Language Investidation 2

I'm Catholic, which is weird and mysterious to some people just because there is a whole lot of supersition and tradition and separation between the Catholic church and most protestant churches, making it hard to understand.

We believe that the Eucharist is the literal body of Christ. Eucharist is the bread that, once blessed, mysteriously transforms through faith. Since we believe it's literally Jesus, we keep it in the church, in a special display box called the Tabernacle, on certain days for people to spend time with Jesus. This is called adoration... where you just come to adore and be in the presense of Christ.

Then there are Feast days, which are holy days devoted to Saints where we celebrate the life and achievements of that particular person. Sometimes we literally have a feast in the church. There are Holy Days of Obligation, which are days that you should come to church to recieve Communion, even if it's not a Sunday. Communion is when you recieve the Eucharist, which we do every time we go to church, not just once a month. It consists of the Eucharaist and the wine that has been transformed into the blood of Christ. As you can see, most people use the terms Eucharist and Communion interchangably, which isn't entirely correct, but close enough to be understood.

The sign of the cross is kind of a phrase or lingo, because it distinguishes us from other faiths. We touch our heads hearts and cross our shoulders while saying "In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen." The act of doing this is to physically remind us to keep Christ in our mind, in our hearts, and to be prepared to carry the weight of the faith and others at all times.

There are Marian prayers, which are prayers devoted to Mary, to have her pray to God on our behalf. This includes the Rosary. The rosary is holy object consisting of beads that represent different prayers, which are said in a repetitive nature, while thinking of different events in The Bible.

There are Relics, which are considered holy objects through coming in contact with a holy person. This can be pieces of bone, wood, cloth, and there are "degrees" of relics, classifying how close it is to the holy person. For example, a piece of bone of a saint is "more" holy than a piece of cloth they wore. Most churches will have relics buried in some part of the church, to make it more holy. St. Joseph church has a relic of bone in the front of the church. There's a name for the front, but I honestly can't remember it!

And lastly, there is the Catechism, which is a book that accompanies our Bible, that has meetings and councils going way way back, that explain why we do what we do, what is important, and where the biblical support can be found for these traditions.

These things are strange and different to others, and it can take some getting used to just to understand some of the concepts that the words reflect. However, they are important words to know in my faith, because the concepts they represent are essential to the beliefs of the church, and subsequently, the people who attend the church. It was a little long, but it's hard to explain one word without using another word and needing to explain that.I hope some of this made sense, and didn't just freak you out! We're quite normal. Well. Maybe not quite... =)