…and I'm also very late, but here's (yet more) information:
As far as I know, First Communion in Catholicism is a big thing. I think it's becoming more of a part of the church.
The first time I had communion (I'm Protestant, Methodist to be precise), it was just no big deal. My mom waved me up and I went and had it. (Maybe that's just me though.)
I also went through a program around my thirteenth year for a thing that's called Confirmation. We learn about the history of the Protestant church (and afterward the history of Methodism) and at the end dress up and kneel at the prayer rail and confirm that we are believers in Christ. Then we become "official members of the church". The way the pastor put it was this: when we are born and baptized, our parents give us up to Christ. But Confirmation means we choose to become a Methodist Christian. Some people may do it at a different time. The program lasted about a month.
Also I believe Catholics do this -affirming they want to be Catholic- but their program is a year. (A person who follows the Catholic faith can tell me if I'm right or wrong on that.)
That's all I can offer right now that hasn't been covered yet.
Some Catholics do use Confirmation as a “Catholic Bar Mitzvah” But that is not what it really is. It is the ceremony when the laying on of hands happens (I think always by a bishop) and the power of the Holy Spirit enters in you.
Also what history did you learn about the beginning of the Protestant church?
…and I'm also very late, but here's (yet more) information:
As far as I know, First Communion in Catholicism is a big thing. I think it's becoming more of a part of the church.
The first time I had communion (I'm Protestant, Methodist to be precise), it was just no big deal. My mom waved me up and I went and had it. (Maybe that's just me though.)
I also went through a program around my thirteenth year for a thing that's called Confirmation. We learn about the history of the Protestant church (and afterward the history of Methodism) and at the end dress up and kneel at the prayer rail and confirm that we are believers in Christ. Then we become "official members of the church". The way the pastor put it was this: when we are born and baptized, our parents give us up to Christ. But Confirmation means we choose to become a Methodist Christian. Some people may do it at a different time. The program lasted about a month.
Also I believe Catholics do this -affirming they want to be Catholic- but their program is a year. (A person who follows the Catholic faith can tell me if I'm right or wrong on that.)
That's all I can offer right now that hasn't been covered yet.
Yep, First Communion is a big deal, and our Confirmation prep is a year, give or take.
Some Catholics do use Confirmation as a “Catholic Bar Mitzvah” But that is not what it really is. It is the ceremony when the laying on of hands happens (I think always by a bishop) and the power of the Holy Spirit enters in you.
Almost always by a bishop, unless special permission is given to a priest because of circumstances
Hello I Am Also Here to Help I Know A Little Bit More Than Your Average Christian
Hey, same here! Coming from the Protestant side of things (To be specific, Baptist!)
Here are a lot of things you might find interesting. Sorry for the giant wall!!!
Some Major Holidays are Christmas and Easter. Some things you might not know about each are as follows!
Around Christmas, I don't know if any other churches do this, we have five services total. Four of them leading up to Christmas morning and one midnight service on Christmas Eve. We light candles that represent hope, joy, peace, love and Christ for each Sunday that passes, and we light the center candle (Christ) on Christmas eve.
On Easter. Fasting of any type for the weekend (Friday-Sunday) is heavily encouraged. Our family does media fasts, which is abstaining from the use of any electronic. X'DD
Sunrise services are common on Easter Sunday, but there are often two services total that day, the sunrise service and the normal time service. :)
First communion isn't a big deal, but you can't take it before you've been baptized. I don't think people will hound you or anything, but it's generally frowned upon.
Baptism is pretty important to our denomination (Cause, I mean… we're baptists :'D) you're baptized when you accept Jesus to be your savior. The pastor or deacon or whatever will dunk you in a tub full of water, say a couple words and pull you out. It represents being buried and rising again as Jesus was. :)
Oh! Speaking of Deacons… Deacons are people who are appointed by the church and confirmed by the pastor to be helpers among the body. My dad is actually a deacon, so I can tell you quite a bit about what they do.
- They do sick visits, they'll take communion with people who can't go to church to do so.
- They do regular check-in phone calls, to see if anyone needs help or support or whatever they need.
- They're the ones who pass out the plates during communion in service. :)
- They send out birthday cards, sympathy cards and are very involved within the church. :)
- Deacons can have deacons!!! :'DDD
- They and their family have to have good attendance I believe to be appointed.
Hope this helps! I'd be happy to supply more information if needed.
I don't know how old your character is, but I do also have a lot of information about baptist youth groups :'DD
—L.C.
About praying and reading the bible. I personally like to pray and read my bible at the end of the day, before I go to bed. I also pray through out the day, small thing like asking for help or thanking God. Prayers can also be longer.
They can also can have routines like setting aside a time of day to pray and read the bible. Like at the start or the end of the day. Which is what I do.
Some people can also highlight or make notes in their bible if they see something they think is important or if they think God is speaking to them through it. They can also wright stuff down outside of the bible if they don’t want to ‘ruin’ it.
This is coming from a Protestant point of view and I’m sorry if this stuff has been said before.
Thanks for pointing out deacons and fasting @Cassiopeia. The tradition of deacons goes back to the early years of the church. They are pretty much the servants of the priest and congregation.
And then fasting. Fasting is restraining yourself from a particular thing that you enjoy, traditionally food, but there are more modern or lenient practices. The thought behind it is that if a person can manage not to be controlled by an instinct like hunger, then they will be better able to resist the temptation to sin. In more traditional churches there are times (like Good Friday and Holy Saturday as said before, as well as Ash Wednesday) when everyone is expected to fast. There are exceptions of course. Elderly people and pregnant women are encouraged to be a lot more lenient with their fast, and most young children never fast. But the important thing is that we are not focusing on how others are fasting and instead keep our eyes on ourselves so as to cultivate a closer relationship with God and holiness.
…… what kind of Christian do you mean? There's an insane amount of different streams within Christianity.
I myself was brought up with the Protestant Christian church (Luther and stuff, because I'm dutch). In general, it's the same bible stories, but there are no saints, no lavish paintings in the church, no Carnaval, no fasting etc. because the focus should only be on god and humans should be humble. Easter, Christmas and all that stuff are usually celebrated by the village's church with some sort of lunch after the church service if it's big and otherwise like coffee and tea afterwards though that last bit might just be culture.
Church every Sunday morning and afternoon/evening (I only went to the morning and that was only until I was twelve).
In summary: for the protestant church your probably good if you know the ten commandments, the 'love thy neighbour' bit and the general moto Calmness, Cleanliness and Regularity…. dutch sounds better (Rust, Reinheid, Regelmaat).
On a more personal life note:
There are families that pray for every meal, though this depends on how dedicated someone is.
Easter(+ Thursday and Friday before) and Christmas are the biggest celebrations.
the ascension of Jesus and Pentecost are somewhat special. I think my family ignored most other thigs.
Also, in primary school, we used to pray every morning before class.
Easter and Christmas (as you probably already know) are our biggest holidays. And- depending on the denomination- we have a thing called communion. If you need to know more, I am here
Thanks for pointing out deacons and fasting @Cassiopeia. The tradition of deacons goes back to the early years of the church. They are pretty much the servants of the priest and congregation.
And then fasting. Fasting is restraining yourself from a particular thing that you enjoy, traditionally food, but there are more modern or lenient practices. The thought behind it is that if a person can manage not to be controlled by an instinct like hunger, then they will be better able to resist the temptation to sin. In more traditional churches there are times (like Good Friday and Holy Saturday as said before, as well as Ash Wednesday) when everyone is expected to fast. There are exceptions of course. Elderly people and pregnant women are encouraged to be a lot more lenient with their fast, and most young children never fast. But the important thing is that we are not focusing on how others are fasting and instead keep our eyes on ourselves so as to cultivate a closer relationship with God and holiness.
Specifically for Catholics, you don't need to fast until a certain age (I believe it's 16 or 18, but I'm not sure)
(Last I checked it was 14, but I did read that off a Facebook meme that my mom showed me two years ago so that's probably not 100% accurate)
(No, I think 14 is for when you need to start not eating meat on Fridays during Lent, which I'd been doing for years waaay before I turned 14)
This… this is a lot of information. Thank all of you precious people, I really appreciate all the details! even though I'm still lowkey clueless about everything
If you need anything else hit me up, my mom works at a church and I went to Catholic school for 7 years, so I've amassed a lot of knowledge on basic and also obscure stuff. Namely saints.
Also I have a several page long printout of the rules for church architecture, but I'm currently out-of-state so I don't have it on hand.
Ok. Wow. I just go to church and go to a Christian school and get dragged to cathedrals.
I think that if your goal is to be accurate and not offend anyone you really need to decide what denomination your character is going to be, I think that if you take all of this information into account you will get confused and end up mixing up a lot of things and doing exactly what you want to avoid which is offending people.
It depends. The character could also be someone who is a Christian but hasn’t found the right denomination yet. I think that would be pretty interesting.
It depends. The character could also be someone who is a Christian but hasn’t found the right denomination yet. I think that would be pretty interesting.
That's actually what I planned to do!
i don't know if you have any more questions but i worship the Christian God and practice Christianity and would be happy to help
(i'm also Baptist btw and don't know much about Catholicism)
It depends. The character could also be someone who is a Christian but hasn’t found the right denomination yet. I think that would be pretty interesting.
That's actually what I planned to do!
Cool! I’ve never seen that before so that will be awesome! Especially if you make their spiritual life an important piece of who they are.
Are there any insults that reference that Bibe? Because if so, you can bet that I will be using them.
