The Roman Catholic Church - St. Paul the Apostle Parish

This week I decided to do a post on the parish that I grew up in and whose summer bazaar I talked about in a previous post.  If you are not Catholic but are interested in learning more about Catholic beliefs than I hope this entry will be of help to you.  To begin I should say that I have been raised Roman Catholic and still practice and profess my beliefs as a Roman Catholic today.

Something that many do not know about the Catholic tradition, including many Catholics, is that in addition to the western Roman Catholic church, there are also other eastern churches that are an equal part of the entire Catholic church.  These are not to be confused with the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is a similar but separate denomination of Christianity. And just as the Roman Catholic branch accepts the apostolic succession of the pope in Rome, so do the eastern Catholic churches, as well.  So when one hears "Roman Catholic" they should be aware that, although a large part of the Catholic church in its entirety, is only one part of a body of interconnected churches.

All Catholics are required to attend mass, the Catholic word for our church services, on each Sunday of every week.  In addition, most Catholic churches will offer daily masses, usually in the early morning.  The mass is divided into a Liturgy of the Word and a Liturgy of the Eucharist, each of which take about the same amount of time. 

The Liturgy of the Word is comparable to most other Christian services and consists of the reading of scripture and the singing of hymns.  This week one of the hymns was "Transfigure us O' Lord."

 

The Liturgy of the Word is also when one hears the Gospel, or "The Good News," which are the narratives of Jesus' life contained in the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  When the Gospel is presented and carried to the pulpit by the priest, the Alleluia is sung.  As the priest announces which section of the Gospel is being read from, Catholics sign their foreheads, mouths, and hearts with the sign of the cross, signifying the desire for Christ to be reflected upon our minds, to be issued from our mouth, and to be within our hearts.  Catholics will also often make a sign of the cross that proceeds from the head to the central region of the chest and then to each side of the body.

 

The Liturgy of the Eucharist is distinct from Protestant churches in that while many Protestant churches will on occasion take time for a communion meal in which they partake of bread and wine/grape juice in order to reflect upon Christ's death, recalling the Last Supper of Christ, Catholics believe that the bread and wine are actually transformed in a process called transubstantiation into the literal body and blood of Jesus, which are together referred to as the Eucharist.  Because Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity which also contains the Father and the Holy Spirit, and because the Holy Trinity encompasses all of Heaven, the Eucharist also provides a form of heaven on earth.  This creates in the mass a  meeting place between heaven and earth and  also connects it to all other masses that have ever been said or which will ever be said.  In some ways it is similar to the idea of Shabbat in that the mass is paradoxically its own sacred "time" that exists out of time and is a place where the Divine descends down to earth to meet us.  If, after Catholics have received communion, there is any of the Eucharist left, it is placed into the tabernacle where it is used for veneration or to be used at a later mass.

 

 

 

 The tabernacle

 



Catholics also differ from Protestants in our veneration of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  Typically, icons and other images are also used in Catholic churches for purposes of veneration of the Saints, people officially recognized by the Catholic church as those who have inherited eternal life and who have contributed their lives first and foremost to God. 

 



 

An image of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, or "The Holy Family" above a baptismal font

 

Catholics also differ from Protestants in that we profess a belief in Holy Tradition in addition to Holy Scripture and not a belief in sola  scriptura or in the bible alone.  This ties into our belief in the apostolic succession of the popes, where we consider Simon Peter the first pope.

 

Next week I hope to go to a Byzantine Catholic service in order to compare the western and eastern traditions of the Catholic church.  If you are not familiar with the Catholic church I hope this has been an informative introduction and that you will seek to learn more about its rich history and beliefs.