The Mass

Here I am, a Catholic Missionary, in Malawi for well over a year and have mentioned very little, if anything about the actual mass.  One of the great things about the Mass is that anywhere you go, whether it's in the U.S., Italy, or Malawi, it is always recognizeable.  The parts, the order, and the responses are all there.  So anywhere you are in the world there is a celebration that is immediately familiar.  This might seem boring, but each culture adds something to the mass making it uniquely theirs while still sharing in the worldwide celebration.  A few practices here might be considered a little old fashioned.  It is observed more in the outstations, but there is a seperation between men and women.  Men are on one side and women on the other.  When possible, space permitting, people kneel in a row at the front to receive communion while the minister walks down the line.

 

The major cultural contributions to the mass here in Malawi are the singing and dancing.  The songs accompanied by an organ, drums, and a tamborine-like instrument are sung at every opportunity contributing to another characteristic of Malawian masses: length.  If we get out in less than two hours, it's a short mass.  This is also affected by the substantial length of the homily.  The Christmas Eve homily wasn't too much longer than others, but being at night, a kid sitting across the aisle from me lost his personally battle against sleep and fell right of the pew.  Many other kids didn't even attempt to fight it and were sprawled out on the floor...with parents.  They can't afford to print bulletins for eveyone so after every mass the catechist reads all the church announcements however long the list might be.  At the youth Mass on Sundays and on feast days, a group of girls dance up during the entrance and exit processions.    A group of about 20 people dance up the aisle for the offertory, giving things like bread, sugar, corn, cases of soda, chickens, and even goats.  For Palm Sunday Mass, we started at the school next door and processed  to the church waving the palms.  It was such a big crowd that it broke into about 3 seperate groups singing different songs.  A group of women laid chitenji (material used as skirts or head wraps, etc.) down in front of the priest playing the role of Jesus as he walked the entire distance to the church.  As soon as he passed by they would grap the chitenji and throw it to the front to be laid out again.  From a distance, all you could see was a big group of women slowly moving along with material continually flying in the air.