Catholic Mass

I have a confession:  I haven’t gone to church since I was in Cuba in late May.  Not good, I know. So when Matt told me about a Catholic Mass at a local church, I said I’d join him. And boy was it an interesting experience. 

Mass started at 6, but in true Arab style, people were filtering in until 6:30.  The church wasn’t completely full until after the Homily, which lasted much longer than it should have.  Children were literally running around the church, and if somebody left his/her seat, it was fair game. One little boy left his mom for about 5 minutes, but when he came back, some other guy was sitting in his seat. So he moved to the row behind his mother.  So bizarre.

But what was even more shocking was communion.  It was a mad rush to the altar.  Matt and I looked at each other, and joined the crowd.  I noticed that some of the smarter ones stayed seated until the rush died down. Mumkin (maybe) we should have followed suit.

We were definitely the only foreigners at the Mass, probably because the entire mass was in Arabic. That said, we shouldn’t have been there only because the only thing I understood was “The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit”.  It was all downhill after the opening prayer.  

In the middle of the Mass, the mosque down the street started the Call to Prayer, which was a really neat experience.  There does seem to be a relatively large Christian population in Amman, and it is refreshing to know that a mosque and a church can be located on the same street without any problems.