D
DavidAllen
Guest
Thank you all for taking the time to answer my questions. You have been very informative and very helpful. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Dave
Dave
- Status
D
DavidAllen
Guest
And thank you Rory, the point of my report isn’t to get a “book answer” to my questions. It was to get answers from somebody who practiced the religion which is exactly what you gave. Thank you for taking the time to answer them all in your own words.
I
Incense_Me
Guest
Fell free to drop me an email at mark4040anderson@yahoo.com. I’ll be happy to give you my phone number and spend as much time as you need feilding your questions.
Thanks,
Mark
B
Bookcat
Guest
B
Bookcat
Guest
Good evening,
I will answer briefly…see the bolded…but there is much more that can be said…these are often partial answers…
My name is David Allen, and I’m currently going to school. I’m taking a Religions of the World class, and for my final project I am selecting a church that I’m unfamiliar with to do a 2,500 word report on. I’ve chosen the Catholic Church as it’s a religion I’ve always been inclined to learn about, but have never had a close friend to ask questions to.
For my final report, I was to find somebody who practiced this religion and ask them 13 questions (that I wrote before hand) and include the results of the interview in my report. The man I had set up to talk to has been out of town with work for the past week, and I need to get my rough draft done - so I am coming here hoping somebody with knowledge can answer these questions for me.
Please understand answering these questions isn’t doing my homework for me, these are questions I wrote with my limited knowledge of the church and am supposed to find somebody with knowledge to ask them to.
I truly appreciate your time and knowledge!
a form of prayer…very ancient.
- What is the purpose of the rosary in your religion? Prayer. It is a compendium of the Gospel where we meditate or contemplate the events in the life of Christ and his Mother.
- What is the reason people mimic the cross shape on their body? Is there a name for this movement? ** The sign of the cross has been done (in different ways) since the early days (was made on the forehead in the earlist times …which I also do at times)…it is an act of Faith…a renewal in a sense of ones Baptism…a sign that we belong to Christ…etc**
- What is the purpose of the communion? **To receive Jesus Christ…love…communion…etc Without the Lords Day…with out the Eucharist on the Lords Day we can not live (to borrow from something said by some early Christian martyrs) **
- What does saying Hail Mary accomplish? it is asking Mary to pray for us. it is recalling some of the truths of the Gospel…the words of the angel etc
- What is the purpose and benefit of confession? Jesus gave us this (see last chapter of John) …many things…particularly Jesus absolves sins committed after baptism and fills us with his life.
- Why do you not believe in divorce? ** Jesus taught us this (except in the case of an invalid marriage …which is what he is referring to in Matthew…for then there was not marriage…also I should of course sometimes a “legal” divorce is necessary to protect etc but it is not a divorce per se it is a legal action …the parties are still married … a valid marriage between two baptized persons can not be ended except by death… )
**- Why do you not believe in birth control? ** it is a lie. one can not say with ones body i give myself to my spouse but withhold the possibility of new life…it is contrary to openness to life and the meaning of the marital act (unitive and procreative)
**- Why are priests not allowed to be married? it is a discipline. One that Paul recommended. they are free for the gospel etc. in the Catholic Church some priests are allowed to be married…in the eastern parts of the Church
- I went to a Catholic funeral one time and the preacher would say something, and the audience would repeat it. What is this and what is the reason for doing it?
- I had a friend who went to a “Midnight Mass” on Christmas Eve. What is the reason and purpose to this event? to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ the Son of God!
- What are the important holidays and traditions of this religion? ** Easter is central!**
- How has religion shaped your life? ** Jesus is the very meaning of my life he is the Logos (word, reason…meaning). He is my life.**
- What are the challenges, if any, to practicing this particular religion? ** well …for one…Jesus says that one must denigh himself take up ones cross and follow him…self denial can be hard
But we follow Jesus and he is our joy!**
O
ocleirbj
Guest
Hello David! I hope I am not too late for your project. I would like to answer your question about the funeral.
“9. I went to a Catholic funeral one time and the preacher would say something, and the audience would repeat it. What is this and what is the reason for doing it?”
All Catholic services include responses from the congregation - they are very interactive. Ours are different from Protestant services I have been to where the person at the front does all the talking and praying, and occasionally the people get to say “amen”. I notice that you call the people the “audience”. This is a good description of Protestant congregations, who mostly sit and watch. But Catholics consider their worship service to be done by the people as a whole, led by the priest, and it involves everyone’s verbal participation as well as their mental and spiritual participation, which we can’t see but which we hope and trust is happening on the inside.
The Mass is the Catholic service of Holy Communion, and since it is often part of a funeral, this is probably what you saw. In this, the people sometimes repeat what the priest says, e.g. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” Sometimes we all say a longer bit together, e.g. the Apostle’s Creed or the Our Father [Lord’s Prayer].
But most of what we say is a response to something the priest says. For example, at the start of Mass, the priest says “The Lord be with you”, and we answer “And also with you.” After the Gospel reading, he says, “The Gospel of the Lord.” and we say, “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.” Sometimes this kind of “conversation” goes back and forth several times. In the middle, there is this series: “The Lord be with You. – And also with you. Lift up your hearts – We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. – It is right to give Him thanks and praise.” If you look at a text of the Mass, you will see the priest’s and the congregation’s parts all clearly laid out. Try this one: davidmacd.com/catholic/catholic_mass_full_text.htm#intro. It has a few typos but you can see how it works. Most people know the responses by heart, so we just say them at the right time. It becomes a very natural and easy thing to do.
The structure of the Mass, or the order in which the readings, prayers etc happen, is very old, and so are some of its prayers and responses – some parts are taken from scripture, some can be found in the earliest Christian writings, and as time went on still others were added. For some parts the priest can choose between different prayers, and the scripture readings also change every day - it takes us three years to read through the Bible. But the general form, including the congregation’s responses, doesn’t change, so all Masses are very similar to each other. This means that you could go to a Catholic church anywhere in the world, and it would be pretty much the same service. I find it amazing that nearly a billion people could be in Catholic churches on a Sunday listening to the same Bible passages being read and praying the same prayers together.
Catholics have other kinds of public prayer and worship services besides the Mass, which also have a fixed structure with responses, and variable prayers and readings. All together they are referred to as liturgy or liturgical prayer, from the Greek word for public duty or service. There are other churches which use the liturgical forms, or variations of them. Some of these are Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Anglicans [Canada] or Episcopalians , and Lutherans. Many Protestants don’t know anything about this kind of worship service, but it is worth getting to know about!
So what is the reason that we follow these forms? Well, first, it is our tradition - it is what the earliest Christians did, and the Church has always worshipped this way, so there is no reason to do it any differently. Also, we believe that God gave us the Church to bring Christ to us and to bring us to Christ, and that the forms of prayer that the Church uses are the best ones that we could have, in order to know him, be united to him and be transformed into his likeness. And personally, I would say that participating in a service that uses interactive responses just works, on a lot of levels. There is something special about speaking out loud in the presence of God along with a group of other Christians that wakes up my faith as an individual, and also brings the whole congregation into a larger kind of unity as the Body of Christ, as we pray, confess our sins, affirm what we believe, receive Jesus and give thanks to God, together. There is nothing else like it!
I hope that this helps you a little bit - good luck with your project!
Barbara
“9. I went to a Catholic funeral one time and the preacher would say something, and the audience would repeat it. What is this and what is the reason for doing it?”
All Catholic services include responses from the congregation - they are very interactive. Ours are different from Protestant services I have been to where the person at the front does all the talking and praying, and occasionally the people get to say “amen”. I notice that you call the people the “audience”. This is a good description of Protestant congregations, who mostly sit and watch. But Catholics consider their worship service to be done by the people as a whole, led by the priest, and it involves everyone’s verbal participation as well as their mental and spiritual participation, which we can’t see but which we hope and trust is happening on the inside.
The Mass is the Catholic service of Holy Communion, and since it is often part of a funeral, this is probably what you saw. In this, the people sometimes repeat what the priest says, e.g. “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” Sometimes we all say a longer bit together, e.g. the Apostle’s Creed or the Our Father [Lord’s Prayer].
But most of what we say is a response to something the priest says. For example, at the start of Mass, the priest says “The Lord be with you”, and we answer “And also with you.” After the Gospel reading, he says, “The Gospel of the Lord.” and we say, “Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.” Sometimes this kind of “conversation” goes back and forth several times. In the middle, there is this series: “The Lord be with You. – And also with you. Lift up your hearts – We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. – It is right to give Him thanks and praise.” If you look at a text of the Mass, you will see the priest’s and the congregation’s parts all clearly laid out. Try this one: davidmacd.com/catholic/catholic_mass_full_text.htm#intro. It has a few typos but you can see how it works. Most people know the responses by heart, so we just say them at the right time. It becomes a very natural and easy thing to do.
The structure of the Mass, or the order in which the readings, prayers etc happen, is very old, and so are some of its prayers and responses – some parts are taken from scripture, some can be found in the earliest Christian writings, and as time went on still others were added. For some parts the priest can choose between different prayers, and the scripture readings also change every day - it takes us three years to read through the Bible. But the general form, including the congregation’s responses, doesn’t change, so all Masses are very similar to each other. This means that you could go to a Catholic church anywhere in the world, and it would be pretty much the same service. I find it amazing that nearly a billion people could be in Catholic churches on a Sunday listening to the same Bible passages being read and praying the same prayers together.
Catholics have other kinds of public prayer and worship services besides the Mass, which also have a fixed structure with responses, and variable prayers and readings. All together they are referred to as liturgy or liturgical prayer, from the Greek word for public duty or service. There are other churches which use the liturgical forms, or variations of them. Some of these are Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Anglicans [Canada] or Episcopalians , and Lutherans. Many Protestants don’t know anything about this kind of worship service, but it is worth getting to know about!
So what is the reason that we follow these forms? Well, first, it is our tradition - it is what the earliest Christians did, and the Church has always worshipped this way, so there is no reason to do it any differently. Also, we believe that God gave us the Church to bring Christ to us and to bring us to Christ, and that the forms of prayer that the Church uses are the best ones that we could have, in order to know him, be united to him and be transformed into his likeness. And personally, I would say that participating in a service that uses interactive responses just works, on a lot of levels. There is something special about speaking out loud in the presence of God along with a group of other Christians that wakes up my faith as an individual, and also brings the whole congregation into a larger kind of unity as the Body of Christ, as we pray, confess our sins, affirm what we believe, receive Jesus and give thanks to God, together. There is nothing else like it!
I hope that this helps you a little bit - good luck with your project!
Barbara
- Status