La Messe à Préverenges
On Sunday, I went to Mass in French for the first time. I'd previously been going to one of the Masses in English that go on round the place, but thought I really ought to give the church in Préverenges a go.
It was actually rather easier to keep up than I thought - I got a bit lost in the readings from time to time, but the sermon was quite understandable and pretty interesting - we had a stand-in priest who hails from Madagascar, where he's normally in charge of 19 churches. It's one thing to be told that you're very lucky to have Mass so accessible normally, but when it's a guy who has to cram as many churches in as he can each Sunday doing the telling, the message has rather more impact.
Oddly, singing the hymns was one of the most difficult bits. I knew the tunes to two or three of them[1] but I'd never really considered how one picks up a feel of where long notes go in multisyllabic words. Anyway, it's more difficult in a forn language.
I think I'll go there again, but I might invest in a French Missal to follow the readings.
[1] One of the advantages of the Catholic music repertoire is that you'll always stand in good stead with Marian hymns...
It was actually rather easier to keep up than I thought - I got a bit lost in the readings from time to time, but the sermon was quite understandable and pretty interesting - we had a stand-in priest who hails from Madagascar, where he's normally in charge of 19 churches. It's one thing to be told that you're very lucky to have Mass so accessible normally, but when it's a guy who has to cram as many churches in as he can each Sunday doing the telling, the message has rather more impact.
Oddly, singing the hymns was one of the most difficult bits. I knew the tunes to two or three of them[1] but I'd never really considered how one picks up a feel of where long notes go in multisyllabic words. Anyway, it's more difficult in a forn language.
I think I'll go there again, but I might invest in a French Missal to follow the readings.
[1] One of the advantages of the Catholic music repertoire is that you'll always stand in good stead with Marian hymns...