A Chinese Catholic Sunday

Well yesterday was the first day I ever brought Noah to Mass. And in fact I guess it was the first time I had ever been to mass in a community Catholic Church. All the other times I had been to Mass or Church, was when it had something to do with School. Nativity, and then Groton. We got to St. James a little bit late but still found a whole pew to ourselves somewhere in the middle. This was going to be a Cantonese mass, or so I thought. It turned out to be Cantonese/Mandarin. I thought we could follow along with the reading and that would help me and Noah learn Mandarin. But there didn't seem to be any, "turn your pages to page" etc. And there was something on an electronic sign but I was too far away. So basically my plan of simultaneously picking up Mandarin at church was a failure. Noah was creating his own little imaginary world in the pew, which is probably good training for something, but sometimes he was too loud and I had to tell him to be quiet. "Do you want to leave?" because I didn't have a problem with leaving. But for some odd reason, he didn't. I looked at the pictures and statues on the walls just as any illiterate Medieval Catholic would have done during Mass in Latin. So I felt I was being true to my roots.

There was a flyer letting us know about a collection, which I had never experienced before. Wait did they have a collection every week? Oh yeah. Well when they did come around for collection to build a church in Africa, Central and Eastern Europe (I would prefer the money to be going for something like food, and last time was there, Central Europe had a ton of Churches. Maybe they aren't Catholic but so what?)

Well the collection plate was not a a plate at all, but around twelve men with baskets on sticks, dressed in clothing that told me, they could possibly have been in the states for more than a decade, but they still dressed more like people dress in China. In Massachusetts, the distinction between that style of clothing and the style of clothing an ABC where's is clearer. They went down aisle by aisle with don't mess with me faces passing the basket on a stick to everyone with skilled Gwan faht. I coughed up a dollar for Noah to throw in, which made our stick man crack a smile.

After seeing this I recalled that Fr, Hicks from Nativity had commented to me all those years ago that I should go down to St. James when I got a chance, just to see that system of collection which he said was amazingly efficient and impressive and that he hadn't seen it anywhere else. Perhaps it was a Chinese thing.
Fr. Hicks, a Jesuit priest had been to a lot of places in the world, but not east Asia. He taught Algebra in the middle East for a long time and after the second Iraq war broke out, he deliberately went back over there. He is one of the reasons why I had a respect for Catholicism even when I was a baptized non Catholic. Now that I have coughed up a dollar I guess I am Catholic, if anyone asks me to fill out a multiple choice questionaire.

I could tell when they were reciting the Nicean Creed. I recognized the words Satan and of course Yeh So (Jesus) Adong (Adam) and then there was a lot of Mau Gwai this and Mau Gwai that. Which means evil demons. I don't recall evil demons being used in any of the sermons I had ever been forced to listen to, ever. So that struck me.

Well, then came Communion. Noah was pretty mad that we weren't lining up. And for the first time I felt left out. I never received first communion or anything but baptism so I have never eaten the cookie in Catholic Church. I sis stay at a camp from some other sect where it didn't matter, and I actually made the bread that they used.

This other group of children all obediently lined up to receive communion and I wondered if they were all siblings and suddenly recalled that contraception is not allowed and it dawned on me why Catholicism was not popular in China.

The parent or leader told all the kids to fold their hands over their chest as they lined up, kind of like when you play "Bum" freeze tag. I don't know what that was about. Then I saw people coming back from communion with their hands pressed together in a prayer/namaste/meditation pose. That was weird to me, even though I have my hands like that all the time when I meditate. What did they do at communion at Nativity? Usually the kids you get the communion and then walk back to their seat in that slow sort of street walk, perhaps cheap shotting enemies they passed in the shoulder quickly (though seen by everyone and of course later lectured by teachers) the victim doubling over in pain but trying  not to cry out because that would be disrespectful in church. Although I was never a part of that behavior because I didn't line up for the body and blood of Christ, nor was I anyone's enemy in a way that would require them to punch me in church, I found that behavior familiar and therefore comforting. While the folded prayer hands I saw yesterday kind made warning bells go off in my head.

Later I saw one of the acolytes (I actually performed this duty once at Groton, not by choice, and to the laughter of the other acolytes when I explained that I was Buddhist. I guess I still am Buddhist. But every monk or nun I have met has given me the creeps, or just seemed sort of weak or off.) Anyway, this teen acolyte had his hands in the prayer pose real strong like, with thumbs crossed, kind of like Naruto  would while summoning his chakra. I guess that was cool, and weird to me at the same time.

There were a lot of songs that were very Chinese in melody, and I thought that was cool. I just wished I could have followed along or sang them. That was one thing I liked up Groton's Church. Of course some of the melodies bothered me later in life, when I heard them played as a Nazi theme with different lyrics (still the German National Anthem today btw) and of course the one about slaves being obedient were always particularly f-ing annoying and some teachers would also whisper that they hated those hymns in my ear.


But William Blake's Jerusalem (which he was accused of treason for writing but later became one of the main Nationalistic British hymns) has a very awesome melody and even the lyrics are pretty could if you are a Brit.
Personent Hodie was cool. It was fun to be able to belt out in public. Maybe we will try to just go to the English Masses. Okay that will be my excuse. The real reason is I think I only want to do this once a month. Watching "This Sunday Morning" is important too, as is relaxing and going to the playground. Plus as a guy with no job, coughing up $12/$24 a year seems very palatable whereas $48 or $96 seems less palatable.
Plus it was a long day for us, what with Church, then Mar Brown at the Library and then the Leurng's Association Banquet lion dance. Eventful, but tiring for a day of "rest."