This evening Mike and I caught Mass at the Polish chapel - why is it that everything seems to take so much longer to say in Polish? even the Lord's Prayer takes forever - and, since the constant incomprehensible ńyś-ńyś-ńyś (no offence intended, it must be a lovely language but I can't speak it) allows me to say what prayers I like in the interim, I took along my Trad. Missal and read Mass of St Bibiana to myself. Indeed, as we were running a bit late he and I said the Judica me and Confiteor in the car on the way there, as preparation!
Strangely, while I read the Gloria to myself in Latin, the good Poles were reciting it in their tongue - at a Novus Ordo Advent ferial Mass, as the purple vestments signified. Why? And even more oddly, albeit devoutly, after all had communicated and the priest had done the ablutions, he, standing at the altar, led the people in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy (I recognized by their length and a few words the opening Pater, Ave, and Credo, then the five decades of the "Eternal Father..." and ten "For the sake...") before saying the prayer after communion! (It seemed good to get out my beads and join in: though I started after them, I finished before they did - why does it take so long to say anything in Polish?)
No comments:
Post a Comment