It's quite some time since I last went to mass at Cîteaux. The church itself is simple and spare, closer in my view to the Cistercian spirit than the old one. The trouble is, the acoustics are not very good, or else my hearing has got very much worse, and I can't make out a single word of what the abbot is saying. My sight is not too good either and I first read "hymn pour l'aspersion" as "hyène pour l'aspersion".
I think that people of my age and brought up religiously will always have a feeling of "coming home" when they go to church, no matter what has happened in the intervening years. In the course of mass, my thoughts fly off in all directions, not all of them centred on God by any means! "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to Heaven go". But I daresay it's the same for everyone, including the monks themselves. One of these monks plays beautiful music on the electric harp shortly before Communion.
Outside, the leaves are beginning to fall, heralding the start of a season of which I am not best fond. A momentary feeling of loneliness as we hurry to our cars and head off in all directions along the country roads of Burgundy.
I think that people of my age and brought up religiously will always have a feeling of "coming home" when they go to church, no matter what has happened in the intervening years. In the course of mass, my thoughts fly off in all directions, not all of them centred on God by any means! "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to Heaven go". But I daresay it's the same for everyone, including the monks themselves. One of these monks plays beautiful music on the electric harp shortly before Communion.
Outside, the leaves are beginning to fall, heralding the start of a season of which I am not best fond. A momentary feeling of loneliness as we hurry to our cars and head off in all directions along the country roads of Burgundy.
I think this feeling of "coming home" is very common to Catholics, whether lapsed or more long-term departed. But perhaps in the main it just proves the truth of that old Jesuitical boast.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what it is that is quite so comforting, though. After all, the order of service has changed out of all recognition and we no longer even have a common language.