I attended a catholic mass last night. It was an odd feeling, and here's why:
1) The church could hold 900 people, and the auditorium was shaped in a semi-circle and the wall colors were almost exactly the same as my old assembly hall. I felt like I was back at a Circuit Assembly, but with a bell choir and christmas lights and people in blue jeans. Except during this service, NOBODY was wandering in the aisles behind the seats. I couldn't help but notice that.
2) The songs were mostly unfamiliar to me. We sang "Joy To The World," "Silent Night," and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." Otherwise the songs were unfamiliar, except to those who go to that church, apparently. I must admit, the quality of the choir voices and soloists, as well as the bell choir, was extremely good. Unfortunately we arrived 15 minutes early and the only long pew available was right behind the bell choir, which meant I could hear the individual bells rather than the full, rich chordal sound. On the plus side though, I could look over their shoulders and read some of the words to the songs.
3) There was no program or listing of the songs. About half of the people knew all the words to all the songs, but there were a whole lot of us (including the atheist sitting next to me, lol) who didn't. It was Okay to not sing, but I would have preferred to be able to sing along. I only know first lines. By the time I looked up the song in the hymnal, they were pretty much on the third verse, and then I had to dig through german and latin lines in order to figure out where we were in the song. Frustrating.
4) The priest all but told us that Santa Clause doesn't exist! I mean, I suppose because I am a sophisticated listener, it seemed blatant to me. I wondered if there would be parents fielding questions from their "cuspers" (older kids who still believe in Santa) that night. "Mom, what did the Priest mean when he said that Santa is just a "symbol" of Christmas? And when he talked about St. Nicholas, and how if you say his name really fast it sounds like "Santa Clause ... it made it sound like Santa isn't real. Is he, mommy?"
5) When everybody went up to take communion, it was confusing. I was second in the pew, and we had been standing for the song before, and all of a sudden the people on the other side of the auditorium started sitting down (it looked a bit like "the wave"). But since we were the first pew behind the bell choir, we were dismissed first, so I hadn't gotten to sit yet. I quickly sat, expecting the guy next to me to crawl over me. But he sat too, and so did his wife, and on down the line. I quickly whispered, "YOU guys can go! We've been dismissed! But I'm not catholic!" But they stayed sitting, and I thought, "oh no, what did I do!" All of a sudden, the grandma of the family comes crawling over all of us ... I felt so bad, I thought I had screwed the whole row up! But I learned later that the people sitting next to me were either atheist or non-practicing. *Whew!* I thought about going up for communion (they didn't seem to be questioning anyone) but decided not to. They were all drinking from the same chalice, ewww!
6) The priest would hold up the bible (I think) to face the people as if the bible had some "magical vibes" that would bless the people. For not understanding that practice, it was weird for me. It seemed to hearken back to a time centuries ago, though, perhaps when the common people didn't read, as if to remind people of the authority of the bible by having them look at it held up high.
7) The priest was really nice, but he absolutely sounded like he didn't believe a word he was saying. I left feeling unfulfilled. The music was beautiful, the decorations were quality, but nothing about the service ever really "moved" me, except for the one solo of "O Holy Night," and that's because the singer's voice was absolutely gorgeous!! He got an ovation afterward.
I've been to a small-town Lutheran service the past two years. I feel more "moved" at that service, except I don't like that the musicians are bad and the choir can't sing. The sermon was also not terribly inspiring at either of those, either. The one church I REALLY like (for the pastor, he's SO inspiring!) is the United Church of Christ, but that church is almost an hour away from my house so it's not convenient to go often.
Anyway, that's my observations.
...OUTLAW