Catholicism - Our Lady of the Rosary

Catholicism:

Our Lady of The Rosary

by Luis Esquivel

6/1/2016

        Catholicism has been around for a very long time, it first began as another religion however known as Christianity. Christianity started based off of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Its leaders are bishops, they are said to be the successors to the Apostles of Jesus. The leader of the religion now is a man that holds the title of The Pope, then he was called the Bishop of Rome and he was said to be the sole successor to Saint Peter. Saint Peter was originally the man who was appointed to minister in Rome by Jesus Christ and to be the head of the church according to what he wrote in the New Testament. Under Christianity the church waged wars in its name only to eventually be transferred over to Catholicism and be known for their more helpful natures. In fact when World War Two began back in September 1939, The church condemned the invasion of Poland along with the Nazi invasions in 1940. Pope Pius XII ordered the church hierarchy to help in the protection of the Jews and the Gypsies from the Nazis. Once even Albert Einstein was quoted as praising the church for their actions during the time of war. He brought up the fact that everyone allowed themselves to be silenced from the universities to the media but, not the church, they to his pleasant surprise continued to stand firm against the Nazis and hold true to intellectual beliefs and moral truths. This was a big thing for the church at the time to be praised by a man that once despised them. "I am forced thus to confess that what I once despised I now praise unreservedly." said Albert Einstein. Since then the modern day version of the church is to help people when it can and where it can and at the same time continuing to hold true to the separations of church of state. One of the things that has always stayed the same is that people have always gathered inside of a building as a community to worship and learn about the lord. It's never mattered where the place was or what it looks like.

        The church I went to for this report was very beautiful and yet simple. The outside of it was a shade of white with big wooden doors at the top of some steps for you to go through when the mass was starting, the outside has bushes that formed on and throughout the fence. The inside was a kind of small church there were two columns of benches, with three aisles one in the middle, one on the right, and one on the left. All along the walls on the right and left were wooden plaques made to depict the journey that Christ had to endure while carrying the cross. The windows are painted glass with the pictures of saints and what looks like their prophets. The Altar at the head of the church was decorated with a white cloth across the top on either side were chandeliers behind the altar on the wall above what look like a mini container for the wine and bread was a huge cross with Jesus on it. There was a statue of la Virgin de Guadalupe to the right of the altar that people that would pass by and stop to pray at it so as to ask her for blessings in life. On the other side of the altar is the stand where they have a microphone that the readers use to hold the books that they read the stories from. The confession booths were all along the left side wall and were made with sliding wooden doors so that the priest and confessor can have privacy.

         The ceremony took about an hour and a half to be conducted in its entirety. It began with music being played by the band upstairs accompanied by the choir. Then the priest entered followed by his altar boys carrying two candles and the cross. Their were two readers that followed after that each carrying the book they would read from. The priest greeted us with a warm welcome of blessings and welcome to new people and old. He then proceeded to make the first reading then lead us in a prayer, after this prayer one of the readers stepped up to the podium and read, then the priest gave us another prayer based on the reading, next was the first communion which consisted of the priest first blessing the bread and the wine. He then had ushers go up and down the aisles letting people line up to receive the blessings. I did not stand up my uncle explained to me that it was something that was allowed to be accepted after the completion of Sunday school classes leading to your first communion, and normally after that was not accepted until you had gone to confession. After communion He lead us in prayer as we all held our neighbors hand. Afterwards we shook hands with one another and said "peace be with you". He asked for us all to be forgiven and blessed by god, he thanked him for the gifts of "body" and "blood". We then got one final reading about a time when Jesus took five loaves of bread and two fish and split it among five thousand and thirteen people from the other reader and he ended the mass with the lesson of the whole mass. He told us that we should always be willing to help people when they needed  it. He then sat letting the principal of the school tell us about the events that the school would be having, it was more for the parents of the students in attendance. He then left, in much the same fashion with the altar boys following and the readers behind them, while the band played music and the choir sang. Then as everyone filed out, I realized that the priest had decided to stand at the entrance and say good bye to everyone, I thanked him for the beautiful ceremony and the lesson.