While I was growing up, my family never practiced any religion and never thought there was a higher power, so when I was given this assignment I didn't know what to think about it . But as I talked about this assignment with a relative, I realized that this was a great opportunity for me to explore a religion and maybe even fit it into my life as a lifestyle. I decided that for this assignment I would attend a Catholic church since it is one of the most popular religions and I have many friends who attend this church. Although my immediate family does not practice any type of religion, my family traces back to the practice of Judaism. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay I personally identify as agnostic because I do not believe in any particular god or higher power. I'm excited to have this opportunity to explore the Catholic religion and hopefully finally understand what it's all about. While I was deciding what type of church I wanted to visit because I felt that attending a Catholic church was too simple, but after realizing that it might be more suitable for my needs to visit, I decided to choose it. Although before deciding I did some research on the practice of religion in the South Florida area. While conducting this research I came across a number that shocked me, only 41% of people in this area practice a religion. This number is very low compared to the rest of the country. Then I dug deeper and found that of the 41% who practice a religion, 22% practice Catholicism. So after all this research, I also found some friends who are very devoted to their religion and practice it quite frequently. I asked if they could attend with me because the service would make so much more sense with a true Catholic next to me. Catholicism is a very old religion, meaning it goes back a long way in history, as far back as Jesus Christ was alive. The main belief of Catholicism is that to be saved from all sins and bad things you must first recognize that god is alive and will punish not only bad deeds but also good ones. A great ritual that takes place quite often among families is baptism. A baptism is symbolic as it symbolizes purification, the release of any denotation and rejects Satan allowing God to be accepted. During baptism, the priest takes water and sprinkles it on the forehead of the person being baptized, then proceeds to immerse him in a pool of water. This can happen in church on Sunday either during the morning parish mass or in the afternoon after the conclusion of all the day's masses. When I took my first steps into the church, my eyes were completely blown away by all the wonderful art that was between the ceilings and walls. Each depicted a different story of Jesus Christ. I later realized that the murals had been put up to show respect to their lord and savior. Much of the artwork was depicted in artistic styles I had never seen before, but I thought this was because the church had existed for many years before and contained artwork from different time periods. Although there were many beautiful works of art, one of them stood out to me, it is called Siena Cathedral. The work depicts a cathedral located in Siena, Spain, and represents different plots of the religion of Catholicism. After researching the Catholic religion, I had a vision of what I thought this Catholic church would look like, but it looked a little different. Even though the building had thesame eye-catching cross and peaked roof, but it was a little flatter than its predecessor. those pictured online. There were other works of art outside, but these were displayed through red and blue stained glass windows. The seating inside was as expected, with long wooden benches lined up straight and facing the podium where the sermon took place. Everything was so eye-catching. All the artwork was immaculate, but what caught my attention most was a sculpture hanging from the ceiling in the center of the church. The sculpture was a representation of the crucified Jesus Christ. It was honestly a little mortifying because I had never seen anything like it before. But I was lucky enough to come with a friend and was able to ask her about the meaning behind the sculpture. Then I was told how Jesus Christ died for our sins. The reason for his death was because he wanted to protect all his followers from evil. Jesus dying on the cross was the only way to help his people. My friend's explanation gave me a lot of information about this religion, it was amazing how something so small meant so much to all these people. During the research I had done previously, I had discovered that under most Catholic churches there is a crypt. A crypt is a burial place for people who have impacted the religion. I was surprised to discover that the church I had visited did not have a crypt. From prior knowledge and watching movies I had predicted that everyone would come dressed in their "Sunday best", I was right. The men wore nice dress shirts with slacks while the women wore casual clothes. It was exciting to see everyone dressed so appropriately and clean. The population was very diverse since we were in Miami, but it was nice to see everyone there for a reason and celebrate their religion. It was amazing to see so many people come together to celebrate one thing, especially with all the discrimination and segregation going on in the United States right now. I've come to realize that it's not just about service and religion, but about the bonds you form with people around you who have the same beliefs as you. The service began with everyone standing and singing along with a choir playing religious music. I felt a little out of place because everyone was singing together and I had no idea what was going on or what the lyrics were. I remember the song that talked about Jesus and the reasons he died for his people. There was a line in the song that struck me. I wrote it because I thought it would be helpful to do some research and find out more about it. The phrase was “Jesus took all our sorrows and joys and built a life for us and our children.” My first thought was that it was a nice phrase that made you think, but after rereading it I found something strange about it. The song mentioned "for you and their children" but never mentions anything about a woman. But as I thought about it a little deeper, I thought that this song must be older and that the topic of feminism wasn't a topic that was brought up too often back then. The reason I say this is because this church is still using old time practices instead of realizing that things are changing and that women are actually important to society. Later in the service, after all the singing was done the sermon came out and I began to read a few lines from a book which I assumed was the Holy Bible. After reading the line he continued to go deeper to explain what it meant in a way that others could understand since the Bible was written in a different time period. I was glad they did because.