The three history classes in year 10 went on an excursion to the St Stevens Catholic church. The point of this was so that we could get a feel and understand how Catholic’s have church or mass and how everything in the church has reasoning behind it. The mass that we attended was very formal. Everything had a set timing for the way things were said such as hymns and other prayers. We were always repetitively standing up and down so that we could experience what the other Catholics do at every mass they attend and not be rude. we were told that we had to be extremely quite because our voices echo but the real reasoning behind is that there is a gold stand with gold strokes coming out, almost like a sun shape with the rays of light shining outwards in the church, that is a sacred part of Catholicism. they believe that whenever that is within the church, the spirit of god is inside the church. We got told a lot of the background information afterwards when we got to walk around the church, which was quite interesting. There were a lot of things in this Catholic experience that I had already known due to my mother used to be Catholic herself, but there was also a number of things that I learnt. The following information explains the background information about Catholics and how they do things their ways.
For the first thousand years of Christianity there was no "Roman Catholicism" as we know it today, simply because there was no Eastern Orthodoxy or Protestantism to distinguish it. There was only the "one, holy, catholic church" affirmed by the early creeds, which was the body of Christian believers all over the world, united by common traditions, beliefs, church structure and worship. Although, throughout the middle Ages, if you were a Christian, you belonged to the Catholic Church. Any Christianity other than the Catholic Church was a heresy, not a denomination.
Today, however, Roman Catholicism is not the only accepted Christian church. Although to be a Roman Catholic means to be a certain kind of Christian: one with unique beliefs, practices and traditions that are distinct from those of other Christians.
Catholics believe Jesus is fully God and fully Man, with a human will and a divine will. He is the King of Cosmos, the Word of God, and the awaited Messiah of Israel. He was born of a Virgin, Mary, suffered, was crucified, truly died, and rose again bodily, all for our sins. He ascended into heaven intercedes on our behalf before the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. Jesus was a great teacher, and His teachings are the very teachings of God. Catholics believe we are saved only by God's grace working in us. Although we are justified, transformed from the state of unrighteousness into a state of holiness and the son ship of God, on account of Christ. Justification is the merciful and freely given act of God which takes away our sins and makes us just and holy in our whole being. This justification is given to us in the sacrament of baptism. Justification is the beginning of our free response to God, which is our faith in Christ and our cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
The bishops, who possess the fullness of the priesthood, are as a body considered the successors of the Apostles and are constituted Pastors in the Church, to be the teachers of doctrine, the priests of sacred worship and the ministers of governance. The Pope himself is a bishop (the bishop of Rome) and traditionally uses the title "Venerable Brother" when writing formally to another bishop.
The typical role of a bishop is to provide pastoral governance for a diocese. Bishops who fulfill this function are known as diocesan ordinaries, because they have what canon law calls ordinary authority for a diocese. These bishops may be known as hierarchy in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Other bishops may be appointed to assist ordinaries or to carry out a function in a broader field of service to the Church.
Most of the Catholic music is composed so that the choir and assembly can be accompanied by organ, piano or guitar. Today, however, Catholics don’t use the pipe organ as much as they used to. Catholic music has gone from a folk sounding genre to a more electric sound of its own.
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