This week, my church buddy Jacob and I attended St. Martha’s in Okemos. This is the home church of my colleague and trivia team buddy Clare and she was our very lovely hostess during mass. Marie had to drop her hubby off at the airport this morning so she joined us for lunch after the service.
I don’t generally like to compare churches to one another but on one point I would like to contrast St. Martha’s with the Quaker meeting house. That point is physical beauty. I can contrast them because they are equally beautiful in my eyes while they are so very different.
St Martha’s is grand and ornate with seating for many hundreds. The sculptures are from Italy. The ceilings are painted (and well). The woodwork all matches. The hallway floors are ceramic tile in pleasing patterns. The chapel architecture soars heavenward in a traditional and beautiful way. There’s an organ loft.
The Quaker meeting house is a certified LEED building. It is small, with space for maybe 60 people. It is simple and humble. But the sanctuary has one full-wall glass window that looks out onto a natural area with trees and grass. The building design is modest, modern, and pleasing to the eye. The interior has soaked up the goodness of the inhabitants. It feels solemn and holy.
Both places feel like a good, solid place to kneel down and pray. A place from which God will hear you if you are sincere. A place in which you are in good company if you are seeking to worship God. I honestly don’t have a preference between them and enjoy both.
I’m normally a bit negative when it comes to Okemos, or high-falutin’ places with a lot of money in general. And St. Martha’s is very wealthy and has had some recent problems. Their last priest is being prosecuted for embezzlement. But I really liked St. Martha’s. Just goes to show me.
It was well-organized and very comfortable physically, which has been an issue at other places, and the congregation was much more diverse age-wise than many of the places I’ve visited, likely because they run a school. Nevertheless it was very nice to see. People of all ages, woo-hoo! And it was just so smooth! They sang a new hymn today and before the service started the pianist got up and taught it to the congregation. Nice!
The service was psychologically reassuring. I find that I like high church. The vestments. The golden chalices. The ritual. I dig ritual. It’s part of what attracted me to Islam in the first place. Hundreds of people acting and speaking in unison.
And it was more than the nature of the service. It was the message, too. That message was love. The overwhelming message I get from Islam is of God’s mercy. The unmistakable message of today’s service was love, and I understand that’s normal for a Catholic service. I really appreciated it.
I think Catholicism would require me to adopt too many ideas about religion that are foreign to me-namely about the primacy of the Pope-for me to choose Catholicism at the end of my church shopping. But I truly enjoyed the service and imagine I’ll be back to mass when I desire that high church feel.
Thanks, St. Martha’s!
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