Stupid stuff in Churches...

Over the course of the last few weeks, I've become more and more aware of how many churches are filled with ridiculous items. Here's a couple of snaps of some of the stuff I've seen recently:

With extreme eye-squinting and head-tilting one can detect the vaguest of corpora on the crucifix behind the altar. Also, I believe that obelisk pillar thing is the tabernacle. It was hard to know...
This is unfortunately the sanctuary of St Bonifatius Church in Heidelberg, which is otherwise very beautiful. Why did they have to put such rubbish in it? I mean, just look at the altar!

Below are some shots of Jesuitenkirche, which is a reasonably pretty church with not too much colour inside, though it's not like a conference room. However, they still managed to wheel in the local primary school art, sorry, professional modern art.

Here's the altarpiece, with the modern boring altar out of white marble. At least it doesn't dominate the church with its patheticness. I love the art at the back, depicting the coronation of Jesus by the Father, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, with Mary in the centre. Jesuitenkirche is dedicated to the Holy Spirit and St Ignatius Loyola (my confirmation saint). I believe the general church style is quite typical of Jesuit churches.

"Showing one's colours, one's colours shown" is what this "marvellous" piece is called, nicely rested against an unused confessional. I say chuck it and put the confessional back to use!


The red piece below is called "The Victim". I'm not quite sure what it's meant to be. I suppose you could say it's like someone on their hands and knees and covered in blood, but why so stupid and ugly?

A metal donkey. That's all their is to say.

Hanging from the ceiling are pictures of a series around the church called "Gott im Gefängnis" - God in Prison. Interesting perhaps in a modern art gallery, but not in a church, especially when the pictures contain half naked or fully naked people expressing some unorthodox viewpoints.

"Tower as a beacon"
Now this really IS primary school artwork. Today they used clay.



Actually, it was by some men's spirituality conference, like the "colours" one was the woman's spirituality conference.



As for the bone tower below, I hinna a scooby (no idea).

Pray for priests!

Too often does my mind formulate criticisms of various priests, like in the previous post, but then my heart doesn't move an inch to pray for them. How can we expect good priests if we don't pray for them? In this Year of Priests, and especially with the media attack on the priesthood, they need our prayers more than ever. Praying that they conform themselves to Christ, and their hearts to His Sacred Heart should be enough, but anything - your rosary, divine mercy chaplet, divine office - offer it and pray it for our priests!

Say the black, do the red!

When a priest is not wearing his chasuble for Mass, or you can see his stole (all of it), you know it's not going to go well and there's going to be a lot more to offer up.
So was it for me today at the Jesuitenkirche, as there was a different priest. My experience, while not as painful as the one in France, was pretty uncomfortable. Here are some reasons why:

• The priest wore no chasuble, as mentioned above,
• he greeted us with "The Lord be with us", giving rise to everyone awkwardly saying "And with your spirit",
• he ad libbed on the Collect, the Offertory and the Post-communion, talking endlessly,
• He referred to God as our mother as well as our father. I think this just confuses things, and it is not in accord with sacred scripture,
• he broke the host as he said "he broke it",
• the creed was a song (stick to the texts, people!!),
• the prayers of intercession were long and vague
• he walked the WHOLE length of the church (and it's a big church) to shake hands with people at the sign of peace
• he ad libbed everywhere, while at the same time talking of people who "take things too seriously"

I think his homily was actually not too bad, though I kind of switched off, as the sound quality wasn't great. I had the strong feeling that this priest was all for blurring the distinction between priest and laity, hence the "The Lord be with us" and the non-wearing of the chasuble, so he looked more like an altar server (who are wearing purple cassocks under their surplices. Let's hope there's less of this priest and more of the other. And of course, let us pray for the priest of today. Ss John Vianney and Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!
Lord Jesus, eternal High Priest, grant grace to the priests of our day, that they may mould themselves in your likeness, and devote themselves to your Sacred Heart, and to the Immaculate Heart of Your Mother. Amen.

Confession in Heidelberg

Last night I went to Confession for the first time here in Germany. I had been really frustrated, however, because there seems to be only one hour of confession time a week offered here in the whole of Heidelberg. It was at St Anna's, where they were also holding Eucharistic adoration. Offering Confession at the same time as adoration is a very good idea, as when we are confronted with God, He helps us in our preparation before confession and then after Confession, we can say our thanksgiving before Him Who has just forgiven us.
This same Church also offers the Extraordinary Form of the Mass on Sunday evenings, which doesn't surprise me. Generally, if a Church offers Adoration time, they're more likely to offer the EF too (and this Church also seems to be the only one offering Confession regularly as well).
St Anna's is part of the Heiliggeistgemeinde, or Holy Spirit Parish, which also includes the famous Jesuitenkirche. The Jesuitenkirche played a fair role during the reformation, and although it is now the main church in Heiliggeistgemeinde, the Heiliggeistkirche used to be part of this Gemeinde too, before it was captured, recaptured, split in two (by a partition wall, not structurally!) and then finally given over to the Protestants (the church is evangelisch, which would be better translated as protestant rather than evangelical, as the latter is evangelikal. Furthermore, the Evangelical Church of Germany is a mixed bag of Lutheran, Anglican and Reformed churches, so I would need to go to a service to find out which exact denomination it is, or do a little more research). More to come, such as photos!

Heidelberger Aufenthalt

Having not posted throughout the whole of February, I felt I ought to give an update. I am now in Heidelberg, which was greatly involved in the Reformation, as Luther gave a speech defending his theses, and Johannes Eck, a leading opponent of his, was an alumnus of the university. The town is very beautiful, and I have had the fortune to see it in both lovely sunny weather and covered in a pretty blanket of snow.
Photos coming soon.