Sorry – no pictures on this one! Forgot my camera…

Patrick and I attended our first mass this past weekend. We did a bit of asking around and found out that the main Cathedral in Jeju offers one English-language mass at 2pm on Sundays. Feeling like we’d been pretty adventurous already this week, we decided to take in our first mass in Korea in our own language.

The Cathedral was beautiful – a large modern church with tons of pews, beautiful painting, and a big organ. But the English mass is held in a tiny side-room set up with chairs and a mobile-altar. We had about 40 people present, all Korean and Philipino as far as we could tell. We were the only white people in the room, which surprised us a bit.

The great thing about Catholics is that for the most part, the mass runs exactly the same no matter where you go. So we could follow right along, often more confidently than some of the others there. As long as we could remember the prayers over the happy screaming of about a dozen 2-6 year-olds running around through the whole service. I guess prayerful quiet is not a requirement here!

The priest is an Irish missionary who’s been living in Korea for 58 years. You can hear a bit of Irish accent, but there’s also a hint of Korean accent at this point. He gave a fairly simple and very welcoming homily about doing our best to choose the right path to get “through the narrow gate”.

In a similar vein to the playing children, the mass was run by a prayer leader who was the only person to respond to the priest’s comments: “Good morning Father”, “Yes Father”, etc. She kept us at a quick pace – we finished mass in 40 minutes, including singing the typical four hymns (many of prayers, psalm, etc. were spoken).

My favorite part was the sign of peace. Most American Catholics take a few minutes before communion to shake hands and offer peace to their neighbors. In Korea, everyone made brief eye contact and bowed to each other. Took us a bit by surprise, but meant you could offer peace to everyone in the room! The other fun difference was that instead of passing a basket for the offertory (money collection), everyone stood up and walked to the front with their Won to drop at the altar. Everyone knows if you skimped out this week!

After mass, a woman, clearly in charge, asked us to come to the front and introduce ourselves. We got applause, and they seemed so glad to have us there, even though they have a really hard time pronouncing”Beth”. Angela (the woman’s Christian name – she never shared her Korean name) took us across the street to the community center for some packaged pastries and coffee, and community time. We were offered treats (I had a puff pastry filled with sweet red bean paste – yummier than you’d think), jewelry (some of the Philipinos sell it to the community for a small profit), and free bitter squash from someone’s garden (good for your blood pressure). Overall a very welcoming experience, if a bit overwhelming.

The community is celebrating Chuseok, Korean Thanksgiving, in two weeks, and invited us to join the festivities, cooking and eating after mass in two weeks. Should be a fun way to learn more about the culture here, meet some people, and eat great food! Looking forward to sharing stories (and pictures, I promise) then.

After church, we met up with another couple: Jessica (Chemistry teacher at KIS) and her husband Michael (diving guide in Seogwipo) for some Japanese-influenced Korean bbq. Yum! We cooked strips of beef on a charcoal grill right in the table, and mixed and matched with cooked pumpkin, stewed seaweed, rice noodles, kimchi and other side dishes. Yes, I ate the beef (it was really tasty, but was a bit hard on my mostly-veggie stomach), and even loved the kimchi! I’m a convert. So far, I’m loving Korean food.

Jessica and Michael (hiding behind the suction pipe) cooking up some delicious bbq. Check out all the little bowls of side dishes!

Again, sorry no photos of the church – it was a busy day with lots of driving (in pouring rain) and we tried to just enjoy. But hopefully this gives a quick idea, and I’ll post more next time! Thanks for reading, as always.