After almost 8 months, we're finally able to go to church..as in really hear mass. Not just stand outside, take pictures and leave..but really hear mass.
It was done in Chinese so I was only able to catch a few words and phrases. The celebration had a lot of differences to how we celebrate ours in the Philippines:
- the priest blesses the crowd at the start of the celebration; back home, it only happens when we are celebrating something.
-instead of having someone tell the crowd to 'stand up', 'kneel' and such, there's just someone assigned to his a stick as a signal for everyone to standup, kneel, sit, and even bow! We did a lot of bowing during the celebration. If felt so weird.
-they don't have dress codes. Those who were assigned to read wore pants, even those who walks around during collection wore khaki shorts and sneakers; and they're all fairly young.
-3 kids head the Offering while wearing white capes that almost reached their waists. They were so cute, one Indian national took pics of them when they walked by. There were also church volunteers who ushers people and helps them look for a vacant seat.
-They did a lot of bowing in between readings and a lot of songs. The mass went on for an hour and 30 because of this.
-There's an LCD in front showing what responses to say and the Gospel the priest read to the crowd.
It's refreshing and weird (at the same time)hearing mass on a different language. It makes me want to learn the language more. As for now, one thing I'm sure of is that I'll be coming back next week to hear mass again.
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