Memory and Reunion
Oct. 22nd, 2005 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
olorielMy father's mother died 12 years ago.
As my father's side of the family is Catholic, that means there has to be a memorial service every year. This year's is today.
Now I'm not a big fan of church-going anyway. But it's worse in that church. I mean, the church itself is pretty. But the services are Boredom Come Alive. You know, when in Dogma Serendipity says that 'you people don't celebrate your faith; you mourn it'? That's the church she had in mind. And it's not as though they were just mourning because it's a memorial service - 'memorial' merely means that my grandmother's name is mentioned ONCE in the middle of the service and it's business as usual otherwise. Last year's memorial service? Was on Thanksgiving Sunday (i.e., the first Sunday in October). Thanksgiving is a nice holiday of which I'm ridiculously fond. Think they celebrated it? No. They mentioned the fact that it was Thanksgiving exactly once. The rest was all about Sin and Marriage and Adam and Eve and Don't Be Gay [In Either Sense Of The Word, Really].
Eru Allmighty.
I like Faith, I really do. I find religion(s) fascinating. I don't mind attending a service every once in a while. But this? Singing the songs at half the speed intended for them, droning away like automatons, and a priest who speaks as though he were re-playing a recording made 30 years ago by a 90-year-old man on valium and re-played daily ever since? Our Father in Heaven, we are the Borg. That's no service, that's a disservice, and I can't imagine God approves.
And then there are the people bitching about today's youth, who doesn't even know the Lord's Prayer by heart. Excuse me? I know the Lord's Prayer in FOUR languages. LEAVE ME ALONE.
Afterwards, I'll have to hurry to our class reunion. Nothing to make you feel old like a class reunion three and a half years after graduation. It's been a while since I saw most of the people there. With many of them, it hasn't been long enough.
... it might, nonetheless, be amusing. It might turn out dreadful, too, though.
Gnaaah.
Social skills is something that happens to other people.
- - -
Die Mutter meines Vaters ist vor 12 Jahren gestorben.
Da die Familie meines Vaters katholisch ist, muss jedes Jahr ein Gedenkgottesdienst gehalten werden, damit das ja niemand vergisst.
Der diesjährige ist heute.
Nun steh ich eh schon nicht wirklich auf Kirchgänge. Aber in der Kirche ist es noch schlimmer. Das heißt, die Kirche als solche ist wirklich hübsch. Aber die Messen da sind die leibhaftige Langeweile. Ihr kennt doch Dogma, oder? Da, wo Serendipity sagt, "Ihr Leute feiert euren Glauben nicht, ihr betrauert ihn"? Da hat sie genau diese Kirche im Kopf. Und das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass es eine Gedenkmesse ist - das Gedenken beschränkt sich auf INE Erwähnung mittendrin, alles andere ist eh Das Übliche. Letztes Jahr? Da war die Gedenkmesse am Erntedanksonntag. Ich mag Erntedank, das ist mal ein sinnvoller Feiertag. Aber glaubt ihr, die hätten das gefeiert? Nö. Es wurde mal kurz am Anfang erwähnt, dass, ach ja, heute Erntedank ist. Der Rest der Messe war Sünde und Heirat und Adam und Eva und Schwulsein ist Falsch.
Eru Allmächtiger.
Ich mag Glauben, wirklich. Ich finde Religion(en) faszinierend. Ich hab auch nichts dagegen, hin und wieder zur Kirche zu gehen. Aber das? Alle Lieder halb so schnell singen, wie der Komponist sich das gedacht hatte, an den Sprechstellen leiern, als wäre man ein schlecht programmierter Roboter, und ein Priester, der so redet, als würde er eine Schallplatte abspielen, die vor 30 Jahren von einem 90-jährigen auf Valium aufgenommen wurde und seither täglich abgedudelt wurde? Vater Unser im Himmel, wir sind die Borg. Das ist kein Gottesdienst, das ist Bärendienst, und ich glaube kaum, dass Gott da Spaß dran hätte.
Und dann immer die Leute, die rumkeifen, ach, wir jungen Leute, wir würden doch nicht mal mehr das Vater Unser auswendig können. Entschuldigen Sie mal bitte, ich kann das Vater Unser auf VIER Sprachen. Lass mich in Frieden.
Danach muss ich dann heimwärts eiern zum Klassentreffen. Nichts, wobei man sich so alt fühlt wie bei einem Klassentreffen gerade mal dreieinhalb Jahre nach dem Abi. Ist 'ne Weile her, dass ich die meisten Leute da zuletzt gesehen habe. Aber bei einigen nicht lang genug.
... nichtsdestotrotz könnte das amüsant werden. Oder aber furchtbar.
Gnaaaah.
Soziale Kompetenz ist etwas, was anderen Leuten passiert.
- - -
As my father's side of the family is Catholic, that means there has to be a memorial service every year. This year's is today.
Now I'm not a big fan of church-going anyway. But it's worse in that church. I mean, the church itself is pretty. But the services are Boredom Come Alive. You know, when in Dogma Serendipity says that 'you people don't celebrate your faith; you mourn it'? That's the church she had in mind. And it's not as though they were just mourning because it's a memorial service - 'memorial' merely means that my grandmother's name is mentioned ONCE in the middle of the service and it's business as usual otherwise. Last year's memorial service? Was on Thanksgiving Sunday (i.e., the first Sunday in October). Thanksgiving is a nice holiday of which I'm ridiculously fond. Think they celebrated it? No. They mentioned the fact that it was Thanksgiving exactly once. The rest was all about Sin and Marriage and Adam and Eve and Don't Be Gay [In Either Sense Of The Word, Really].
Eru Allmighty.
I like Faith, I really do. I find religion(s) fascinating. I don't mind attending a service every once in a while. But this? Singing the songs at half the speed intended for them, droning away like automatons, and a priest who speaks as though he were re-playing a recording made 30 years ago by a 90-year-old man on valium and re-played daily ever since? Our Father in Heaven, we are the Borg. That's no service, that's a disservice, and I can't imagine God approves.
And then there are the people bitching about today's youth, who doesn't even know the Lord's Prayer by heart. Excuse me? I know the Lord's Prayer in FOUR languages. LEAVE ME ALONE.
Afterwards, I'll have to hurry to our class reunion. Nothing to make you feel old like a class reunion three and a half years after graduation. It's been a while since I saw most of the people there. With many of them, it hasn't been long enough.
... it might, nonetheless, be amusing. It might turn out dreadful, too, though.
Gnaaah.
Social skills is something that happens to other people.
- - -
Die Mutter meines Vaters ist vor 12 Jahren gestorben.
Da die Familie meines Vaters katholisch ist, muss jedes Jahr ein Gedenkgottesdienst gehalten werden, damit das ja niemand vergisst.
Der diesjährige ist heute.
Nun steh ich eh schon nicht wirklich auf Kirchgänge. Aber in der Kirche ist es noch schlimmer. Das heißt, die Kirche als solche ist wirklich hübsch. Aber die Messen da sind die leibhaftige Langeweile. Ihr kennt doch Dogma, oder? Da, wo Serendipity sagt, "Ihr Leute feiert euren Glauben nicht, ihr betrauert ihn"? Da hat sie genau diese Kirche im Kopf. Und das hat nichts damit zu tun, dass es eine Gedenkmesse ist - das Gedenken beschränkt sich auf INE Erwähnung mittendrin, alles andere ist eh Das Übliche. Letztes Jahr? Da war die Gedenkmesse am Erntedanksonntag. Ich mag Erntedank, das ist mal ein sinnvoller Feiertag. Aber glaubt ihr, die hätten das gefeiert? Nö. Es wurde mal kurz am Anfang erwähnt, dass, ach ja, heute Erntedank ist. Der Rest der Messe war Sünde und Heirat und Adam und Eva und Schwulsein ist Falsch.
Eru Allmächtiger.
Ich mag Glauben, wirklich. Ich finde Religion(en) faszinierend. Ich hab auch nichts dagegen, hin und wieder zur Kirche zu gehen. Aber das? Alle Lieder halb so schnell singen, wie der Komponist sich das gedacht hatte, an den Sprechstellen leiern, als wäre man ein schlecht programmierter Roboter, und ein Priester, der so redet, als würde er eine Schallplatte abspielen, die vor 30 Jahren von einem 90-jährigen auf Valium aufgenommen wurde und seither täglich abgedudelt wurde? Vater Unser im Himmel, wir sind die Borg. Das ist kein Gottesdienst, das ist Bärendienst, und ich glaube kaum, dass Gott da Spaß dran hätte.
Und dann immer die Leute, die rumkeifen, ach, wir jungen Leute, wir würden doch nicht mal mehr das Vater Unser auswendig können. Entschuldigen Sie mal bitte, ich kann das Vater Unser auf VIER Sprachen. Lass mich in Frieden.
Danach muss ich dann heimwärts eiern zum Klassentreffen. Nichts, wobei man sich so alt fühlt wie bei einem Klassentreffen gerade mal dreieinhalb Jahre nach dem Abi. Ist 'ne Weile her, dass ich die meisten Leute da zuletzt gesehen habe. Aber bei einigen nicht lang genug.
... nichtsdestotrotz könnte das amüsant werden. Oder aber furchtbar.
Gnaaaah.
Soziale Kompetenz ist etwas, was anderen Leuten passiert.
- - -
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:04 am (UTC)Und das mit den Gottesdiensten finde ich genauso.
Feiern ... ein Gottesdienst sollte eine Feier des Glaubens sein. Denk ich immer.
Was sind die vier Sprachen, btw?
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:37 am (UTC)Deutsch, Englisch, Latein und Quenya *g*
örgs
Date: 2005-10-22 11:41 am (UTC)Re: örgs
Date: 2005-10-22 11:46 am (UTC)Re: örgs
Date: 2005-10-22 12:04 pm (UTC)Lach, klingt es gut?
Re: örgs
Date: 2005-10-23 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:12 am (UTC)My mom's side of the family is very Catholic, and I had some Catholic friends in high school. The best church service I ever went to was a Christmas midnight mass. I wish more services could be as nice as that one was.
I have my ten year reunion next year. But I doubt I'll go to it. I guess there's something about living several thousand miles away from where you went to high school that could prevent one from attending one's reunion...
no subject
Date: 2005-10-22 11:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-23 09:34 am (UTC)Yeah. When I was younger, there would sometimes be oicumenical youth services, sometimes held in the town's Protestant church, sometimes in the Catholic church (it's a small town, only two major churches, plus the cloister church which is no longer a sacer locus but a place to hold events (my graduation ball was there...)). They were always wonderful, full of light and joy and celebration. But then, the Catholic priest in my home town would be a quite youthful (although past his 50ies), kind and humorous gentleman (whom we secretly called Obi-wan because of a certain similarity to Alec Guiness). So that was completely different...
but in Wegberg (where my father's family lives), they have always had boring, valium-like services. Even with my cousins' communions, which were only slightly better because they had permitted the children to pick some of the songs.
< /rambling>
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 07:47 am (UTC)Ryde is an old church though, it has next to no young people (I mean young adults) and very few children. I don't expect it to be lively and only attend it when I'm in Sydney because Nanna and my Aunt's family (her, her husband and her son) go there.
Limore... well Lismore is still very country, even if the place is technically classified as a "city" - it's a rural city, centre of a large rural region that happens to have at least three hospitals and a university in it. Lismore Adventist church also had a very conservative minister while I was there in the mid-90s, so much so that he baulked at baptizing me while I had pieced ears (suffice it say, when we got a young minister almost straight out of Avondale (the big Aussie Adventist college) he had no issues about my rather modest jewelery wearing (two rings, one earring)).
I hate it when hymns are sung too slow. A very good example is The Old rugged Cross. That song is deadly boring... unless you sing it twice as fast as normal. There are plenty of other songs that are just fine if sung at a proper speed but sound like fecking funeral dirges if too slow.
Can you see my fondness of classical music here?
"Doom and Gloom" religion and being able to quote long biblical passages is not the way of keeping young people in any church, that is boring and older people who can't see that are being idiots.
BTW:
Our Father, Who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On Earth as is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
and lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory
forever and ever,
Amen.
Okay, I didn't remember it all (bolded is what I forgot) but even Mum (who I believe is a far better christian than I) had to look it up (on our family heirloom craving made by her grandfather) so young people aren't necessarily the only ones who cannot recall it all off by heart.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 08:17 am (UTC)Absolutely. There was one song during the service. The text meant 'God loves this world', but the way they sung it, it sounded rather like that was a highly regrettable fact... as it was, the best song was 'Maria, breit' den Mantel aus', during which my brother suddenly noticed that you can sing 'A Elbereth Gilthoniel' to the same tune, which he then did, softly. You try not to giggle. *coughs*
See - my problem is less that I can't recall it, but rather, that it's something that works almost unconsciously. My mother dragged my brother and me to church ever since I can remember, and when I was three years old, she was really proud because I already knew it then. When you learn something firmly at that age, it stops being a genuine thing; you can rattle it down without spending a second thought on what it actually is that you're saying...
no subject
Date: 2005-10-24 08:30 am (UTC)I know what you mean about rote-memorised things being empty - I feel a lot the same way about John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.). The verse is considered to be one of the best sentiments in the whole bible but it losses it's impact when you get it drilled into you and also hear it ever other sabbath.
Besides, I don't consider the Lord's Prayer to be something that should be repeated word for word every day - one should take the general idea of it (Adressing God with respect, being thankful, being penitient and generous to one's fellow Man, asking for God's aid) as a guide to how to pray.