Život v Cizine (was La Vie Expatriée)

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Sunday Mass at the House of the Virgin Mary

As far as I know, there is no Catholic Church in Kuşadası. The nearest place to attend Mass is the House of the Virgin Mary, above Ephesus, where Mass is said Sunday mornings at 10:30.

There is no direct dolmuş (dolmuşes are the little minivans that serve as buses here) service between Kuşadası and the House, so at a little after 9, I was at the corner to catch the dolmuş to Selçuk, from where I would need to take a taxi. As it happened, there was another passenger heading to Mass, a friendly Irish woman named Liz. We discussed our destination with the dolmuş driver who, in the end, ferried us all the way to the House, waited for us during Mass, and got us back down to the bus station to get a dolmuş back to Kuşadası.

There is a chapel at the site where Mass is held. This is a fairly recent addition, having just been consecrated last year. Apparently, Mass had been said in the House itself, but was constantly being disturbed by tourists.

I was a little surprised that Mass was in English: I had been expecting Turkish, or even, given the need to cater to multilingual pilgrim visitors, Latin. I'm not sure if the English reflects the fact that the core parish community seems to be made up of Anglophone expats or that English is the de facto international language of tourism (if not the Church). At any rate, it made me much more comfortable about the prospect of coming here regularly. Even better was the discovery that in fact some of the local Catholic expats have their own informal minibus service.

There is a spring beneath the House, and its waters are said to have miraculous powers. Adjacent to the faucets for the spring water, there is a prayer wall:

I was more focused on Mass than pictures, but I'll take more pictures next week. In the meantime, this site has more pictures and information.

Labels: House of the Virgin Mary, Kusadasi, liturgy, Turkey

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Sunday, May 17, 2009

St. John of Nepomuk

Last year's celebration of the feast of St. John of Nepomuk was a modest affair: Vespers at sv. Tomáš followed by a procession to St. John's statue on Charles Bridge and finishing up with a Benediction at the church of St. Francis on the other side of the bridge.

This year, though, there was a grander celebration. Apparently someone affiliated with the Charles Bridge Museum wants to revive the old tradition of a festival for the feast of St. John. And so this year, there was a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Vitus (with Cardinal Vlk presiding) on Friday, the eve of the feast. Like last year, a procession followed, winding through Malá Strana from the castle complex, across Charles Bridge to the statue of St. John of Nepomuk and thence to St. Francis for Benediction.

It didn't end there, though. There was a concert, some festival booths, and a sound and light show on the River. Unfortunately, the plaza in front of St. Francis is too small for a proper festival.

The program by Muzeum Karlova Mostu (as translated by Google Translate) gives more details. On the actual feast on Saturday, there was the Vespers service at sv. Tomáš, but no subsequent procession.

Labels: Charles Bridge, liturgy, Prague, St. John of Nepomuk

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Monday, April 13, 2009

Triduum Retreat in Wales

Last year, I mentioned my dissatisfaction with the way in which the Triduum liturgy was handled at sv. Tomaš and speculated that I might opt for a retreat in an English-speaking country this year instead. Well, that's exactly what I did: I went to St. Beuno's, a Jesuit retreat house (excuse me, "Spirituality Centre") on the coast in Wales.

St. Beuno's was originally built as a Jesuit college, and its main claim to fame is that it was home to Gerard Manley Hopkins at the time he resumed writing poetry.

The retreat started on Wednesday and ended Monday morning. The retreat itself was silent, though not individually directed. There was also an eight-day individually directed retreat (IDR) running almost concurrently that started on Thursday. Our group met every morning with the retreat directors (Angela O'Donoghue and Damian Jackson SJ), who gave us material and ideas for prayer for the day. There were about 20 of us in the Triduum retreat and similarly about 20 in the IDR.

The liturgies were really lovely. Quite simple, but very rich, and the materials that Angela and Fr. Damian gave us were well-chosen. The only downside was that, since there's no parish community attached (although the liturgies were attended by a number of locals who apparently prefer St. Beuno's to their own parishes), there was no one being received for Baptism or full communion. I did miss that. Indeed, it's the main reason I've never done a Triduum retreat before.

The main entrance:

The rose garden must be lovely later in the year, but it's rather bleak this time of year. My room was the fourth pair of windows from the left on the third floor.

Looking down from the garden:

The grounds are really lovely, too. The daffodils were in bloom for Easter.

There's a Lourdes shrine in the garden:

They've started installing a labyrinth. It still needs work, but it is functional.

It's not readily apparent from this picture, but there's a chapel atop the little tree covered hill in the background:

Getting there requires crossing a sheep pasture. The sheep do not like being disturbed, though you'd think they'd be used to it.

The chapel:

And the interior:

The surrounding countryside is mostly given over to farms and pastureland.


The ocean is barely visible:

I may well go back next Easter (although perhaps for the individually directed retreat instead).

Labels: Easter, Jesuit, liturgy, St. Beuno's, Wales

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Sunday, May 25, 2008

Corpus Christi

For the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (formerly known as Corpus Christi), sv. Tomáš again had one of these joint Czech / Spanish / English liturgies. The reason for the joint liturgy was to ensure that we would have enough time for a procession after Mass:

We processed from sv. Tomáš to sv. Josef, which we entered and had a brief prayer and hymn in Spanish. From sv. Josef we went on to the Order of Malta church of Panna Marie Pod Retězem (Our Lady Beneath the Chain), where we switched to English for our prayer and hymn.

Aside: I've never heard of a devotion to "Our Lady Beneath the Chain". On Googling, the closest I could find was a devotion to Our Lady of the Chain, which originated at the end of the 14th century in Sicily, but apparently made it Malta early on. So I think this is just a confusion of prepositions.

The story in brief is of three young men condemned to die on the gallows. While awaiting their execution, in the church of St. Mary of the Port, they were chained, kept under guard, and the doors of the church were securely locked. That night, the guards that were on duty fell asleep and the three condemned men found themselves at the foot of an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They prayed fervently for deliverance. While they were praying, the chains mysteriously fell to the ground. The doors of the church opened by themselves, and they heard these words coming from the image of the Blessed Virgin: "Go, you are free, do not fear. The Divine Infant Whom I hold in my arms has heard your prayers and has granted your freedom." The prisoners silently walked out of the Church.

When the guards awakened, they went after and, finally, caught up with their prisoners. The men would have been chained again and taken away for execution, had it not been for the people who interceded for them with the King. The King, having heard what had happened, granted them their freedom, saying: "The Blessed Virgin Mary has set them free, so will I."

The final stop on our procession was the Infant of Prague church of Panny Marie Vítězné (Our Lady Victorious), where we finished up in Czech.

As on previous occasions when we've had processions, we gave the tourists a thrill.

Labels: liturgy, Prague, Sv. Tomas

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Saturday, May 17, 2008

St. John of Nepomuk

Legend has it that St. John of Nepomuk was martyred by Václav IV of Bohemia (AKA Václav the Drunkard) because the king, believing that his wife was cheating on him, tried to force her confessor, John of Nepomuk, to violate the seal of the confessional. Most reputable sources think that the real reason had to do with a power struggle, with John of Nepomuk thwarting the king's attempt to hand over the abbacy of a wealthy monastery to a candidate of the king's choosing. A much less interesting story. According to Wikipedia, "John of Nepomuk is seen by Catholics as a martyr to the cause of defending the Seal of the Confessional, by romantic nationalists as a Czech martyr to imperial interference, and by most historians as a victim of a late version of the inveterate investiture controversy between secular rulers and the catholic hierarchy." He is at any rate very popular, and there's scarcely a (Catholic) church in Prague without a statue or altar dedicated to him.

His feast is May 16 and it's celebrated by a joint vesper service with the church of sv. Tomáš and the church of St Francis on the other side of the river, and I attended this year's service. After vespers at sv. Tomáš, the two congregations made a solemn procession across Charles Bridge:

The procession stopped at the statue of St John of Nepomuk to commemorate his martyrdom:

We ended up at the church of St. Francis for a closing benediction.

As at Palm Sunday, the tourists were fascinated by this quaint custom and pictures aplenty were taken.

Labels: liturgy, Prague, St. John of Nepomuk, Sv. Tomas

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Sunday, March 23, 2008

Liturgical Anthropology: Triduum

I was half expecting quadrilingual liturgy for Triduum, much as we had for Palm Sunday, but in fact, for Holy Thursday and Good Friday, we had strictly English language liturgies. The Spanish speaking community had their liturgies in St. Barbara's Chapel, just off the cloister garden, and I have no idea where the Czech community ended up. And for Easter Sunday, we had our usual schedule of three Masses, one for each community. For Easter Vigil, though, we did indeed have a Czech-Spanish-English-Latin mix, similar to that of Palm Sunday.

Holy Thursday and Good Friday

The liturgies on Holy Thursday and Good Friday were largely unremarkable. I was glad to see, though, during the ceremony of the washing of feet that Sv. Tomáš does not follow the practice of having only men come forward. Instead there was a mix of men and women, and even one child. There were, however, only 6 washees; I'm not sure why we didn't have the full complement of 12.

The only place where the Good Friday service departed from the norm was in the timing: it took place at 6:30 PM rather than mid-day. I think this was probably a concession to the fact that in this largely atheistic city, it would be difficult for working people to attend a mid-day service. I was disappointed, though, as I had wanted to attend a performance of Dvořák's Stabat Mater that had been scheduled for that evening at Národní Divadlo.

Easter Vigil

As at Palm Sunday, the quadrilingual nature of the service made it difficult to follow along, and I'm seriously disappointed with the way in which Sv. Tomáš handles this. I'm thinking that, next year, I'm going to give serious consideration to making a Triduum retreat in an English-speaking country.

It was gratifying to see, though, the number of people being received for Baptism: there were eight Czech neophytes and two from the English-speaking community. And that's the only thing that would hold me back from going on a retreat instead: a Vigil without Baptism would seem rather hollow.

At the conclusion of the Vigil service, we had a "Theophoric Procession", which was described to us as a Czech tradition. (I had to look "theophoric" up myself: it's from the Greek meaning "bearing a deity".) The presiding priests and the altar servers went in procession to St. Dorothy's Chapel, which had been used as the Reservation Chapel following Holy Thursday's Transfer of the Sacrament. They knocked at the door of the Chapel, which opened to reveal a statue of the resurrected Jesus. The statue was then carried in procession, followed by the community, out of the church, around the cloister gardens, and back into the church, where the statue was left at the altar, by the ambo.

Easter Sunday

For the Easter Sunday Mass, we again had not only a Theophoric Procession, but an "Encuentro" (Spanish for "encounter"). This is a tradition borrowed, obviously enough, from the Spanish. In this particular version, while the men of the community were invited to process behind the statue of the resurrected Christ, the women were invited (though not obliged - Father William was very careful about that!) to follow a black-draped statue of Our Lady out through a different door of the church and around the cloister gardens, in the opposite direction traced by the Theophoric Procession. Our two groups met in front of St. Barbara's Chapel, and the statue of Our Lady was unveiled, representing the first post-resurrection meeting between Jesus and His mother. We then completed our circuit of the gardens and returned to the church, where the statue of the resurrected Christ was returned to its place near the ambo while the statue of Our Lady went to the opposite side of the altar.

Labels: Czech Republic, Easter, liturgy, Sv. Tomas, Triduum

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Sunday, March 16, 2008

Liturgical Anthropology: Palm Pussy Willow Sunday

Preliminary Note About Sv. Tomáš

I should preface this by explaining a little bit about Sv. Tomáš (St. Thomas'). The Church and monastery of Sv. Tomáš was established in 1285 by King Vaclav II, and we still pray for him every Sunday. It's in Malá Strana and is staffed by Augustinians. Apparently the neighboring churches of Sv. Josef and Panny Marie Vítězné (Our Lady Victorious; home of the statue of the Infant of Prague) are also part of the parish, although I don't understand how that works.

Besides being the official home of the English-speaking Catholic community in Prague and home to a Czech-speaking community, there is also a Spanish-speaking community that makes its home here. Mostly this isn't much of an issue. On Sundays, there's a Czech Mass at 9:30; the English Mass is at 11:00; while the Spanish Mass is at 12:30. On Christmas, it got a little more complicated, and the "Midnight Mass" in English actually took place at 6:00 PM, which I didn't realize until after the fact and so it was that I attended the Czech Midnight Mass.

Palm Sunday

For Palm Sunday, then, the three communities that make up Sv. Tomáš had a joint celebration that started at 9:30 at Panny Marie Vítězné. When I arrived at the church, there was a donkey on the lawn in front of the church, placidly enduring the curious tourists with their cameras.

At the door of the church, attendants were handing out not palms, but pussy willow branches. Which makes more sense than importing palms, although the mental picture of throngs lining the road into Jerusalem with pussy willows and waving them as they sing their "Hosanas" makes me smile. (Last year, at Sacré Cœur, we didn't receive palms either; instead, we got green branches of some kind - laurel, maybe?)

When the service started, we had opening prayer in English, Czech, and Spanish; the Procession Gospel was proclaimed each of the three languages; and the branches were blessed three times: once in each language. One of the boys of the parish was there, in a red hooded cloak; he was the "stand-in" for Jesus and was mounted on the donkey. We then wended our way in procession through some back streets of Malá Strana to Sv. Tomáš. Once there, I saw the main doors of the Church thrown wide open for the first time to allow our mounted "Christ" to go right up to the altar, where he dismounted. (I didn't notice, but I'm guessing that the donkey was led into the cloister gardens.)

Once the Mass proper started, we had a quadrilingual (Czech, Spanish, English, and Latin) liturgy, with the languages trading off rather than prayers and readings being repeated. From a pastoral point of view, of course, it makes perfect sense. However, I was disappointed by the way in which it was implemented. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but the Oakland diocese certainly knows a lot more about how to put on a multi-lingual liturgy! As it was, it was impossible to fully participate in, and difficult even to follow, the non-English parts of the liturgy. I must say, though, that the Czech choir is absolutely exquisite!

The language issue aside, the Mass was unremarkable, except that Communion was given by intinction (i.e., the minister dipped the Host in the Chalice before placing the Host on the communicant's tongue). The only other time I've seen that done was at Sacré Cœur last year, at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. But at Sacré Cœur, they usually don't offer Communion under both species, while at Sv. Tomáš, they always do, so this departure from the norm seemed rather odd to me.

Labels: Czech Republic, liturgy, Palm Sunday, Sv. Tomas

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