Holy Week

In Darmstadt, there is one main Catholic church called St Ludwig's and a subsidary Chapel called Josef's Kapelle. I started off attending sunday masses at St. Ludwig's at 10am. This was because St. Ludwig's church is hard to miss with its huge dome structure, standing high on a hill near the city centre. In fact it is one of the city's tourist attractions. Unfortunately, like most beautiful churches in Germany, more tourists pass through its doors than worshippers. Masses are all in German but after almost four months, following the mass became relatively easy (except maybe for the homily). Despite the few worshippers, the Catholic community here is really welcoming. On the first sunday I was there, I was browsing through the church bookstore for a German mass book so that I could follow the prayers during mass. Before long, I had a small crowd of 4 adults surrounding me, asking me questions and telling me about the catholic community here. One of the gentlemen even bought for me the German mass book and said it was a gift from the church.


St. Ludwig's Church

This was also when I found out about the Katholische Hochschulgemeinschaft (College Catholic Community) which consists of catholic students of both the university and the school of applied science, similiar to our CSS back in NUS. They have a separate sunday service at Josef's Kapelle (St. Joseph's Chapel) on sunday evenings, of which now I attend. Although I have not attended any of the other catholic activities organised by the KHG, attendance at mass was somewhat disappointing. Think of a weekday mass crowd back home in Singapore. Having a small community has its benefits too. I got to know the other catholic students and the priest-in-charge, Fr. Juergen Janik, takes the trouble to come talk to me after mass.

I attended the Palm sunday service at St. Josef and it was a really interesting experience. Firstly, the palms we used were not the regular ones we have back in Singapore but rather branches from what looked like grapevines. The service started off at the remnants of an old church about 500m away from the chapel. The old church was almost fully destroyed after the bombings and only three of its walls remained intact. It was not rebuilt after the war but serves as a reminder of the destruction that occured. After the opening reading and a short homily, we proceeded back to the chapel, holding the palms and singing hymns.

Maundy Thursday mass at St Josef was similar to the mass we have back in Singapore except for the washing of feet part. Laid behind the altar table was another long table with jugs of water and empty bowls. After the homily, the whole congregation lined up towards the altar and washed each other's hands. I guess this can only be done when the you have a small church community but I found this rather meaningful.

Good Friday service was held back at St. Ludwig's and this was the largest crowd for mass I have seen in Darmstadt so far. It was also the longest mass I have ever attended. The whole mass was sung in Latin by a choir in accapella. Even the whole Passion of Christ reading was sung in a 5-part harmony. This lasted almost half an hour. It was also interesting that all the crosses in the church were covered in purple cloths since Ash Wednesday and only revealed during the Veneration of the cross on Good Friday.

The Easter sunday service was wonderful. Joining the 30-member choir was the string quartet, a piano and the pipe organ. It really sounded like they spent months practising as the whole mass turned out to be somewhat like a mini-concert. All the pieces were again sung in Latin. This included Sanctus which I think lasted for 10mins, including a male soloist, female soloist and a piano solo! These pieces were so long such that each time they started, the older folks started to sit down.


The congregation on Easter Sunday at St. Ludwig's


The altar and the Easter candle at St. Ludwig's. If you look carefully at the main cross behind, you will notice there is no image of the crucified Christ. Usually, there is one and it looks like it has been ripped off for Easter.


The pipe organ at St. Ludwig's. After every sunday 10am mass, the organist plays a special piece to entertain the people.