English masses in Munich<\/a> originally organized by Irish priests in the 1980s for Irish guest workers.\u00a0 The community has expanded since then, and now includes a variety of English speakers including filipinos and people from a number of African countries, predominantly Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania.\u00a0 \u00a0 From the servers, lectors and other leaders it was clear that the Africans were the dominant group. \u00a0<\/p>\nThe mass itself was quite an experience.\u00a0 The priest was an expatriate Franciscan from Cincinnati who has been in Munich for 40 years.\u00a0 The music was Catholic \u201cfolk\u201d music, but supplemented by an accordion\u2013definitely a nice touch.\u00a0 Prior to mass we said the stations of the cross and it was amazing listening to the prolix, purple prose of St. Alphonsus Ligouri (\u201cOh my sweet Jesus, who didst suffer for my sins\u2026.\u201d) in half a dozen accented versions of English.<\/p>\n
The mass itself followed the old English sacramentary and I found myself stumbling on the responses all over again:\u00a0 my \u201cand with your spirit\u201d crossing over \u201cand also with you.\u201d\u00a0 Either the Irish have not yet implemented the reforms of the English liturgy, or this parish did not get the memo.\u00a0 (Or having spoken a bit with the priest, it may be that they\u00a0 have gotten the memo and ignored it.)<\/p>\n
There were two collections:\u00a0 one for the upkeep of the Church and one for poor children.\u00a0 They did both simultaneously by the expedient of putting large pink piggy banks in the middle of each collection basket.\u00a0 I never did figure out which was for which.<\/p>\n
The greeting of peace was a protracted affair, as the priest, the altar servers (4, two young boys and two teenage girls) and a handful of people I would call the \u201celders\u201d of the community went around the Church greeting people, particularly visitors such as ourselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Everyone around us, particularly the regular members of the community, was extremely open and friendly.<\/p>\n
At communion the poor father behind us could not restrain his sons, who went tearing off to cut into the front of the line to be among the first to receive communion or a blessing from the priest.\u00a0 I wish my kids had showed such enthusiasm for the sacraments at that age!<\/p>\n
After mass we were invited up to the \u201cfamily room\u201d for coffee and donuts.\u00a0 The filipinos made a giant bowl of stir fried noodles which was quickly demolished.\u00a0 (I managed to get a donut, or at least it looked like a donut hole.\u00a0 Tasted different though.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We chatted with the priest and then with one of the elders, who brought us the guest book to sign.\u00a0 Shortly after that, he interrupted the chit-chat to introduce a different visitor:\u00a0 \u201cGeorge\u201d was recently arrived from Ghana, and though he had a job, he had not yet found a place to live.\u00a0 The elder pressed the other members of the community to offer him a temporary place to stay, and to consider if they could sublet a room to him \u201csince he would be able to help with the rent.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 As we were leaving, another elder stopped us to inquire if we would be back next week.\u00a0 When we said we were going home, he made us promise to come back the next time we were in Munich:\u00a0 a promise we were happy to make.<\/p>\n
Visiting this English language mass at St. Boniface was a blessing.\u00a0 At the risk of a cliche, I found it to be Spirit-filled and joyful.\u00a0 I was impressed by the sense of community, and the ownership that the laity had in it:\u00a0 it really seemed like it was their Church.\u00a0 I was also impressed by their hospitality and their concrete sense of charity:\u00a0 I simply cannot imagine my pastor standing up, introducing a visitor, and trying to find him a place to live.\u00a0\u00a0 As my wife trenchantly put it as we were leaving:\u00a0 \u201ccan we go here every week?\u201d\u00a0 A good question.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For my spring break I have decamped to Munich to visit a colleague at Ludwig-Maximilliam Universitat.\u00a0 On Sunday, my wife and I went to an English language mass at the the Church of St. Boniface in central Munich.\u00a0\u00a0 The mass is one of several English masses in Munich originally organized by Irish priests in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[605],"tags":[1166,995,1167,1168],"class_list":["post-24735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-david-cruz-uribe","tag-english-language-mass","tag-germany","tag-immigrant-communities","tag-munich"],"yoast_head":"\n
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