Thursday, March 6, 2014

Religious Experience

Blog 7

On Sunday March 2, I went with two other classmates to a local Mormon church here in Dahlonega. My religious background is Catholicism, so visiting a Mormon church was going to be quite different, at least that’s what I thought. We picked to go to a Mormon church because one of my friends/teammate is Mormon so I have always been curious about their religion since it’s such a big part of her life. It was different from a Catholic mass because the person who administered their service was just dressed in a suit, when the priest who leads our mass is always dressed in a liturgical vestment. In a Catholic mass there is a lot of sitting, standing, and kneeling. Some people like to say that going to a Catholic mass is like a workout, which I guess it is compared to other religions and their services. In the Mormon Church they sat the whole time, even when singing. Most of the time when we sing in the Catholic Church, we stand.

A big difference that I noticed between the Mormon Church and the Catholic Church is the friendly hospitality the Mormon Church displays. Right when my two friends and I walked in, many people came up to us and introduced themselves. It caught me off guard initially because in the Catholic Church, most people keep to themselves before mass and do not even notice or introduce themselves to people who are new. The people at the Mormon Church made us feel welcome and comfortable being in a new environment.


Another difference was how different members of the Mormon Church could go up and talks to the congregation, when in the Catholic Church; there are normally two readers from the congregation. Also, the Mormons call their church a ward and it is considered a meeting when they gather together. The Catholic Church calls their gathering a mass.

1 comment:

  1. Molly,
    I can relate to your post in many ways. One was is because I have experience attending a Catholic church many times. There is a lot s standing and sitting. Even in my church that I attend now, we stand to sing songs of worship and sit during the service. It was different sitting during that and hearing them call it a ward.
    Great post!

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