After another simple lunch (more of the bread, cheese and salami from yesterday) Beth and I headed out for more wandering about Lucerne. This was a pretty low-key afternoon, but a welcomed change of pace. Beth got a coffee at a Starbucks, and was glad to discover it didn’t really cost much more than in Canada. She also commented that after drinking espresso for a week the Starbucks coffee didn’t seem strong at all. We also enjoyed another round of gelato cones (mined was a most flavourful raspberry, combined with chocolate of course… after all we were in Switzerland).I was hoping to record the bells of the Cathedral ring at 6 PM, so we made our way over to the church on our way back to the hotel. We took a peek inside the cathedral because folks from our tour group said it was beautiful inside - and that it was, but we couldn’t do much looking around as there appeared to be a service going on. We moved outside and waited for the service to conclude (so the bells would ring) 10 minutes went by and still no bells, so I sent Beth back into the church to see if the service looked like it was near the end. Next thing I knew Beth was waving at me to come in. When I got to the door she whispered that she didn’t think the service was close to being finished but that the choir was singing and they were pretty good.
It only took a few moments of listening to realize how right Beth was, so I whipped out the recorder and stood at the back of the church, just inside the narthex, and listened to (and recorded) the choir. There was a small brass ensemble with the choir, and the music was deeply moving as it reverberated in that scared space. Towards the end of the piece I closed my eyes and just soaked in the sound. This was the first spiritual moment I had personally experienced in one of these European cathedrals, and it was deeply satisfying. I was grateful. After the choral selection the Priest said some things in German, which led to the whole congregation standing and singing with the choir “Now Thank We All Our God” (in German of course). After an inspiring morning on Mount Pilatus, and listening to a moving choral work, I thought it an apt Benediction.
It turns out it wasn’t a normal service, it was some kind of concert with a special recognition for the choir (this much we were able to figure out without knowing the language). We couldn’t stay to the very end of the service/concert because we had to get back to have supper with the tour group. It was a short, but meaningful, moment in our time in Lucerne.
Supper was fish, lightly breaded and very enjoyable. More interesting conversation with members of the tour group. It was here that I found out that Mr. Stump, who was on this trip with his wife and two of their grandchildren, came from a long line of Lutheran pastors. He told us that his grandfather wrote the old blue catechism book (which I took to mean either translated or edited). This was the same Small Catechism that I used as a confirmand many years ago! Also sitting at our table was Mr. Singh and his wife. He was a retired University Professor from North Carolina, but who attended the University of Alberta, my old Alma Matter (it really is a small world). Today I discovered that Ricardo from our group is a corrections officer at Folsom Prison, the same facility made famous by Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues." So not only are we seeing interesting places, we’re meeting interesting people.
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