is the leader of the church. During Mass services, Catholics participate in the liturgical life that uses signs and symbols that come from the creations of the world and sacraments which are signs of grace. The sacraments are baptism, confirmation, marriage, Eucharistic, and holy orders (ourcatholicfaith.org). I was able to witness a few of these sacraments during the service I attended which was very interesting to see. Catholic Churches share a lot of the same beliefs that I believe in especially when it comes to the teachings of Jesus Christ, they just teach it in a different way than …show more content…
Usually when I attend different churches, I am attending churches that are similar to my church back at home. I have never been to a church of a different religion before and the first one that came to head was a Catholic Church. Although they are Christians just like I am a Christian, I was still very nervous to visit. When visit my own church, I am in my element where I will speak to everyone and not nervous, but attending this church I was very nervous. At first I was worried they were not going to accept me because I looked different from them but then when I walked into the church I received a warm welcoming. I knew then I had chosen the right place to attend church at. One of the first things I do when I visit somewhere out of comfort zone is scope the place to see if there are any other African Americans there. I noticed that there were at least four African Americans including me there. Also, I knew I had to participate in the service in order to get the full experience. I took part in the singing of hymns, kneeling down on the bench during prayer, and saying some of the prayers and phrases. One thing I got to witness was members of the congregation being baptized. I have only seen preachers perform baptisms …show more content…
My religion is very important to me. I have been praising God in the same manner all my life. This made me very hesitant to visit a different church of another religion. I believe that maybe it would be viewed as disobeying God by attending another church. This is why going to a catholic church was a huge leap for me. I was ignorant to the workings of a catholic church. It was amazing to find out how close our beliefs lined up. Upon further research I learned Catholic is “a subset of Christianity”. All Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. Christians can be Roman, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Catholics still seem extremely different, from the order of service, the hymns, the communion, and the baptism. I was completely out of my element here, so much so that I just cannot imagine going