Visit to Church

Exploring different things in life gives it flavor. If a person was to stay alone and away from society, without interacting with anyone who differs from their own ideals and perspective, it would be a dull and colorless life. I believe that when a person interacts with and examines the lifestyles and life choices of other people, who differ from his or her own beliefs, ideals, and way of life, it is only then that an individual can truly appreciate what he or she believes in as well as respect and appreciate what others believe. Knowing this I decided that for my social experiment I would visit the Abbey at Benedictine University for their mass at noon. Before I ventured to the Abbey at Benedictine University I had a general idea about the Catholic faith. As a Muslim student on the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Committee at Benedictine University, I already had some background information about Catholicism, but not a good idea of how the actual services take place. This trip was more of a practical visualization of everything I had heard about in the Muslim-Christian dialogues. My preconceived notions were based off what I had seen in movies, which was pretty generic since as an outsider I can’t differentiate between Churches of different Christian denominations. I knew that the priest (religious leader) stands in front of the congregation and reads passages from the bible. I also had known that certain Churches use music and sing the prayer. I also knew the general set up of the Church concerning pews and altar. When I drove up to the church I could see the cross on the roof. The peculiar thing was that the entrance to the church was on a side and clearly visible. As I entered the church I saw that there were different rooms dedicated to a different level of prayer. There was a room for individual prayer and contemplation. There was a large prayer area where the Sunday services too place. There was also a smaller prayer are where the daily Mass took place.