Anybody been to a Catholic service?

Re the OP: the order of service tends to be follows:

Penitential rite: basically a spiritual clearing of the decks before Communion - confession and forgiveness. It usually finishes with the Gloria and a short prayer. Stand for this.

Liturgy of the Word: a reading from the OT (except in Eastertide when its from Acts), a psalm (to which the congregation normally repeats one verse as a response), a reading from the NT, a reading from one of the Gospels and then the sermon. Sit for this except the Gospel, for which stand.

All then stand to say the Nicene Creed.

Prayers of intercession, sometimes finished off with a 'Hail Mary'

Liturgy of the Eucharist - preparation & thanks for the bread and wine or a hymn. Sit. Followed by a prayer over the bread and wine and preface to the Eucharistic Prayer and the 'Sanctus' (often sung)-stand. Then kneel for the Eucharistic Prayer (one of four possible prayers - One is the longest, Two the shortest, all involve the invocation of the Holy Spirit to make the bread and wine the Body and Blood of Jesus and the words of Jesus at the Last Supper).

Stand for the Lord's Prayer, followed by the Peace and then invitation to Communion, including the 'Lamb of God' prayer - kneel. if you're not Catholic you can't usually receive Communion at Mass, but you can go up for a blessing if you want (just bow your head with your arms folded across your chest). Then a couple of prayers after Communion, followed by blessing and dismissal.

The only points other than the (optional) Hail Mary when Mary is likely to be mentioned is in the Penitential Rite and in the Eucharistic Prayer - unless it's one of her feast days.

 

Been to a few Catholic weddings and to Catholic mass numerous occasions, and will probably start RCIA this fall to learn more about the Catholic faith.

 

Nope--they don't seem to.

 

One thing that you should expect is a little more participation from the congregation than you are probably used to in Baptist churches. And you will find that everyone knows what to say, when to say it, when to get up, when to kneel, etc., without being told to do so by the worship leader. Also from my experience there is no bulletin listing out the order of worship for you to know what to expect.

I believe there is often a liturgy of worship that has many of the things written out some Catholic churches have little booklets available for new comers to follow along, sometimes in the pews. Ask your friend if they could get a copy of one of them handy for you during the service for you to follow along.

The service is also not centered around the homily (sermon) as it is in Baptist churches. The center of Catholic services is the Eucharist (Lord's Supper) which is usually only available to Catholics in right relationship with the Church. They do not believe the Eucharist is symbolic but believe it is the sacred Real Presence of Jesus, so that should help you understand why it is reserved for Catholics. Also everyone goes up to recieve the elements from the priest so you should probably stay in your seat while your friend goes up to recieve the elements.

I have always appreciated my visits to Catholic churches, in their solemnity, liturgy which actively involves the congregants in worship and respect for the sacredness of the Eucharist. I hope you enjoy your visit too even though it will be very foreign to what you are used to.

 

I have been to mass several times. Most of the service consists of Bible verses.

 

I haven't been to a Catholic service. There's a Catholic Church a few blocks from where I live, but they are traditional Catholics who give their worship services in Latin.

 

I think Gold Dragon referred to the spoken congregational participation; it can come as a bit of a shock to those used hitherto to just saying an 'Amen' in unison in response to someone else's prayer.

As far as I'm concerned, it wouldn't be wrong for you to go back; others will doubtless disagree but do whatever you feel led by God to do.

 

Interesting that "A Servant 4 Him" was weirded out (sic)by the congregation responding in unison. The comment being like memorised and not thinking....on the other hand you could say they were so focused on the Mass they responded appropriately at those points.

Realistically, it is possible to be a parrot or very devout. The dedicated Catholic attends Mass frequently (every Sunday) or more, so yes the service (Mass) is known very well by the congregation. This no doubt can be a source of criticism but it is also a source of comfort ( part of the church ritual).

I love the Tridentine Mass whether it be Low Mass or Missa Cantata (with bells and smells and Gregorian Chant) but it IS for the Glory of God ...always has been, always is, always will be

 

We had an Anglican priest who went about visiting the various denominations as a vistor. He then wrote a weekly column in a large newspaper about that visit. It was titled, "I was a stranger and ye took me in."

He said the experience opened up many "others" to his mind and understanding about how various people entertain the Christian religion and actually live it before others.

I think it is a good thing to visit the various services, and feel how people worship. It just may broaden one's understanding of God and God's word in life.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I'm glad you went to see for yourself. Also, I think it's hard (and hypocritical) to invite a friend to your church when you won't go to his.

I think you'll find that not all Catholic churches are the same. This really shouldn't be a surprise - not all Baptist services are the same either. For example, I live close to a charasmatic, evangelical Catholic church that has mid-week praise and worship services.

Jim has a good point - it's often good to visit other services and see how others worhsip.

 

It is interesting to visit different churches and see how they worship. I've visited Episcopalian, American Baptist, Southern Baptist, Presbyterian Church USA, United Methodist, Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Free Methodist, Church of God-Anderson, Indiana, affiliation, non-denominational churches, and the Church of Christ. I think the most unusual one I visited was the Church of Christ (not to be confused with the United Church of Christ). This church does not believe in using musical instruments. They sing their hymns a cappella.

When my niece was a teenager, one of her friends invited her to a Pentecostal church. My niece later returned and said that during the service, a kid in front of her suddenly dropped to the floor "and he was kicking and yelling stuff." If I remember correctly, she said other people were doing it, too. My niece then said very solemnly, "I'm staying with the Catholic Church." My mom and I had to snicker.

When I was still a Methodist, one of the members in my Bible study class said that she once visited an Amish church in Illinois. When she entered the church, both men and women had to put on hats and you keep them on while in church. The men sat on one side, and the women sat on the other side. The worship service lasted four hours, and four ministers did the preaching. One would preach for an hour, then another would preach. Upon leaving, you take off the hat and leave it near the exit.

Visiting other churches can be interesting.

 

Several years ago,during a mission trip to Romania, we worked out of the only Baptist church in Braila (population 350,000). During the day, my pastor would teach hermeneutics to Romanian pastors from surrounding villages. At night, we'd go to a village nearby and have a service.

During the daytime teaching, I sat by a wood stove which heated the auditorium. On the night we had a service in the headquarters church, I went down to the front row and sat down by the stove (I'm cold-natured). My young translator, Claudia Morareau, came to me and said I'd have to move. When I asked why, she said "Look behind you." They were all women. So I moved to the other section. Just before the service started, Claudia came and sat down beside me. I said "Claudia, why are you sitting on the men's side?"

"Oh," she said, "it's okay. The men have to sit on this side, but the women can sit wherever they want. Most of them sit on the other side, but they don't have to."

By the way, services lasted a minimum of two hours.

 

On another night in Romania, my pastor and I were invited to hold a service in Gypsy church. It,too, lasted a couple of hours. We asked our host pastor what the Gypsy church believed. He said "they're sorta Pentecostal, but they really don't know what they are."

During the service, I sang a couple of songs, a young man produced a guitar and sang a couple where he sat, and two women stood up and began singing. There was lots of congregational singing, and my pastor finally got to preach about an hour into the service.

All in all, it could have been a Baptist service, with no evidence of Pentecostal leanings. Afterward, we were standing outside talking with the folks and a woman came up to my pastor, placed her hand on his shoulder and began speaking. He asked Christina, our 16-year-old translater, what the woman was saying. "She's prophesying over you," said Christina. "She's saying 'lift up your cup, God's going to fill it.'" The woman continued, but Christina stopped translating.

"What's she saying, now?" asked my pastor.

"I don't know," said Christina, "she just started speaking in tongues."

This was certainly an interesting church. The pastor, who was not there the night we were, was a city councilman, owned a brewery, and was known as the King of the Gypsys. A few weeks after we returned home, I saw a Wall Street Journal article about him. It seems that his cousin had claimed the title Ruler of All Gypsys Everywhere, so they were contending for the leadership of the Gypsys.

Never did read how it came out, but I surely would have loved to hear that brewery owner-pastor preach.

 

The Gypsy church story in the previous post was in Sibiu, a city of 150,000 with three Baptist churches. We had a service on a Friday night at the First Baptist Church (two hours, eight solos, bunch of congegational singing). My pastor and I were invited to come back on Sunday morning. So we arrived to find that the service was already underway. I sang three or four songs, and then it was time for my pastor (Mike Morrow) to preach. The worship leader, a deacon, spoke briefly to Bro. Mike, who then preached. Afterward, Bro. Mike asked me "did you hear what the deacon said to me?" No, I didn't.

"He said, Brother, we've had a mixup. We didn't know you were coming. We thought only your singer was coming, so we've already had one sermon. But we'll gladly hear you. Just one request: could you hold your sermon down to 45 minutes?"

 

Sorry, but what have the last three posts got to do with Catholic services?

 

Oh, and one other interesting thing about Romanian Baptist churches: Every church we visited had a small organ. But none of them had a piano.