Roman Catholic Church - Research Paper Example

Introduction The exact of the church that I visited is the Roman Catholic Church; this church is within the vicinity of my neighborhood. This makes it very convenient for the Christian around who don’t want to travel distance just to attend a service. This church has attracted my attention for the past few months and this research; I can say it is timely. Every Sunday during the churches’ worship gathering I will always see at most six auto mobiles. About a month ago the messages on the churches’ signboard has been changing almost every week. And the messages seemed to be following a sequence of scripture verses from the book of 1 peter. And the first time I bothered to read said “judgment must begin at the house of God,” apparently my good friend and neighbor is a staunch member of the church. We planned to visit the church but didn’t reveal any of my motives to him. We were to visit the church on a normal Sunday service on 20th April, 2012. This date was convenient in some way as it was “Easter Sunday” my neighborhood friend was going to provide me with all the information that I needed as he had a lot of faith in me and he perceived me as if I was going to join the church, and become part of the staunch congregation like him. Location and affiliation Roman Catholic Church was located and planted as a traditional charismatic/evangelical congregation in the mid-1980s. By late 1990s the congregation had taken on what is commonly known as “seeker sensitive” model of doing church. I noticed that the demographic of Roman Catholic Church was primarily suburban, Caucasian, middle class individuals and families ranging in age from twenty to fifty year olds. Roman Catholic Church is part of the denomination that was birthed in the midst of the Church Growth Movement in the late 1970. I also observed that the church relates to the community in a good manner. The community at large felt affiliated so much to the church because as my neighbor friend told me, the church is a place of solution to human’s problem, and agency providing answers in specific contexts, not only spiritually, but politically, socially and otherwise. Social Context Roman Catholic Church has attracted all sort socio-economic classes. It was evident during my visit to the church that all form of classes is represented in the congregation from the upper, middle, and low class. Some sporty automobiles that were present at the parking lot were evident that there was upper class, and some of the congregation did not have any cars they either walked or used a public means to arrive for the service. The low class that was present had no proper dressing. Roman Catholic Church also had more female making part of the congregation compared to men. Elite members of the society were also present during the meeting, I noticed this because of the titles that were used to refer to some members e.g. doctor, professor, sir and so forth. Material Dimension The sacred places in the church follow a specific like the temple it is described from the Old Testament. The Roman Catholic Church is designed with same floor plan as described in the bible. The nave of the church is the one that had the largest portion of the floor plan. This space is the place for the assembly and lay faithful to gather for their participation of in the celebration of holy Eucharist. The “sanctuary of the church was the most holy of all the places of the church as I noticed. The sanctuary was comprised of a placed alter, the ambo, the celebrants alter, and a tabernacle where the sacraments were placed. This place is distinct from the points where we sat as it was elevated a bit to make sure that the congregation get a glimpse of it from whatever the position they were sited. The priest was the one undertaking the role of heading the congregation. He had preserved sit at the sanctuary and preside everything during the mass. Ritual/Practical We entered the church and sat down waiting for the service to begin, when almost everybody was gathered and relaxed the priest approached at alter from the main entrance. The entire congregation stood up while singing an entrance song. The priests reached at alter at the sanctuary and made a profound bow prompting the ministers that had accompanied him to follow suit. He then venerated at alter with a kiss, and proceeded to his sit. When the entrance song came to a halt the priest comes and faced the people and said “in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit” and the congregation replied “amen” after some time I learnt that there was what was known as “penitential Act” in this part while standing the brethren and sisters (congregation) acknowledges their sins in a unified manner. A hymn was said after the proclamation of the sins. The hymn was glorifying God to the highest. Then when the congregation was seated a reader went to the ambo and the scripture that they referred to as the first reading. After the first reading (acts 10:34a, 37-43) there was hymn that was directly from the book of Psalms (ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23) and that I was told is known as “pastoral l psalms” after reading the scripture there was something unique the reader said a “that’s is the word of the lord” and the congregation replied “thanks be to God” after the first reading there was the second reading (1 cor 5:6b-8) that followed but in this there was no pastoral psalms. The same response was repeated as it was done in the first reading. The priest then approached the ambo to proclaim the gospel (Jn 20:1-9) . The gospel was read while people were standing. After the gospel the congregation takes their sits and the priest started the homily. The sermon was deduced from what was led in the first reading and the second reading to the gospel that was read by the priest. The gospel that the priest read was so much related to the Christian calendar of the moment, it was about resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Sunday was on an Easter and the sermon reflected the champion of Jesus Christ through resurrection. The major reason why Sunday is an important day to the Christians as it is the day when Jesus resurrected from death and the birth of Christianity. Immediately after the sermon by the priest there was a hymn that was sang in form of the apostle’s creed. And there was prayer from the congregation what the Roman Catholics referred to as “the prayer of the faithful” or bidding prayer. After those proceedings the other part of the service was very important and from my respondents I was told it is known as the “The liturgy of the Eucharist” first there was offertory, and offertory chants were sang. Then another symbolic act followed that was characterized by a few members of the congregation bringing forward bread and wine for the celebration of the Eucharist and some other gifts that were meant to relieve the needs of the church and of the poor. The priest standing at alter took the paten with the bread and held it slightly above at alter with both hands and said some words that weren’t audible to the congregation. There was chanting of the “sanctus” a hymn of praises that is derived from early Jewish temple worship and recorded in Isaiah 6:3 as the song Isaiah heard when seraphism singing in the presence of God when he was taken to heaven and saw God. Then what followed was the communion Rite that was preceded by the congregation saying the Lord’s Prayer. There are few events that lasted for a short period of time before specific members of the congregation approached at alter to receive the Holy Communion. After the sacrament there were few announcements and the priest together with the ministers left the church from the same entrance they came through in. Experiential/Emotional: During the unfolding of the mass there were some occasions where the congregations seemed to be so emotional. The first occasion was when they were proclaiming their sins bursting their chest. The emotion remorse was evident from most of the congregations’ faces. The other occasion that was during the Eucharist there was so much silence and those that received the Holy Communion were so much prayerful. The Ethical and Legal Dimension When looking at the ethical and legal dimension of this Roman Catholic I discovered that the teaching of Jesus Christ is very fundamental when it comes to them to live ethically as Christians. The commandment of love your neighbor as you love yourself was so much evident in the church and summon. Especially that the teachings of the day were about how Jesus Christ died for the sake of all the sinners, considering it was during Easter Sunday Doctrinal/Philosophical A philosophy that I realized with ease that constitutes of the doctrinal dimension of the church was the ritual of communion/ story of Jesus’ last supper. This philosophy has made them to twig the nature of the divine being. This then has made the Roman Catholic Church to adopt the ideal of incarnation, God and/or Jesus as one and the belief in one God. This is a doctrine that has become a social reality through the doctrine of trinity. The reason as to why during almost the whole church I could not help but notice that the sign of the cross was very apparent. Work cited Congregation for Catholic Education, Guidelines for the Study and Teaching of the Churchs Social Doctrine in the Formation of Priests, 27, Vatican Polyglot Press, Rome 1988. John Meyendorff, Orthodoxy in the Contemporary World: New York.1981. John Zizioulas, Being as Communion, Crestwood, 1985. Saunders, Rev. William. "Church Teaching on Contraception (Part 1)." Arlington Catholic Herald. 2013. Read More