For the cultural activity project, my group and I attended a catholic mass in downtown Tampa. We went to mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Wednesday, September 19, at 12:10 PM. I participated by reading along for the hymns and listened to the priest while he read from the Bible and explained in other words what the Bible says, but I still got a bit lost at times.
This is a new cultural experience for me because I was not raised with religion. My parents never took us to church or anything like that so I do not have a lot of knowledge or understanding about region/church. This is why I decided to choose this activity for this project.
I arrived a bit before mass to take a few pictures inside the church because I thought it would not be appropriate to take pictures during the mass. We sat down near the back of the church and waited for it to begin. People kept coming in and finding seats and I thought it seemed like a lot of people for a mid-day mass on a Wednesday. There were a lot of elderly people, and they were all dressed in nice clothes. When people sat down they were all looking in the books that were in front of them so I did as well. It was a book of hymns and soon the organist started playing and then people started singing along to the hymn. The singing kind of made me uncomfortable, I did not join them but I read along. People also knew what to respond to the priest and when, that made me a bit confused because I had no idea that was going to happen.
Some of the things that I noticed were how the church looked and how it smelled. The church had beautiful stained glass windows that colored the light as it came in, and the whole room was bright because of the white walls. The whole place smelled faintly like incense and something else that I could not identify.
Before I went to the mass, I talked to my friend’s mom who works at a catholic church. She told how the mass would basically go and what I should do. I think I was successful with understanding what the priest was saying and what it meant. He referred to everyone in the church as “brothers and sisters” and he also talked about loving your neighbor. I think a lot of the things he said cannot only apply to religion but also just life.
When everyone got up and started walking in a line to the front, I did not go with them. My friend’s mom had told me that I should not go up with them because you have to first receive the first holy communion. I felt a bit out of place when we were of the very few not going up, but it was fine after that.
If I repeated this experience, I think I would be more prepared for what was happening because I have seen it once now. I think I would be better able to follow along with what the priest was saying as well.
UT Recreational Hazard (MGT 330) 