opportunity to attend a vespers service at the local church. Of course it
was Catholic, and the service was conducted by three monks from an order in
Germany that run the Catholic activities in this town. In case your mind is
running to an image of short, heavy set older men, looking like they came
from a previous century, these monks were young, bright, and well
maintained.
The church was perfect for this vespers service. Old - centuries old. The
interior was quite dark as I believe there was just one window. The ceiling
was not that high and formed a large barrel vault of stone. The wall and
ceiling surfaces were old and crumbling and looked like someone should have
commenced repairs two centuries ago. The flooring was all new and produced
this amazing aesthetic contrast to the state of the rest of the building.
It was a compelling space.
Layered on top of that - medieval music! I love medieval church music! The
three monks knew the music cold and sang it beautifully. And they sang in
Latin. Thanks to my experience singing a good number of catholic masses
with the Toronto Classical Singers - I knew the words and how to pronounce
most of them! The words and the music were printed, with the music
presented in the medieval musical form - I actually studied this!!!!!!!!
Yes, I was very excited. Wow, who would have thought that this would happen
- a wonderful spiritual experience produced by a harmony of factors. It was
truly magnificent.
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