Lakshmi Mandir

One of the most striking was my grandfather’s temple in the small town of Mahoba where my father grew up. I spent a great deal of my childhood here, thus the pastel pink walls, intricate flower designs, and open layout immediately sparked flashbacks. I remembered the lenghas, traditional dresses, I would pick out to wear even though they were much more formal than the usual attire. I remembered waiting until no one was looking to sneak over to where everyone removed their shoes to try on my mom’s high heeled sandals. I remembered seeing my Dada, grandfather, leading the poojas, religious services, and feeling proud seeing how respected and genuine he was.

The outside of the church is very humble in appearance. It doesn’t look like a place of worship at all from the outside, but the statue of Shinran Shonin in the front makes the building seem particularly important as you pass by. As we ascended the stairs, there was a small garden of flowers surrounding the Shinran Statue, which survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. There was a hand painted sign that said “Autumn Festival” hanging from the front fence. The foundation of the church is slightly elevated as well.

Since being new to the service Mr. Snaider sat by my partner and I to help guide us and answer any questions we may have. The room was quickly getting filled up as the service was about to begin. As the service began Paula Morris led the service along with Eva Freund who gave the main message of the night. Many events happened throughout the night. Since it was Shabbat, in order to welcome it Paula asked the group to get up and sing L’cha Dodi which welcomes everyone and the angels into the Shabbat service. As we started to sing, I noticed other members of the congregation holding hands with other members of the group and waving their heads along singing joyfully. Something completely unexpected, but my partner and I participated in the events as a sign of

In 3015, an archeologist named Bob was digging around in a place that used to be called The Kingdom of Bowling Green. Bob was about 20 ft. under ground when he came across something really tough. He thought it was something important so he used a hammer and smashed through it. He came upon what he thought was a worshiping temple. He thought it was one because there was a prayer room (2). Also, it had a sacrifice chair (3), a wooden box to lay sacrificed bodies on top of(4), a smaller wooden box with religious books of many different sizes and scented oils to attract the gods(5), a throne for the priests and religious leaders (6) and a holder for the priest's robes(7).

After the silent prayer time, I’m thinking it’s time to dismiss, not! We had to pray again to bless the bread & wine. It was time for communion. After communion, and 2 hours of torture, I almost felt myself running to my car. I had never felt that kind of torture before in church. Don’t judge me. I went with an open mind, expecting something different but not that different. The other event I attend was a Friday Mid-day Muslim Prayer Service with one of my students at the Islamic Center of Macon GA. My student advised me on how to dress. In other words, make sure the top of my outfit was long sleeves and the bottom was long enough to cover all of my legs. I thought I was ok, until I got there; they gave me a scarf to cover my head. Oh, I forgot to mention, I had to take off my shoes and leave them before I entered into the place of prayer. I guess you can call it a sanctuary. One thing I found odd was the men and women do not pray in the same place together. Since I was a guest of my student and actually a participant of the prayer time, the wudo, which is a ritual of purification, was not necessary. My student prepared me for the experience very well. She said, “Ms Finney, when you enter the mosque, just go in with the mindset that you are there to talk to Allah himself.” That’s where she lost me, I’m down with Jesus, but I didn’t tell her that. The women’s prayer session was very warm and the ladies

Walking into a damp church gymnasium, with a large circle of chairs, my friend and I quietly took our seats. We watched as

From the moment I walked into St. Mary’s Cathedral, I felt out of place. I thought that I would know what to expect since I have gone to Lutheran churches my entire life. To start with, I was unsure what to do with the font of holy water when I walked to into the cathedral. I later found out that people who enter are supposed to dip their fingers in it, and they are to make the sign of the cross with their fingers. Then as I saw others approach their pews they did some sort of one-legged kneel before sitting down, which I unsuccessfully attempted. Once the service started, I became increasingly lost. I have grown accustomed to following along to the liturgy in either a bulletin or a book, but there were neither to be found. The priest would say phrases from his service book, and then everyone in the congregation would respond with what I assume to be memorized responses. The only times I absolutely knew what was going on was during the hymns and the readings due to both of these being in the hymnals in the pews. To make matters worse, there were various portions of the worship service such as the Apostles’ Creed or the Lord’s Prayer where I thought I knew what to say, but the wording would end up different. Finally, I had heard before that Catholics kneel a lot during services, but I was not prepared at all for the length of kneeling that occurred once the priest started the part of the service related to the Eucharist, better known to me as Holy Communion.

As you walk up the grand staircase of the Shrine’s Main Church, you come to the tallest and heaviest doors you may have ever seen. As you step inside you enter a now serene and quiet holy place. Once you open the second set of doors you enter a huge chapel with a magnificent altar. Above that altar you see a copy of the Our Lady of Czestochowa painting that was blessed by Pope John XXIII on February 10th,1962. Also, as you travel to below the shrine church you’ll find another copy of the Black Madonna. However, this time it is signed and blessed by Pope John Paul II on August 2,1980. In addition, there are 4 other chapels in the lower level of the shrine church including, Chapel of Mary of Nazareth, Chapel of Divine Mercy, Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Chapel of St.Paul, First Hermit. Behind the Main Church you can find the serene St. Anne’s Chapel. Outside, you can find the Rosary Garden and the cemetery. In the cemetery there is a 45 foot cross that is tribute to the victims of 9/11. For those who seek a even more spiritual enriched experience there is the Ava Maria Retreat House. Also, there is a visitor center that includes a cafeteria, exhibition hall, religious articles center, meeting room ,chapel , shrine offices, and a gift shop. At the gift shop you can find anything from religious medals to polish candies.

     Another part of the service that I did not get to witness was the actual baptizing part. In the English service they do not have a pool to baptize people in. They only baptize people in the Spanish service so I was not able to see this happen. The rest of the service was all about the preacher preaching. His sermon was not right out of the bible. He talked about real life situations that are related to what the bible talks about so I found it better to relate to what is going on in your life. It got pretty boring though when he kept on talking for around thirty to forty-five minutes. The whole service was around an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours.

My first impression upon arriving at the mosque was that it was very drab and plain inside, as compared to how it looked on the outside. The religion I grew up in had beautifully decorated churches; while I wanted to ask why the mosque was so drab inside, I felt it would sound rude and unkind. Furthermore, I was disappointed to see the only chairs available to sit upon in the mosque were for pregnant, disabled, and elderly people. The religion I grew up in had nice, plump, padded pews for its members to sit upon. Again, I did not question why there were no pews as I felt it would be unkind.

From the moment I stepped into gallery 305 I felt some sort of connection. The timeframe of the artwork was relatable, the setting was familiar, and the feeling was purely magical. The sounds, oh the sounds, they reminded me of my church back home. It was angelic music, soft and heartfelt. It was the kind of music that drew hearts in, as it drew mine back in the days. It was the same music that gave me a feeling of encouragement to carry out the ways of God; the same music that made me want to repent from my sinful ways in business and day to day wrongdoings. The walls were tall and the ceiling had tinted windows. On the sides, there were glass windows made of numerous beautiful colors. They had images of people in them, just like the windows had back home. Many of the images on these glass windows were of people I knew, priest, pastors and saints. Gallery 305 felt like home from the moment I stepped in. It depicted the common holy church for

My interviewee Tony Khanna, a fellow co-worker, took me to his temple he goes to worship, on a Sunday evening. He took me to the Sri Meenakshi Devasthanam located in Pearland, Texas. The first thing I noticed upon arrival at the temple is the beautiful architectural building design outside. I was in amazement of how beautiful the temple was. I had not seen something so beautiful in quite awhile. The temple is visible from a quite a distance away and has two stunning white towers. When coming up to the temple from the parking lot Tony indicated to me that the temple was established in 1977 and was a replica of a famous temple in India. There was a huge white gate we had to walk through to get to the main temple. Once inside I was greeted by many Hindu's that were quite pleasant and talkative towards this outsider that I was. Before the visit one of my questions to Tony was if Hindu's welcomed outsiders within their temples. He indicated that Hindu's are very open and that I would be welcomed. I was quite surprised for this to be so true. With in the confines of the temple there were many different kinds of symbols that I was not quite familiar with. A couple that I noted was a Diya, Om, and Swastika. There were

I chose to research the Muslim religion for my site visit. I wanted to have in depth experience with this religion since I did my group project about Sikhism and during class we went into great detail about every other religion. I did not know what to expect when visiting a mosque, it was a pretty nerve-wracking experience for me being a non-Muslim. I have been raised with Christian morals my whole life even though I have only gone to church a few times in my whole life. Almost all religions have a house of prayer; Jews have synagogues, Buddhists/Hindus have temples and Catholic and Christians have churches and cathedrals. Muslims have mosques; each religious center has their own different rules, rituals and services that need to be followed. A mosque is a place of prayer for Muslims within the Islamic belief. Another word for mosque in Arabic is Masjid. Kind of like a church, a mosque is where Muslims worship and bow before Allah to declare their obedience and loyalty. Mosques date back till the time of the prophet. In order to find a mosque, I went on the Internet and stumbled upon Masjid Beit El-Maqdes.

I decided to visit a Hindu temple because the Hindu religion was the religion that I knew the least about and was interested in. This assignment gave me an opportunity to learn more about this religion and what their worship services and rituals were like. The temple that I went to was called BAPS Shri Swaminaryan Mandir and it was located in Lilburn. As soon as I walked in, I was amazed by the beautiful architectural design of this Temple. It seemed like it took a lot of hard work and dedication to make the place what it is now. While I was at the temple, I watched the Hindus perform an ancient Vedic ritual called the Abhishek, a ritual bathing to honor the murti of their God.

This was my third visit to my site. It was a Sunday and when I got to my site, I experience something different this time. As I reached to the gate, the security person didn’t stop me or note my car number but he told me to proceed inside the temple. I get to the backside of parking lot of the temple. After looking for a while, I found empty space to park my car. I parked my car and when I got out from my car, I saw so many people from the parking lot were walking toward the temple. I was surprise seeing the parking lot full of cars.