My First Catholic Service

Between the Pope's resignation and all the fish sandwich commercials I'm seeing on TV... it sure does seem like Catholicism is at the forefront with America these days.

I suppose the same is true with me, considering it inspired me to write this blog post.

I grew up in church. And when I say "church", I literally mean ONE CHURCH. So I only knew one way to do things. Anything outside of that would have been completely foreign. So I would have had to been crazy to attend a Catholic Mass for no reason...

But for some reason, I decided to attend a New Year's Mass during my junior year of high school. I'm not really sure "why" I got myself into the situation, but I do remember being extremely curious about Catholicism at the time. I think I had heard "stories" about how different it was compared to Protestant churches, and wanted to see the difference for myself.

Plus, girls may or may not have been involved. Not really sure where my 16-year-old mind was at that juncture.

When I entered the building with the family who was gracious enough to take me, I was pretty overwhelmed. The first thing I remember when we sat down was seeing something on back of the pews that I wasn't familiar with.

WARNING: This is not a Foot Rest.

"Foot rests!" I thought to myself. "This is awesome." Just as I was getting ready to kick my feet up and relax, the family I was with knelt down and began praying.

Strike 1.

For the next 20 minutes that ensued, I thought I was at a basketball game. Or that I was doing my best impression of a jack-in-the-box.

Stand up. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. IT WAS SO CONFUSING!

Everyone but me seemed to know exactly when to move. Was someone giving ques? Was my view partially blocked?

Strike 2.

Eventually it was time to pray. As I prepared for the Father to say a few words, I noticed EVERYONE in the church was joining him. What??? To be Catholic, are you required to be a mind-reader?

Strike 3.

And that's when I told myself that maybe Catholicism wasn't for me. (Not that there's anything wrong with it.) I just decided to stick to the Protestant side.