My Experience Going to Catholic Mass as a Protestant

[Music] so i'm a protestant but a little over a year ago i attended a catholic men's group for months and recently i made a video describing my experience and some of the things that i learned with the goal of trying to promote healthier and more productive dialogue between catholics and protestants and much to my surprise it has become by far the most popular video that i've made to date i have absolutely loved the conversations that it has sparked with its over 1 000 comments so far which truly blows my mind and one of the most common pieces of feedback that i received besides enough book recommendations to fill a small library and a small army of people telling me to subscribe to lizzy answers was that i should attend a catholic mass now i love trying and learning new things and it seemed like good advice given the kind of videos that i make so i decided yeah let's do it in addition i'm honestly just so grateful for all of your encouragement and support on that video so taking a piece of your advice and putting it into practice as a gesture of goodwill and gratitude and to say hey i'm listening seemed like the least that i could do okay now the first matter is figuring out which church to go to i live in downtown chicago so there's really no shortage of options there's catholic churches all over the place and i really wasn't sure which one to pick now initially i was thinking that i'd go to an eastern catholic church and that's in no small part because some of my favorite catholic youtubers like matt fratt and trent horn are of that persuasion so i started with a quick google search of eastern catholic churches in chicago and there were several but one stood out because it was both really close and the pictures looked really beautiful and that was saint john of cantius okay so quick point of clarification it turns out google kind of lied to me thanks google st john of cantius is actually not an eastern catholic church it is a roman rite church but i figured that out after i'd already rsvp'd and like i said it's close it's beautiful so i figured i'll go with it unfortunately for an indecisive person like me that wasn't the final decision i had to make actually with kobit 19 going on it turned out that you have to rsvp to a church service and then i realized there's more than one kind that they do which led me to more googling because i had no idea the difference between extraordinary form and ordinary form and i saw somewhere in english and others didn't have a language next to it which was a little confusing and initially i thought well i speak english so i'll go to an english one but then it turned out schedule wise that i wanted to go on a saturday and the only options for saturday in the morning were extraordinary form and then in the evening anticipatory and i thought okay extraordinary form i did a little google that's going to be in latin but i guess that's like going all in plus a lot of people had told me try a latin mask and like i said that's about as far from my evangelical upbringing so i thought this should be interesting now i'm sure at this point there's going to be people in the comments who might say oh you picked the wrong church go to this one or oh you picked the wrong type of service go to this one and look that's cool i might have picked the wrong one but you got to start somewhere right all right there was just one final complication between me and going to mass and this one might feel a little silly but i literally had no idea what to wear so i hopped on google and googled what to wear to catholic mass because growing up i went to a church where i dressed like this and i figured that might not quite fly so thanks internet i figured out i think maybe what to wear fun fact about me i'm about as chill as they come very few things stress me out but i really really hate being underdressed that probably says something deep and dark bad about my soul but there you have it all right now that i'm a little better dressed i think it's time to add a mess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] all right that was really interesting i'm going to drive back probably change out of this and then we'll talk about some of my thoughts all right i'm back i'm in far comfier clothes i want to talk about that experience because it was really interesting for me as a protestant and if you've been following along with this channel or if you picked up on what i said at the beginning i've been around the catholic church specifically through that catholic men's group and i've listened to lots of catholic thinkers mainly catholic apologists but i hadn't really been in a catholic mass at least since i was really little and don't really remember it and going in i was really excited to see what is this going to be like like i said i love trying new things and i have a lot of interest in the catholic church i just like learning about the history of it and so getting to go to this absolutely beautiful church i mean if you didn't pick it up from the videos i'm sure they didn't do it justice it is stunning in there and so i was really excited to see it one of the first things that struck me when i went in is just how intentional and how beautiful the architecture was i mean it immediately draws your eyes up to the grand ceiling where you see all of these images of the apostles and of christ and your eye goes down all the way to the end where they have this beautiful set up there where the altar i hope if i butcher any catholic terminology forgive me i'm a protestant but where they have like the eucharist and everything and i mean the architecture it really it does something to you and i can imagine just how important that has been for the catholic church i mean when you think through history and the so many years that the vast majority of the population was illiterate having these centers of worship that simultaneously felt like a fortress like the world couldn't get in there but also just like a place of worship had to have been very formative for people and all these images of christ and i mean it was it was a really powerful experience seeing that and i loved seeing it it's not something i'm used to and so that was just the first thing that caught my attention the second thing that i noticed was while there were a lot of people out talking on the steps before mass and really had like a nice atmosphere it seemed like a lot of people knew each other once you walked in that building it was very reverential i mean people were quiet people were praying and it really just lended itself to that atmosphere of a place to pray and i'm chronically early to everything so i got there pretty early and it was nice to be able to just sit there in the back and have some quiet time to pray and reflect and think and like i said both the way that people treated it and just the the effect the building had on you really lent itself well to that so if you're catholic you're probably familiar with how a catholic service goes so i won't go super long but for my predominantly protestant audience i'll give you a brief overview of what the service was like now there are religious orders that live there that so there was a lot of men before the service that were doing some readings and i don't know exactly what the schedule was for that but that was very interesting lots of people praying and then when it was time for the service to start there were some bells wrung and the uh the priest even though it was extraordinary form which was predominantly in latin he did start with an opening in english and there was a reading from the gospel of john and the priest was talking about the connection of the heart of mary in the heart of jesus he was talking about the the feast of the immaculate heart and i didn't fully pick up on um just why that was but it was a very uh well done homily i guess if you will i and again forgive me for the terminology but um and he spoke about their connection and just the pain that mary experienced in watching her son die and it was very nice it was very well done very short much much shorter than any like protestant evangelical sermon i was used to but that kind of got the service going and then from there there was a lot of time of silence and that was the last time for the most part that the priest was actually facing the congregation for the rest of it he was facing away from us or i guess with us you could say facing in the same direction and it was interesting in that what he was wearing had a giant cross on the back of it so it was again just powerful imagery as we're all looking in the same direction we're looking at christ and the cross and from there there was a lot in latin that i didn't fully understand and i was also in the back so it was a little hard to hear but it really went from that beginning just opening to a a centering on the eucharist and that was what took up the most of the time i mean there was a lot of silence and there was some kneeling and standing and some different emotions and whatnot but but from there it really seemed like it zeroed in on communion the lord's supper the eucharist whatever term you want to use there i know there's some technicalities there but for the purpose of this video whatever floats your boat and i will say something that was really interesting to me that i noted is just how important this was for the service i grew up in a church where we did communion i think once every six weeks or something like it wasn't just wasn't a big part of the service the church i go to now mostly in chicago does it about every other week but again it is by no means like the center of the service whereas here it was clearly the center of the service there was also no music though i think on uh sundays they do have some type of chant um but it was it was very interesting to see how it is centered upon that and as a protestant i'll say there were several things that i liked about the service the first thing was the reverence and i think often in protestant and evangelical churches we kind of miss that element we work very hard to make a church service approachable and i love that and i really appreciate that and we want to make it applicable and again i love that and i appreciate it but there was something beautiful about the reverence here that people took it very seriously i noticed i messed up that i didn't uh kneel before i went into my pew but just even seeing that and seeing the different aspects and just the the demeanor people had in the service it was um solemn in a way but but also just very reverential and that was powerful for me another thing i appreciated was the sense of embodied worship and you know i don't think catholics have the corner on the market on this but specifically in again like the mega church evangelical circles that i grew up in a lot of what we do i mean there's the emotional side with worship and then it's pretty much just the intellectual side and one of my favorite protestant scholars james k smith has really critiqued this and that he says that we as protestants often work from a bit of a stunted anthropology that we treat people as brains on a stick or thinking thingisms as he says and he says that you know we aim all of our services at giving you information and i think that when we do that while the information is good we often miss the fact that we are shaped by repetition we're shaped by habit we often decry going through the motions but often when we do that the motions go through us what we do repeatedly shapes us and so being in this service and seeing you know the kneeling the standing the different motions the the all of the things that could seem like just rote ritual which in some ways they can be also i just had a respect for the the formative influence that would have on you as you do that over the years as simple as kneeling before you get in the pew like all of this is shaping you and so if you're a protestant and that interests you i would recommend picking up this book desiring the kingdom by james k.a smith he talks wonderfully about developing a more holistic sense of worship that is more embodied and i think the catholic church did that well however i'll be honest as a protestant there were things that i both didn't understand and things that i just didn't love if you will and this isn't about like who's right and who's wrong so i'm not trying to give like this glaring critique i just want to share my experience so that as a catholic if you're ever wondering like what would it be like to be a protestant and walk into my church well this is what it was like for me and so the first thing i will say is that a lot of it was just really confusing like i would love to go back to a service with like a catholic guide to help me understand what's going on why are we kneeling now why are we like i just didn't really get it and i imagine it would be much more impactful if i could understand some more of it along those same lines while i think there's something really interesting in preserving some of the latin roots and all of that and just being a part of a way of doing church that has been going on for so long while i appreciate like i said the ritual and everything i think it can move to the opposite side while protestants can be a little over intellectual and speak only to our brains i i think the service didn't quite have enough of that that it moved to the other side i i could understand they can kind of say yes and amen with some of the reformers when they look at it and be like where's the gospel here not that and hear me please not that they didn't read from john not that it's not you know not that it's heretical but just like i felt like i could go to this service for years and years and just not really understand the message of the bible now i have learned a lot from some catholics i love interacting with catholic podcasts and youtube channels like matt fradd trent horn and so many other people that i've mentioned before and i i really enjoy that and there's avenues to learn i just didn't feel like the mass did that and maybe i'm trying to import something onto mass that's just it's not supposed to do and if that's the case that's fine i suppose but it just seems like it would struggle to stand on someone for you to really grow in your knowledge of god and so i mean while you can do that experientially i just felt that it was a little weak on that side another thing that i struggled with a little bit was there was a family in front of me with a bunch of young kids good catholic family like six kids or something like that and you know i thought back to my experience growing up in church where we had just really engaging kids programs where i learned a lot about the bible and about who god is in a way that was both like entertaining and educational and just like age-appropriate it made sense and i enjoyed it and taught me to love church and watching them just kind of like fumble around distracted and not really understand what's going on i just i felt like it there could be something else again this isn't meant as like a judgment or anything like that it's just saying that it seemed uh unfortunate for me in a way like i i can appreciate having them be a part of it and be a part of the life of the church but i just also feel like they need something that makes sense to them and helps them understand and again maybe i'm trying to get the mass to do something it's not supposed to do and and i get that and that's fine i just think that's putting a lot more weight on the parents to do that and i think it's putting more weight on the individuals like i said to seek out some more of that catholic teaching and so while the mass was great for that i just it felt um it was at least different and perhaps as a protestant importing my evangelical biases it just it felt like it was missing some of those things that i really appreciate about church services but you know in conclusion i really really did enjoy it it was a great experience it was beautiful it was a place that just seemed very reverent a place of prayer a place filled with people that really wanted to be there i mean it was a saturday morning and it was packed as much as you can be packed when you can only fill like 20 capacity because it covered but even with that it was like standing room in the back and the way it's centered on the eucharist was something that was really interesting to me because i think it's so easy in our evangelical churches especially mega churches like the churches i've been in and around to really center around ourselves and the performance and the dynamic speaker and the the awesome worship band and it's easy for the focus to be lost in that way but but there was something beautiful about focusing on the eucharist and and i really got the sense that that was why people were there like that was the climax of the service that's why they got up out of bed put nice clothes on it was to go and do that and honestly that makes sense to me and for for them i don't adopt the same view of the eucharist but if i believed that in partaking of the eucharist i was partaking of the body blood soul divinity of jesus like i can't imagine not wanting to be at as many masses as possible because like what a what a privilege that would be what what an incredible thing if you truly believe that's what's going on then then you should be there and and that's that's i i can see the case for that being the center of it but i think i think in the end we do need that emphasis on word and sacrament so you had the sacrament there but but maybe more preaching of the word would have been something i i would have really enjoyed and maybe making it in such a way that's both accessible and applicable to people right where they are and where an outsider can understand it like me but again that was just my experience in the end absolutely enjoyed it if you have recommendations you're like you should go do this type of church i know some people have recommended after my orthodoxy video you'd love to see me go there i'd be open to that or you want to see me go to a different style mask like let me know i want to hear your thoughts but in any case thank you so much for watching this video it was so much fun to make and if you enjoyed this different style let me know down below i would love to hear your thoughts if you're new this channel is gospel simplicity a place where we're passionate about the beautiful simplicity and transformative power of the gospel the good news about jesus we're out to talk about life jesus and the journey of faith in a real honest and open way so if that all interests you i'd encourage you to hit subscribe to become a part of what we're doing here on this channel and to those of you that have already done that that have been liking commenting sharing with your friends that you've subscribed like thank you so much this channel has experienced a lot of growth in the past month and it's been such a honor and privilege to get to interact with so many of you and if i haven't been able to personally thank you for being part of this community please take this as me saying i am so grateful for you until next time be sure to be on the lookout for more videos and as always go out and love god and love others because truly above all else that will change the world peace i love you guys so much i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Gospel Simplicity

Views: 162,047

Rating: 4.880774 out of 5

Keywords: protestant vs catholic, Catholic Church tour, st john cantius, chicago churches, protestant mass, protestants first mass, latin mass chicago, latin mass, beautiful churches, protestant conversion, protestants and catholics, from protestant to catholic, ecumenical dialogue, Austin Suggs, Love Across the Lines, Gospel Simplicity, Gosple Simplicity, Open minded protestants, evangelicals vs catholics, evangelical catholic, protestant tours cathedral

Id: M4nfaPm7NQE

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 26 2020