Google Photos album for this evening here.
I’ve just woken up after midnight – after “first sleep” – and need to keep doing some “Hausaufgabe” before returning to bed for my second sleep. After the end of my first week in Munich, I find that I am very tired at the end of the day. The German course at the Goethe Institute is consuming much of my energy, and while I have made contact and arrangements to meet with a Jesuit priest and Rahner expert here, and also have arranged for a tour of the Catholic “Hochschule” (technical university) next Tuesday, I have not yet cracked open the Karl Rahner Archive, which is my main reason for being here.
In any case, I have decided just to make an entry in the blog about a funny thing happened last night – a “God moment” as my wife Cathy would call it.
I left the school at 5:45 and went home a different way from normal (just on a whim). And so it was that I came across a large modern (1950s?) church. I thought it would be locked up, but saw a couple of bicycles outside the rather industrial looking doorway. Inside the rather gloomy cavernous building, I saw candles burning down by the Marian shrine, and three elderly women. These turned to me when I walked in and they beckoned me over as they began to pray the Rosary! I quickly got my beads out and looked up “Rosary in German” on my phone, and joined in. They had a strange practice – which later I saw in their hymnal – of inserting the mystery after the “fruit of your womb, Jesus”. After the Rosary, they said the Angelus. Then, when finished, they asked where I was from etc. so conversation ensued. One lady spoke English and told me that at 7pm there would be mass over in the smaller chapel. So I went back to my hotel to drop off my stuff and get changed before returning.
On the way back I noticed first that the street was called “Sankt Wolfgangs Platz”, so deduced that this was St Wolfgang’s Church. There are other churches in the area, but this one clearly operated as the local parish church. The other thing I noticed was a nice Bavarian style restaurant and another nice looking Bavarian style pub. I considered that I might have dinner out tonight after mass.
Almost as soon as I left the hotel to head back to the church, the bells of St Wolfgang’s began ringing. I had heard these on previous evenings at this time and not realised what it was for. Clearly they were summoning the parish to mass. Inside, about a dozen people had gathered for mass – all women except one younger girl and a man who was setting up for mass. Just before mass began, the organist entered and sat down at the organ. A few more people showed up, again, mainly women except for an additional gentleman – in total about twenty people. Then the organist announced the opening hymn and led us in singing it. The priest entered during the hymn – vested very neatly and correctly. I’d estimate he was in his late 40s. And so the mass was conducted, with sung Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, and Entrance, Offertory, Communion and final hymns – although in most cases only one or two verses of the song. The Sanctus and the Lamb of God were both hymnic versions rather than the strict text of the liturgy – but that is a practice I was very used to from my Lutheran childhood, and goes back at least 500 years I think. Most of the songs and settings in the hymn book were of venerable age, dating to the 16th or 17th century. I was not familiar with any of the tunes except the tune for the Lamb of God – which was the same as is used in the traditional Lutheran liturgy in Australia. There was no sermon, and communion was in one kind. People knelt for the Eucharistic prayer and some received communion on the tongue. The only thing I thought was odd is that the altar was completely unvested, and a corporal cloth was spread out on which the sacred elements were placed.
After the mass, everyone dispersed fairly quickly, so there was no conversation with the locals. As I was heading home, I saw that the restaurants were rather full. I have been eating mainly in my room with food bought from local supermarkets. This has been more than sufficient and has allowed me time for working as well. In the end, I decided not to eat out. My “godson” Martin is arriving from Bonn tomorrow evening, and we will have a dinner together then. From what I can see of the weather report, the rain will pass tonight and we will have good weather for our pilgrimage to Altötting and Marktl am Inn on the weekend.
