Catholic Church

I'm doing something neither my parents nor I believed I would ever do.

I am currently attending a Catholic church.

Actually they call their churches "parishes", something I remember from a Barbara Pym novel as well as Persuasion (Austen, Jane). My family and I attend a very large nondenominational church right next door, and though the leaders of both places of worship are said to be on good terms with one another most of my family dismisses Catholics as borderline pagans. Interestingly, at least on the Web, wherever I look the prejudiced feeling seems not to be mutual. My mom isn't exactly supportive, offering to drive me to a Lutheran church (the problem with those IMO is that I've looked all of those in our area up and without exception their traditional litergies are strictly for the 9:30 or 8:30 crowds, mostly consisted of, I suspect, the elderly) and warning that "you won't find Jesus there, only religion". My stepfather on the other hand was raised Catholic and is supportive, going with the view that I need to attend a church I find the Judeo-Christian God at--and as long as it's not Morman or Jehovah Witness, anything goes. My oldest younger sister subscribes to Baptist podcasts, so she and her boyfriend keep throwing "Catholics aren't Christian" pamphlets of Protestant-written-and-reviewed information, not reading the articles I found from the major Catholic websites.

I've only gone to three Masses so far, and there are pluses and minuses, so I'm not being judgmental or hasty. Though the litergy is repetitive, I find the structure extremely gratifying contrasted with the other church's guitar-swinging, arm-waving drawn-out vibratto to the point of disrespect to the Lord (again, just my opinion), not to mention the impromptu piano DURING PRAYER! So HT (short for Holy Trinity) wins over 4Squ (nondenom) for worship. The "Father" (it's strange still) of HT delivers speeches much less detailed and comprehensive than those heared at 4Squ, so you could look at it as the Protestant service having more substance to offer the flock, but on the other hand Pastor R of 4Squ also all-too regularly goes off on tangents that barely have relevance to the text if at all. So the sermons I score evenly.

I think the best aspect of HT was the prayer. We all said the same prayers, the "and with your spirit"'s (my stepdad said one thing that drove him away from Catholicism was that if felt to him like adhering to a political system, like Nazi Germany), at one point even holding hands. Also, instead of "take a moment to greet those around you", the signal to shallowly shake hands with everyone within a five ft radius and introduce yourself as if you'd each remember the other's names by next week, we shook hands and said "Peace be with you". Though some might call this even more shallow than the former example, I see nothing wrong with blessing strangers, as long as you're sincere about it--and for the first time in a long time, I was.

Now About Mary:  Yes, this issue is inevitable, and I'm making sure to research very carefully from Catholic sources so that I don't get tainted judgments in my thinking. During my second attendance I was delighted and mildly disturbed to hear the same song from the first Sister Act movie, "Salve Regina", I think. I love that tune. I wanted very badly to sing along, even scrambling in the hymn book for the page, but once I got there I could understand a bit of the Latin and was discouraged. But if I think of the phrase "Mary, Holy Queen of Heaven" as "Mary, set apart from the earth and the queen, being the first, of believers in Heaven", then I begin to relax.

Saints and praying to them doesn't bother me since I read something about equating them to heroes, and really, when you put it that way, why not? It's comforting to think your deceased loved ones aren't entirely separated from you. Purgatory is a biggie, but I haven't seen that come up during Mass, so I guess that'll be something for RCIA when it finally begins.

So if anyone has stuck with me this far, I'd like to ask for any thoughts you might have. If you're Protestant, I want to encourage you to look up the history of the New Covenant and the early church. I know later popes abused their power, but when you look at how far the Church has come you really start seeing the unity and reexamining the papacy. If you're Catholic, and especially if you were converted, I would be very grateful for any descriptions of your initiation experiences. If you're athiest, forgive me, but you may keep your two cents :) I hope you understand.