OBSERVING A RELIGIOUS CEREMONY

I attended a religious ceremony at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in West Hartford, Connecticut at 5pm on Sunday, November 18.  This is a Roman Catholic church, which is the main sector of Catholicism. This religion is headed by the pope, and it is very well known for the strong part it played in Western Civilization.  I attended this service with my best friend and her family, and according to them, tonights service was oddly small and usually there are more people in attendance (I would say there were around 80 people there, but because the room is so large, it looks like a lot less).  The people were of all ages. I saw a lot of kids, as well as older people, but the majority of the people in the church were of lighter skin colors. The hour-long ceremony switched between kneeling prayers, singing, a band playing and speakers. They all would occasionally make a cross over there chests, respond to the pastor in specific words during prayer and kneel in a certain position on the bench beneath the seats.  They often would say things as a group, such as “in God we trust”. It was, of course, very quiet, but the service didn’t require you to dress a certain way, and many people wore everyday clothes.
I wasn’t really raised under a religion.  My parents are of two completely different religions and neither one of them is very connected to it, so my sisters and I were raised without a religion.  I do have a strong personal relationship with God that my immediate family doesn’t exactly share, but because I don’t know the teachings of a particular religion, I’m not sure how the culture of the church compares to my own.  I don’t think anything about this ceremony or what I learned about this religion surprised me, but because I wasn’t raised under a religion myself, I don’t have anything to compare it to. If I was surprised by anything, I think it would be when the pastor gave everyone a chance to shake each others hands during the ceremony and say something along the lines of “peace be with you”.  I think, overall, I was more confused than surprised because I haven’t been to a religious service since I was around seven years old.