Convergence Worship in the Extreme

My daughters all attend the local Catholic elementary school. As a part of their week, they attend Mass (Catholic worship service). This past week my wife and I decided to stay for the service after we dropped off our kids for school. Our oldest daughter, who is seven, was reading a portion of the Scripture for the service and we wanted to be there to hear her read (she did absolutely great!).

The opening hymn for the service was Shine, Jesus, Shine, which is a fairly contemporary service. It was even in the service book along with other contemporary favorites! Now, admittedly, I haven’t been to a Mass in a long, long time, but I was blown away with the amount of contemporary worship songs in their service book when my own denomination, the United Methodist Church, doesn’t even include these songs in its hymnal.

Then, at the end of the service, the priest brought out a monstrance. This is a large, golden object that is similar to a lampstand, but instead of having a spot for a candle at the top, there is a kind of sculptured sun. In the center of the sun is an open place where a piece of the wafer from the Eucharist is placed. The priest set this all up and announced that they would be having a period of “adoration of the blessed sacrament” immediately following the service.

This adoration devotion is something from the mediaeval days of the Roman Catholic Church in which visibly seeing Christ (in the form of the wafer from Communion–remember Roman Catholics believe that the elements in the Eucharist literally and actually transform into the body and blood of Christ) replaced actually receiving Christ. For more information on this service, click here.

Shine, Jesus, Shine and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Now that is convergence!

~ by stevebruns on August 23, 2008.