Essay on Mini-ethnography
The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, San Diego, is a beautiful church whose mission statement denotes a desire to live and proclaim the Good News as it nurtures the believers by the Word of God, the Sacraments, and the Celebration of the Eucharist. My visits to the church revealed that the members expressed concern and generosity to the needs of others, perhaps as testimony to the church’s mission in building the Kingdom of God. In addition to the warm welcome I received when I visited the church on two different occasions, it appeared that the Christian community here was quite involved to a degree with various programs. As a matter of note, I found out that two deacons assisted the priest in carrying out his mandate.
The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church has some programs that are geared toward the strengthening of the faith of the members of the congregation. The Faith Formation program, for instance, was attended by children who were between grades 1 and 8. This program is meant to prepare children to receive the First Reconciliation and the Eucharist sacraments, and attendance to each class is required for two years before the reception of the same. Parent faith meetings are also carried out for parents, seeing as how they have the unique responsibility of educating their children. In these sessions, parents ask questions which help deepen what they understand about their Catholic faith, even as they learn new methods of sharing the faith with their family.
The church has other programs that include a parish school which caters to children in transitional kindergarten through grade 8, Eucharistic Adoration, and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Classes for adults who have yet to complete the Sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation are taught each Sunday morning from 9 for an hour in the Parish Hall Library. In addition to these programs, I found that the church had various ministries and groups, all formed and structured to assist in spiritual development and ministry.
These parish ministries and groups comprise of Altar Servers, Culture of Life, Contemporary and Traditional Choirs, Blessed Sacrament Cares for Kids, a Tuesday Fun Club, Knights of Columbus, and Lectors. There is also a Vocations Committee, a Youth Ministry made up of high school students, a Women’s Club, and Ushers. I attended two Sunday masses, one at 8 and the other at 10 in the morning, and got to enjoy the traditional and the contemporary choir, respectively. After each service, coffee and donuts were made available in the church’s hall, and jolly interactions marked this event. For an individual that thought there was little place for the church in the contemporary world, it was curious to see how helpful, chirpy, and well-adjusted the attendees at Blessed Sacrament seemed.
