The Importance Of The Easter Vigil

(Villalba). While some religions honor Halloween, others honor Easter. Easter is a holiday celebrated by Christian faith. Easter day represents the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection. For Christians, Easter marks the end of Lenten fasts, which is why Easter is usually celebrated with a feast. Some Christians believe that by following the process of fasting, baptisms, and sacraments, is their way to get into heaven.

The Christian faith has been around for hundreds of years, leading way back through many countries over many centuries, including the Medieval Period. During the 5th through 15th century of Europe, Christ had a major role in citizens’ lives. The Church’s strong influence impacted the personal and general course of people’s actions and beliefs. The Catholic Church was the only church in Europe during the Middle Ages, so it stood as a center for any faith. The extent of dominance the Church had over the public was overall an outstanding show of respect for God, he was the most honored ruler in this period, and it showed in the daily lives of medieval life.

One of the main themes of the service was based around the divine liturgy, which is the considered the primary worship of the church. The Devine Liturgy is read by a combination of the priest, bishop, choir, and the church community. It is from the liturgy that the offerings of the bread and wine come from along with other prayers. It teaches that the bread and the wine “truly become the body and blood if Jesus Christ” (Sorensen). The priest, or the deacon is the ones that prepare the Eucharist, also known as the “ritual meal of bread and wine” (“Orthodox Churches" 233) as “the body and blood of Christ” (“Orthodox Churches" 233). They combine both the bread and the wine and bless these gifts to become one. They are then put into a chalice, and fed to the community through a golden spoon. While observing the taking of communion I noticed that a red cloth was held under the gold cup by acolytes, which are “altar boys who assist the adult officiants” (“Orthodox Churches" 231). The community puts their hands behind their back while taking communion so that they do not touch the gift or the priest. It is also during the time of communion that the community honors the “painted or mosaic” (“On Common Ground: World Religions in America” ) saints that are used as icons throughout the church. It was during the honoring of

Christians have been celebrating the Lord’s Supper for almost two thousand years. In this paper I will refer to the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance of the church. “An ordinance is an outward rite prescribed by Christ to be performed by His Church.” There are quite a few varying interpretations among the different churches on how the Lord’s Supper is to be practiced. I Corinthians 11:23-34 provides Christians with the scriptural meaning and reasons for observing the Lord’s Supper, also known as communion. Many consider the Lord’s Supper of little or no value and some consider the ordinance as more of a ritual. In some modern churches, preaching the Word is emphasized the most and communion is only observed once a month or

A fourth of self-described Christians in Great Britain believe that Jesus Christ was not resurrected and almost a tenth of those with no religious affiliation say not all of the content of the Easter story should be interpreted literally, according to a survey commissioned by the BBC for Palm Sunday.

Many rituals within Roman Catholicism relate to the triune god, which includes Christ the son, such as window lights or lit candles in windows. These candles are lit and placed in the windows of Roman Catholics to light the way of Mary and Joseph during their journey to Bethlehem where Jesus will be birthed (Catholic Customs & Traditions a popular guide). The most important ritual within the Roman Catholic Church is mass; it is the most important rite because it is the Lord’s Supper. The mass includes four individual parts: introductory rites, liturgy of the word, liturgy of the Eucharist, and concluding rites, these four parts are crucial to the Mass and to the Roman Catholic followers.

In the following paper I will be in detail explaining the academic experience of visiting and observing a Roman Catholic Church and lastly I will shortly also incorporate the theory of Emile Durkheim and the Roman Catholic Church I completed a field study on. For my site visit I visited St Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte, North Carolina off of Suther road near the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I started to look up different churches in the area of Catholic churches in Charlotte and this was the first church to appear to me on the internet. I decided to go to the 9:30 mass or also called a liturgy on a Sunday. I did look over the churches scheduled masses and they had them everyday of the week. I arrived there about ten minutes before 9:30 dressed appropriately in a skirt and a dressy shirt, so that I could follow and respect the instructions of the pamphlet that the church provided online. I parked my car and gathered my tablet and sat in the back pews, so that I could take notes quietly. Before the service started I looked over the papers and booklet that the church provided to see what it included. The booklet included a letter from the priest, readings for the week from the bible, hymnals from the Vatican, mass intentions, prayer requests, stewardships, ministries, confirmations, and the priests and deacons as follows Rev. Patrick Winslow, Rev. Jason Christian, Rev. Matthew Kauth, and Deacons Rev. Mr. James Witulski, Rev. Mr. Joseph Diaz.

of the world died.' The people will then walk up to the alter to kiss

The first place churchgoers must show love and compassion to others is in the Eucharist. But before crossing themselves with Holy water and then crossing the threshold of the nave, they must first leave every personal preference, faulty religious conditioning, nostalgic interest, and temporal attachment outside

Throughout the course of organized religion both present and past, ritualistic acts of praise and worship have been practiced as a sign of both love and honor to God. Catholicism refers to these rituals as sacraments. As Christians and members of this faith, the first sacrament received by each member is Baptism. This sacrament has not only been practiced since the beginning of our faith, but has deep meaning and symbolic ties to the start of creation with Adam and Eve. I hope to prove through both illustration and published works how Baptism as a sacrament is both a sign and symbol of humanities desire to become closer to God by cleansing them of original sin through this ritual and rite of passage.

(1) Fagerberg’s summary and explanation of the sacrament of liturgy seeks to provide the audience with an understanding of the Trinity within the liturgy. (2) This article begins with outlining the sacramental liturgy, through which Fagerberg identifies three definitions of sacramental liturgy. (3) Incorporating these three definitons within this article, Fagerberg determines that the liturgy is provided to man through God’s love, manifested within the Son and the Holy Spirit. (4) The latter half of this article focuses on the liturgical history, which allows Fagerberg to emphasize that the liturgy sacramentalizes the mystical body (Church), which sacramentalizes the Christ and lastly leads to the sacramentalization of God. (5) Through outlining

During the research of this topic some twenty contemporary and classical Catholic churches were visited during a two year period. One Church that is

The African legacy in Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly pronounced in the realm of religion and religious ritual because with symbiotic and reciprocal relationships between humans and supernatural deities individuals can be connected. This is an outcome of the encounter of two different yet structurally analogous religious traditions. Indigenous and African religious traditions were highly pragmatic and their deities were anthropomorphic beings who, although were more powerful than humans they, also displayed humanlike needs. With these rituals these individuals feel like they are doing what is right and building these key relationships. In some ways these are similar to popular Catholicism because, both are building these symbiotic

In the Episcopal Church, the ongoing discussion around who can participate in the Eucharist demonstrates that the church is led by practice, rather than theology. In recent years there has been a significant volume of writing generated in the Episcopal Church about what is known as “Open Table”. Currently this is an issue in which practice differs in many churches from the official policy. The discussion and corresponding practice represent the latest step of a historical trend in the church towards fullest possible participation in its practice of the sacrament of Communion. The existence of canon law and the clear and conscious disregarding of that part of the canon illustrates that practice is not always determined by either the law, or

The Communion Christians have always regarded the Holy Communion as being one very important element towards achieving discipleship since the very beginning. However, the question in every Christian’s mind is “what are we doing?” it is, therefore, important to discuss what the holy communion means about theology. The Holy Communion has several names given to it. Among them are: the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Divine Liturgy, and the Mass. Inside the New Testament, there are also varying details given there concerning what entails the Holy Communion on accounts given by Christ himself.[1] The Holy Communion does not compare to Baptism which is another sacrament that is non-repeatable. It is repeatable to some certain degrees as it can be done on a daily basis such as those performed by the Catholic Church. In other instances, it can be conducted on a much infrequent celebration such as the ones that happen in Reformed Churches. Referring to Baptism, there are differences in the practice and its significance, and sometimes the understanding of what it means to be baptized. This has gone ahead to become e a hindrance to churches having a common celebration, but at the same time, there is some spiritual benefit that accrues to the people that partake in it. In the same way, the Eucharist possess the same characteristics. Nature of the Union of Christ and Church The Holy Communion is not just a matter of people ingathering in unity. The purpose of having the communion is so