Day 12 (5 Mai) - Groundings

It is my intention to go to mass at the Frauenkirche, and the journey over is delightful.  The bells of the Dom are ringing out and the sound bounces from building to building making you think that many churches are ringing theirs, but it is really only the Dom.  (I wonder if there is a precedence observed in the ringing of bells?)

The cathedral is about half full, and at 9:55 a group of young men in dark suits and tie gather in the choir.  Finally the organ sounds, and the altar party (crucifer, two thurifers, torches, MC, two deacons, lay reader and the celebrant enter.  The mass is sung in Latin using Gregorian (which the people are expected to follow in their songbooks).  (Oh, here the hymns, etc. are introduced digitally as well).  The celebrant makes small talk as he introduces both the Kyrie and the Gloria.  The sermon is good:  The Church is the embodied resurrection, and the Spirit is its breath, and peace is its notoriety. It is all very pastoral and inviting.  When inviting, the celebrant always says, "My sisters and my brothers."  One interesting thing is that after the altar is incensed and the altar party blessed with incense, one of the deacons walks the entire length of the cathedral blessing the people with incense (no minor puffs from the chancel here!)  Communion is in one kind, the people rushing out of the pews to receive.  There is a pastoral letter from the Erzbischoff.  One personal note, during the communion a hymn is sung that brings tears to my eyes.  I'll look it up when I get home and add it here.

Lunch at Odeonsplatz, and then I take the Ubahn over to the museums.  What a treat.  The Neu Pinakotheka is a wonderful collection of late 18th, 19th, and early 20th century work.  So I visit:

Chirico

Arnold Böcklin

Max Beckmann

And several others whose names I am unfamiliar with.  The collection here is very similar to the Alte Nationsgalerie in Berlin which has a fine collection of all these painters.  I enjoyed seeing work with which I was unfamiliar.  There's time for a stop at the restaurant where I have what I know as Rotegrütze, and here called Beerengrütze.  It is a pudding of red fruits - sour cherries, currents, and raspberries, here anointed with schlagsahne and an apricot coulis.  All the same it is quite delicious.

I go back to the hotel to rest, write, and check into my flight.  Have dinner at Zum Franziskaner again, and wander home quite tired.  I am in myself an example of a painting I saw earlier painted by Hodler - Lebensmüden (Tired of Life) - not of life, for me.  I'm just tired.