Catholic Mass in Jakarta

I am currently in Jakarta Indonesia on business. I went to Catholic mass today. I grew up in a Catholic church but left church when I was 14. When I was 19 I was born again and became a "non-demoninational Christian" and I looked down on my old Catholic religion (not entirely bad - go to an Australian catholic church for mass and tell me if you'd want to stick around).

Today I had one of the most beautiful and impacting experiences in my church life. I went to a Fillipino catholic church in Jakarta with my fiances parents. The atmosphere was vibrant. The congregation was warm and accepting. The priest was passionate. The children of the church (about 50 of them) bought gifts of flowers to the Lord. The offering was not taken - it was offered. There wasn't an offering encouragement message - (just "now its time to give our gifts to the Lord"). A special offering was taken to support landslide victims in Central Java. The responsorial psalms had much greater meaning to me now. We all recited the Nicene Creed. We all held hands and prayed the Lords Prayer. We petitioned our God for our families and every other conceivable thing that God could be petioned for. After each prayer of petition the congregation repeated "Lord hear our prayer". We prayed for the world wide community of Fillipinos living abroad. After the mass all of the children (about 50 of them) came to the front and the priest blessed each one of them. All of the children were gathered around Father Noel trying to grab his hands while he layed his hands on each head and said a short prayer.

After church we went to lunch and then went to a couples / singles for Christ meeting where my father-in-law to be let the worship and ministered to the congregation of Fillipino / Indonesian / Indian roman catholics who had just been baptised with water and baptised in the Holy Spirit. There was dancing, singing, prayer - lots of prayer. Each prayer was followed by the traditional recital of "Lord hear our prayer". We held hands togethor again to recite the Lords Prayer. This meeting went for almost 3 hours. This was absolutely awesome. It makes me almost want to become a Roman Catholic again (I know that my mom and my fiances parents would absolutely love me for it).

When I accepted Christ as saviour when I was 19 years old I realised that I had never learnt a thing while attending catholic mass in Australia. I didn't know what Christs death meant really. I didn't know much at all (I guess it would help if I listened, but I was young). Today I met Catholics who knew exactly what Jesus death meant. They knew what a community of believers should be like. Unfortunately, in the afternoon meeting there was prayer to Mary (which really is the reason I could never return to Catholicism). Overall, I found that love for God can flow through tradition.