Christina Rohrer- Church visit #2

 Church name: Saint Michaels Church of Wheaton
Church address: 314 West Willow Avenue Wheaton, IL 60187
Date attended: March 23, 2014
Church category: More traditional church

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?
I attended Saint Michael's church in downtown Wheaton for this church visit, and it was very different from my regular context. I had never been to a Catholic church before, and I was struck by the aesthetic beauty as well as by the structured nature of the entire service. The sanctuary was filled with light and it had four beautiful stained glass windows in the front with many smaller ones around the sides. There was a large crucifix in the front, and there was a statue of Mary to the right with other statues of angelic beings around the sanctuary. It was a very beautiful place that was awe-inspiring in many ways. The service was a lot more structured than any service that I had ever been to before and everyone seemed to know what they were doing. There were a lot of community prayers and responsive songs led by the priest. There was not a full sermon like I am used to hearing at my church, but the priest talked little about the story of the woman at the well after it was read to us. The bulletin had all of the readings in English and another ancient language, and I had to keep flipping between the bulletin and a big red book in order to keep up with what we were doing. The red book seemed to have the readings and everything laid out in a certain way for each day of the year, or just for special days. The singing was beautiful and most of it was in Latin. I definitely could not join in easily like I can at my church. 

What did you find most interesting or appealing about the worship service?
 I loved the reverence and awe of the service. Everything was so beautiful and relaxing, and whenever I looked up, I saw Jesus hanging on the cross, which helped me to keep in mind what Christ has done for me. Though I did not know what a lot of the songs meant, they were very beautiful and were sung with great reverence. I knew that we were praising God for his character, and that was very beautiful. There were also kneeling chairs that folded down from the pews in front so that you could kneel in worship without hurting yourself, and I thought that that was a wonderful idea. The whole experience felt very ethereal and I could sense the tradition and thought behind what was being done.


What did you find most disorienting or challenging about the worship service?
 It was a challenge for me to follow along with the service, and that made it kind of hard for me to enter into worship as much as I would have liked to. I felt that I was constantly switching from one book to another, flipping through pages and looking over my roommates shoulders to try to keep up with the responsive prayers and community singing. There were many times when I was just standing there wanting to join in with the worships, but feeling very much like an outsider because I did not know the words. It also felt strange when it was time for communion because I was told that I was not supposed to take the communion, so when everyone stood up and took turns going to the front, I went with them, but just passes by without taking the communion. I felt a little weird doing that and it contributed to the feeling of not really belonging in that place. 
 

What aspects of Scripture or theology did the worship service illuminate for you that you had not perceived as clearly in your regular context?  
 The priest spoke a little about the woman at the well and how Jesus reached out to her and sought her out even though she had been rejected and ostracized by her community. Jews and Samaritans were not on good terms, and they did not associate with one another, yet Jesus spoke to this woman and was kind to her. He took the time to talk to her and to let her know that though he knew what she had done and that her whole community had rejected her for that, he was still willing to speak to her and to offer her His living water. I was reminded of the fact that if we are to be like Jesus, we also must do as Jesus did and seek out the outcast. It is much easier for us to want to hang out with people who are just like us or to be concerned about what others would think if we were to hang out with those types of people, but that is not an attitude from Christ. He reached to the lowest places and loved the most unlovable. We, as His hands and feet on this earth, are to do the same. It was good to be reminded of that fact at the service.