One God

Peur du jour: 8 Janvier 2012- Going to Mass in French

Wow. Just wow.

Mass is something that I know so well. I've been to mass nearly every holy day of obligation (Sundays and religious holidays) since I was born and even more than that when I went to Catholic school or when I have decide to go to weekday masses. We know the prayers, we know when to stand and sit and kneel, we know the songs (does this kind of stuff still freak you out, Lilli?). We Catholics went through a bit of a shock with the new translation of the liturgy, but even after a month of that it felt comfortable for me.

So here I am in a new church in a new city in a new country. The organ is playing and my friend and I found the sheets that had all of the lyrics to the songs and prayers for the day and everything seems good. Then the cantor starts speaking. And, of course, it's in French (go figure). In addition to the obvious language difference, the following stood out to me:

1. The place was empty: I am used to nearly always full churches (if you get there late, you don't have a seat, or at least not a good one). We got to the church 10 minutes early and there were maybe 20 other people there. People continued filing in until around the gospel, but it still was not anything close to the size to which I am accustomed. To give you an idea: they only needed two people to hand out the Eucharist and it took way less time that the Eucharist does in the American churches to which I have been.
   
   This is perhaps because of the time of day we chose to go. My friend and I were occupied at the most popular mass time here (11:30 AM) because we had been part of a group invited for an apératif with a charming Irish-French photographer, Claude, who graciously welcomed those of Irish descent into his home. We decided to go to the 18h00 mass on Sunday evening. My host mother told me that the morning masses are much more populated and lively.
   
   That being said, Catholicism is really in trouble in France. The shortage of priests seems to be exaggerated in this Protestant city. The church I went to today shares its priests with another cathedral in centre-ville. In addition to the lack of priests, my host mother told me there is a lack of parishioners as well. I'm not sure if it's just because the Catholics in Montpellier were unsuccessful in the Wars of Religion or if this is pretty indicative of the state of Catholicism in France. It was definitely a shock for me coming from an area of the United States with large and quickly growing Hispanic-Catholic population.
2. 
   
3. The church was clearly trying to economize: One big thing was that there was no wine at communion (which I found odd in wine country). The church was pretty dark as well (but it was old and perhaps they were trying to preserve the authenticity of the building). The church was also cold (it seems to me like most of the churches I frequent are pretty liberal with the heat and air conditioning). Also absent were the luxurious pews and kneelers. I guess in America we like our comfort because the seating arrangement in this church was rows of wooden chairs and a wooden kneeler that couldn't be rotated away from the floor (I probably looked like an idiot stumbling around the kneeler on the cobblestone floor in my high heeled boots).
   
   It's hard to tell if this was a part of the French being concerned with gaspillage (waste), the culture of going to mass in an old cathedral, or something else all together.
4. I was pretty confused at communion: America is the land of lines. We line up for everything (I love it). I had never considered that other churches might choose a less organized way to do communion. Instead of going pew by pew in an orderly fashion to walk to the front of the church, everyone seemed to just stand up at the same time and head for the priests. This put me in the awkward position of merging into the line to receive the body of Christ. "Pardon..Merci" Not a big deal, but just... different.

Some other church related things

• I definitely got my first whiff of the French body odor sitting so close to the natives. Stinky or not, we are all God's children.
• Tonight at dinner I had le galette des rois (King Cake) which is a cake served during the Epiphany (today). It's also served in some regions for Mardi Gras (which is when I have had it before--Jess and Sam had mad baking skills in high school!) Usually a trinket or a Baby Jesus is hidden in the cake and whoever gets the piece with the trinket is king for the day. In  my adventures today I saw a number of children walking around with crowns on their head (a clear sign that they had been the lucky winners!) It was almond flavored and très delicieux
• I felt the strongest surge of community when we did the Latin part of mass. There's just something about knowing that every Catholic in the world says "Amen" and sings "Gloria" and "Hosana" Super cool. 
• We "tutoyer" God. In French, like in Spanish (and Portuguese and Italian I would presume), there are both a formal and informal version of the second person. In French "tu" is familiar and "vous" is formal. Vouvoyer is the verb which means to use vous with someone. Tutoyer is the verb which means to use the tu form with someone. For example, when I first used "vous" with my host mother she said "tu peux me tutoyer" (you can use "tu" with me). Vous is used with people who are older than you, people in places of authority, strangers of whom you may want to be respectful or are meeting for the first time. I found it so interesting that the French tutoyent God. It seems like if anyone should receive the respectful vous, it would be Him. But, maybe vous would indicate some sort of barrier between God and his followers. The use of tu is perhaps meant to illustrate our friendship and intimacy with God.

The bottom line: Church isn't about the buildings or the individual differences; it's about the people, the community. Awkward situations, body odor, and foreign languages aren't nearly enough to keep me from worshiping in God's house. Besides, I spend approximately 1 hour of my week worshiping in a church and the other 167 hours worshiping elsewhere.

The Churches I plan to check out (tonight was at St. Denis):

Carré Saint-Anne

Cathédral St. Pierre de Montpellier (better pictures to come, I promise)

Cathédral St. Roch