I recently went on a Catholic Church crawl with my lovely soon-to-be-roommate. During this Church Crawl we visited and prayed at Seven Catholic Churches in South Western PA. I am not Catholic and have very little experience being in Catholic churches, the girl I went on the Church Crawl with was born and raised Catholic, these are some of the thoughts I had during out little excursion.

*DISCLAIMER I am not out to poke fun or talk down the Catholic Church, so please don’t take this list the wrong way. I find this faith to be so complex and interesting, and while I may not practice Catholicism I have so much respect for those who do. I believe that we are all children of God and I, in no way, want to make anyone feel inferior or less important than another. With that being said Catholicism and Protestants are two similar yet very different ways to celebrate the love of God… so here we go, a random grouping of thoughts I had attending this Church Crawl.

1. How many things do these people have memorized?

There are A LOT of prayers and phrases that are important in the Catholic faith, mad respect for their memorization skills, I forgot Chessy was a character in The Parent Trap and these people know like four million saints off the top of their heads (give or take three point nine million).

2. Is this what I sound like to Catholic people talking about Protestant services and customs?

I need a dictionary of Catholic words. I don’t know if I confuse my Catholic friends with Protestant words as much as they confuse me, but let me tell ya, when you don’t know what their terminology means it gets real confusing, real fast. I don’t even know how to go about spelling or saying these words so you probably don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, just trust me on this, Catholic words are confusing.

3. Catholics don’t like sitting.

They are either kneeling or standing. Maybe this is their way

4. They know how to decorate.

I may not understand what’s going on with the kneeling and standing and prayers, but I do know a pretty building when I see one (minor architecture geek) and these buildings are A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. the icons, the stained glass, the statues, everything is immaculate and absolutely beautiful.

5. haha Nuns

(This number is a shout out to the friend I went on the Church crawl with). Nuns are not scary as Hollywood makes them out to be. They are kind, wonderful people that love to share the Lord with you (and they might even ask you to stay!)

6. There is a Saint for everything.

There just are too many saints to keep track of, I don’t even know who most of them are…. Thomas, Mary, is Paul one? I have no idea… and they celebrate finding lost things, miracles and basically everything (save you sarcasm and video games, wink wink, you know who you are)

7. Priests are really funny.

I don’t know if all Priests are as funny as the ones I met but the Father’s I met are so real and delightful to be around.

8. Catholicism is not stuck in the past.

Not only the Catholic Churches that we went to but some that we drove past are very modern looking inside and out. The services follow traditions but the people are not stuck in a time warp. They have cell phones and they talk about reality. I know this may be hard to believe but they are not people who have traveled through time to get from the past to today, they are real.

9. God is pretty awesome.

Seeing these people speak together, pray together, be together, feeling the Holy Spirit come down, even though I was a non-Catholic at a Catholic event I could feel Christ fill up that space, I saw the love for God that these people had. I saw the different backgrounds, stories, ages; Catholicism isn’t for ‘old people’ it is a faith for whoever is called; young, old, it doesn’t matter. The faith is both overwhelming and beautiful.

10. Catholic people aren’t out to get you.

This wasn’t a thought I just had last night; I have this thought whenever I spend time with my Catholic friends. Catholic people aren’t sitting around waiting to meet you just to convert to their faith. The people I know of the Catholic faith (have I said the word Catholic enough yet?) just enjoy teaching you about their faith and learning about your own. They don’t look down on you, they aren’t rude to you, they’re just people (of course some people look down on you and will be rude to you, humans will be humans, but don’t judge an entire faith on one bad trait, one bad day, or one person stuck on conversion).

And there you have it, ten thoughts non-Catholics have at Catholic events. So the next time you are invited to a Catholic event (whether you are Catholic, Protestant or nowhere in the realm of Christianity) go for it. Experiencing a new culture with different customs is one of the most amazing experiences one can ever encounter, especially if that encounter just happens to be in your own backyard.