Free Essay on Catholic Mass: A Well-Coordinated Religious Service

The religious service that I am observing is a catholic mass, and it is well-coordinated because it is being attended by many congregants. The video CCTNtv (min. 1) is a recorded live stream of the service held in 2017 from the Holy Family Catholic Church in Orlando, FL. The mass is considered to be the most central process of worship in the Roman Catholic Church that involves a procedural celebration of the Eucharist's sacrament. Roman Catholicism is one of the main three branches of Christianity with many believers across the world. The religion has a deep history that is deeply rooted in early ages and elements of Christianity. The article will take an in-depth examination of the critical elements that I observed in the catholic mass service.

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The mass begins when the congregation waits for the priest who initiates the mass with the introductory catholic rites. The rite includes the singing of a hymn, and later, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is spelled out by the priest as the congregations join him in saying the words "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit, May the Lord be with you." The congregation responds accordingly to complete the spiritual conversation of the introductory part. Christianity, as a religion, strongly spells out how one God exists in three divine persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to form the holy trinity. As part of the introductory rite, the priest leads the congregation in a word of prayer and the Gloria (Adam, 5). According to Brodd et al. (531), the Muslims hold their services facing the mecca while the Christians do not have a specified belief. The confession prayer is said loudly by all people in the service and occurs in the introduction parts of the mass (CCTNtv min.1). According to Adam (6), the spirit of Catholicism is characterized by the introductory rites that represent the fundamental tenets of Catholicism comprising of the opening prayer, penitential rite, and the Gloria.

The second element of the church service is a series of bible readings and prayers from the believers. The readings in the service are derived from the scriptures by different persons while the congregation remains seated (CCTNtv min.13). Liturgy of the word is dominated by readings of gospels and is well received by the congregation who keenly follows the reading of scriptures. The session offers an opportunity for the believers to share the ways in which the people live with their faith (Brodd et al., 550). The readings are summarized by the priest through his reading and explanation of the scriptures, and the congregation together receives the reading by acclamation. According to Mutunga & Anashia (14), Catholicism uses the liturgical language as their religious language for all their religious services to establish formal standards across the world. There are many prayers during the liturgical word element of the service and are well coordinated in the way that the religious experience of the catholic congregation is demonstrated clearly. The liturgy of the word in the service was represented by three readings coming from the Old Testament, and two coming from the New Testament all read by different people. After that, the priest issued a summary of the readings of the day and the occasion at hand.

The next element of the catholic service in the video is the presentation of offerings by individual members of the service and the process of giving bread and wine by the priest. Brodd et al. (567) noted that offerings exist in all religions as a sign of thanksgiving to God. The process begins when the congregation gives their offerings while singing the hymns before the priest accepts the sacrifice (CCTNtv min.30). During the process, people kneel while the priest prepares to present the bread and wine on the altar. According to CCTNtv (min.30), during this stage, the Lord's Prayer is recited by the congregation before the body and blood of Jesus are presented. Holy Communion is the high point of the process where people take silent prayers after receiving communion (Adam 11). There is complete silence after the Holy Communion creates a good environment for silent prayers and meditation with God (Doverspike, 4). The communion rite is important for believers because it creates an opportunity for the congregation to pray the most common and universal catholic prayers like the Lord's Prayer, among others.

After the presentations of the bread and wine, it marked the beginning of the end of the video's catholic service. The prayer services have a strategic conclusion with prayers before people leave the church (Brodd et al., 570). The deacon initiated the conclusion rites by issuing several announcements that relate to the events of the church and final greetings of the service (CCTNtv min. 49). The priest makes the final prayer and offers final blessings to the congregation, and later everybody is allowed to leave "go in peace and abide by the lord in your lives" (CCTNtv min.50). The final song is sung while people prepare to leave the church at their own will.

Conclusion

From the video, it is clear that the Catholic Church service takes follows a systematic procedure capturing all elements outlined in the article. The main elements noted in the service include introduction rites, bible readings, presentation of the bread and wine, and the closing elements of the service. Each element has unique activities and processes involved that have different meanings that form a complete church service.

Work Cited

Adam, Karl. The spirit of Catholicism. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2017. http://publichealthinsurance.xyz/free/The%20Spirit%20of%20Catholicism%20Dr.%20Karl%20Adam%20Pickle%20Partners%20Publishing%20PDF%20E-BOOK

Brodd, Jeffrey, Little, Layne, Nystrom, Bradley, Platzner, Robert, Shek, Richard and Stiles, Erin. “Invitation to World Religions (2nd ed). Oxford University Press (2015).

CCTNtv. “The Roman Catholic Sunday Mass” Streaming LIVE from Holy Family Catholic Church in Orlando, FL. (2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRvyvybbRZw

Doverspike, William. "How to understand Catholicism: What I like about Catholicism." (2019). http://drwilliamdoverspike.com/files/how_to_understand_catholicism.pdf

Mutunga, Elizabeth Wayua, and Anashia Nancy Ong’onda. "LITURGICAL LANGUAGE IN ‘CHRIST IS ALL’CATHOLIC PRAYER BOOK." International Journal of English and Education 9.2 (2020): 14. http://ijee.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/2.9940717.pdf