Brady Woods - Church Visit #2

Church name: St. John Cantius Church

Church Address: 825 N. Carpenter St., Chicago, Illinois 60642-5499

Date Attended: Sunday, November 1, 2015

Church Category: Tridentine High Mass

Describe the worship service you attended. How was it similar to or different from your regular context?

It may have just been that I had been tired from running to make it in time for the start of the Mass, but upon entering the comparatively humble exterior, I was completely and totally dumbfounded for a moment. St. John Cantius is, without a doubt, the most beautiful church that I have yet been inside. Compared to the, in my opinion, horribly drab interiors of the majority of Protestant churches I have been in, this place was extremely beautiful. In addition, the music was fantastic, and though I did not understand a single word, my heart was lifted up as rarely occurs elsewhere. In terms of similarity, there was very little besides my friendship with a couple members of the congregation. The service was highly liturgical: I admit that for most of it I had to watch what the people in front of me were doing in order to have any clue of what was going on. 

How did the worship service illuminate for you the history and contours of global Christianity?

The height of the service was clearly the Eucharist, even more so than in the Eastern Orthodox Church I attended. The music, the icons, the architecture, the people, and the motion of the service were all oriented towards it. This reminded me how significant the Eucharist is to Catholics, and made me further wonder on how it is that many churches I have seen have lost this significance.  Further, as I attended on All Saints' Day, the priest gave a homily on the Saints and Sainthood. This reminded me further of the divide which exists in the church. I grew up hearing from many in my church community how Christians should not have any heroes other than Jesus, how it is wrong to elevate certain members of the community as Saints, for we are all equal. However, this sort of rhetoric excluded a huge portion of the church who, quite reasonably it seems to me, look to those in our congregation who have lived good lives for inspiration.

How did the worship service illuminate for you your personal identity as a Christian?

The homily had the effect of making me further realize how much of my personal identity as a Christian is only what is because of my relations with others. The priest talked a bit about Saints as inspiring figures for us to look up to: I realized that I have, at least in this, a number of Saints who have impacted my development and caused significant growth in my identity. Further, his homily emphasized the notion of the communion of the Saints, living and dead. Regardless of personal theological positions on this matter, there is much hope in the knowledge that we still have communion through Christ with those who have gone before us. In Christ, I am in a much larger fellowship, one in which all Saints--living, dead, and yet to come--worship God together (Rev. 5.8-13).