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Today (Sunday April 24th, 2011), I visited St Andrew’s Cathedral in Victoria, BC.
Outstanding features of Catholicism include a concern for upholding old-timey Christian traditions (baptism, confirmation, the holy eucharist, penance, last rites, the central government of the church and the hatred of sex).
As an aside, I’m starting to get bored with the repetition in Christian ceremonies, so, after today’s mass, I promised myself that I would not attend any Christian ceremonies for at least a month.
Length of Ceremony: 1.5 hours
Theme: Easter Sunday/THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST, SON
Entertainment Factor/Ceremony:
First off let me mention
WAIT FOR IT.....
WAIT.....
WHAT THE FUCK?
IS THAT NATIVE MAN GIVING THAT WHITE CATHOLIC PRIEST A BLOWEY?
................Sorry, but this distracted me (with sick feelings) for the duration of mass.
There was some real wasted talent in the choir of St Andrews Cathedral this morning. Their voices were absolutely beautiful. The ceremony was an equal mix of song and speech, although, the most notable feature of this morning’s mass was the sing-speaking of the priest.
On several occasions, the priest would break into fast singing and get the crowd involved with some pretty decent call and response. I don’t know whether or not this is the norm in Catholic churches, but it definitely woke me out of my stupor. The prayers (from what I learned from my neighbor during the ceremony) were originally sung in Latin. In English, the priest sounded like a member of Bone Thugs In Harmony.
OBV the priest launched into a story about Jesus rising from the dead on this day and read some quotes from the bible. As is my experience of Catholic ceremonies (my only other being my grandma’s funeral), there was a lot of talk about what is wrong with the world today.
Coincidentally, the theme of the “What is Wrong With the Earth Today?” portion of the ceremony was the commodification of religion. The priest noted a trend in which, people “select and de-select” religions without having true faith. Apparently, I am not alone. He called for a re-evangelization of the world and return to true faith.
I performed the Eucharist (dry bread, no wine) and as I haven’t been done it before, I desperately tried to observe those ahead of me in line. I think I ended up blessing the priest and crossing myself backwards...So nervous!
Promise of Heaven/Salvation: Yayur.
Space: cathedral (waiting for a book on church architecture that I ordered on Amazon)
Free Food: No REAL food.
Equity Policy: Naw
Community Involvement: Missions?
$$$$$(cost): Donation plate was passed around. The woman collecting looked horrified when I didnt give :( Seriously...
Participants (looks, conversation, etc.): Degens to Y-Gens. Mostly grey hairs.
Blind Faith Factor (BFF/WOW factor) :
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1=“Naw, no thanks” and 10=“All in”
1- No thanks.
i thought you had to have been baptised to receive the eucharist?
ReplyDelete-malhavoc