Interior walls smoked
by candles, votives
of hope, prayers thrust
upward. The interior
turns medieval; the priest
intones a prayer in Latin,
it is the Latin mass and
it is still a mystery.
One morning during our trip to London, I took the tube to Victoria Station, aiming for a fitness store to buy a Pilates mat for my wife. Exiting the tube station, I realized I was only half a block from Westminster Cathedral, the largest Catholic church in Britain. So I took a short detour and found myself at a Latin mass, which I had not heard in more than 40 years.
It's rather astonishing, isn't it, both the cathedral and the mass in Latin.
ReplyDeleteforty
ReplyDeleteyears
days
nights
rain
lashes
fasting
tempting
lent
resurrection to ascension
I bet it was all the more wonderful, somehow, being in London.
ReplyDeleteI have sung a number of Latin masses in my day, but I don't know that I've ever sat through one that was spoken. The language is beautiful, especially if you have any kind of sense of the meaning of the words. Thanks for this loveliness today.
ReplyDeleteWow, Glynn. Just wow. Your poetry and photos have me so envious! Very inspiring.
ReplyDeleteMagnificent ...
ReplyDelete