Mass and Remembering

In Roxel the church, St. Pantaleon, is truly in the center of town with everything radiating out from St. Pantaleon Strasse. It is a beautiful church built in the 12th century, the above are a few pictures of the church. Mass is only in German with no English language option; we decided to attend what we thought to be family mass. We walked to church with the loud clang of bells beckoning everyone in town to attend. We sit in the back, at first just taking in the beauty and wonderment of being a in church built, and with foundations dating back, long before America was discovered. Eventually, I begin to look around at the people and discover that for a family mass there are no children or families in church. I begin to see that everyone appears to be around 50 years of age or older. Of course, our children begin to act out and express themselves as though filled with the Holy Spirit, and when in a church filled with other kids and families, it doesn't seem to echo so loudly and if heads turn to stare you can perhaps pretend they are staring at the kid in the next pew and not yours. When your kids are the only kids in church and the old people give you looks, it feels different, wrong, like you what were you thinking bringing children to this place. Pete takes the offending child to the back while I pull out books, stickers, coloring crayons for the ones left with me, and even this distraction seems to make more noise than our neighboring parishioners want. Soon Communion is upon us, just as we are to go up and receive it, the doors to the back open and families begin to trickle in. They are loud, talkative, carrying little bits of paper and craft projects, the parents stand in the back chatting, and these child-parent combos receive no looks of ostracism. To the best of my knowledge Family Mass must mean that the families get to go to a parish hall to color and learn about the gospel through crafts, while the adults enjoy the quietness of a solemn Mass.

After Mass Pete showed me the small crosses in the back with names and dates, these are the names of people who died during WWII. For such a small town  it was sad to see a whole wall filled with the names of men who never came back to their families. It was also in that moment of sadness I realized when studying and teaching others about WWII it is easy to see the Germans, as a cruel people who began or played a large role in beginning both of our World Wars. This is far too simplified and uncomplicated, and it should be remembered that no matter what- in war men with families kill other men with families and it brings sadness and heartache to all involved.

There is a monument to the both wars that basically says-We Remember for the World. Being a history fan I wanted to learn much about Germans, WWII views, and so much more, but when the subject of war, the country bring divided, or despot rulers came up the subject was quickly changed. Perhaps this was because we were Americans, but it seemed as though the topic received a quick yes, no, and then on to the next subject please. Germans are not an open people with strangers, basically it is a Southern family feeling of what happens in the family stays in the family and we will not talk about it. However, with Germany you cannot hide things like different crosswalk signals for East and West Germany, dishware with a made in West German stamp, the poverty that still lingers in East Germany compared to West Germany, and the fact that even now they do not issue phone numbers that contain the letter combinations which would spell Nazi. Still they remember and they know how the world was affected but instead of dwelling on it, let's just move forward, seems to be the mentality.