In the shadows

Sorry folks, but it's taken a day or two for me to get back to the keyboard. First let me begin with yesterday's happenings. Mostly, this consisted of time on the bus as we travelled from Prague to our next destination, the capital city of Vienna (Austria), or Wien (Veen) as the Austrians call it.

En route, we made a stop at the Benedictine Monastery of Melk where we celebrated Mass. I could stop the narrative there, but that would be unfair to the readers of these few feeble words. Even from the outskirts of the village, the monastery was visible, an imposing structure located high atop the central hills. Reminiscent of what I've always pictured places like Montecasino or others of the day, the Monastery of Melk dwarfs the rest of the village. In fact, one of the local Viennese with whom I was chatting today told me that when you visit the village of Melk and stay in any of the surrounding hotels or other houses of hospitality, you feel absolutely small in comparison to the Monastery which towers above you.

Actually, we arrived a bit later than planned (around 2:00 pm) but were soon ushered into a side chapel (which happens to be completely closed off from the rest of the Monastery) where we proceded with the celebration of the Mass. Even as we marvelled at the glorious artwork, I couldn't help thinking that this felt like yet another building where the Master is supposed to be found (it's His place isn't it), but try as we might, we couldn't find him to say hello. Oh, that's not quite true: as we made our way through a narrow corridor toward the chapel where we celebrated the Mass, we came across a veiled ciborium which was encased in clear glass (or perhaps it was plastic). If it weren't for the small candles burning nearby, and the almost invisible sanctuary lamp, I would have missed this tabernacle which was in the middle of the corridor.

After the Mass, as I wondered the halls in search of the access to the chapel, there was a strange sensation that this may well have been a place where more than 500 monks were to be found. According to what I managed to learn, the monastery has been in existence for more than 1000 years, and construction of the Monastery chapel as it stands now was begun in the early 1700s, only to be completed in the 1980s! We don't have anything of this magnitude in North America. The monastery is now home to only 30 monks, some of which are priests, and others who are brothers. There are only three teachers left among these men, where once there would have been many more. The monks do however provide pastoral service to many of the surrounding churches.

Whast was most peculiar was that we never did see one of the Benedictines themselves. It was eriely evident that this place is becoming more and more a tourist attraction and less and less a place of prayer. I suppose that together with the experience of the Czech church which is suffering so, this is yet another example of the glory days gone by, and the halls which speak of a granduer that once was. Meanwhile, the presence of the monks, indeed the presence of the church is only a shadow of what it once was.