Strasbourg and area

July 26

The weather is much nicer again. Summery in fact. Yesterday I was so cold I couldn’t believe that I’d overheated last week. Now I’m sitting in Strasbourg at a café, watching the world go by. An accordionist came through a while ago and played. It’s all very French. We have a free afternoon in Strasbourg today and I’m reacquainting myself with the city. I’m remembering quite a few things of when I was here in ’95 for the summer school course. This morning we had a lecture and a worship service in the Lutheran church where the Reformation here first began. We sang a number of Luther’s hymns while sitting in the seats where the reformers discussed their theology. It was very familiar for me.

Yesterday we were at Mont St Odile, a holy place near the town of Heiligenstein where we’re staying. The weather was absolutely miserable. We got terribly soaked despite raincoats when we hiked out to the old Celtic sites and walls that had once been there. The most moving part for me was the prayers we held in the chapel of the monastery. The community has been perpetually praying since 1930 in this chapel. There are always 2 people kneeling at the front altar, ever since 1930. We joined with our prayers through song and psalm singing. Gerald who was up at the organ and had a good view said he could visibly see by their body language that they felt supported. The prayers we spoke while humming and singing a Kyrie in between were the most moving for me. On Monday we sang evensong in the cathedral.

There are many students both from Germany and France on class trips here in Strasbourg. It’s neat to see them roaming around with there teachers like I had done this past spring in Ottawa. When I talked to Anke she said Bianca was here yesterday. That of course was the day I wasn’t here.

I’m enjoying my time here. Heiligenstein is a beautiful, quiet, picturesque village. We have night service every evening in their church after dinner. Dinners are very delicious and far too filling. They’re serving traditional Alsatian dishes and we’re all complaining about eating way too much. I can hardly wait till we have Flammkuchen. The other pilgrims I’m meeting are all very nice. Mostly an older crowd but that hardly seems to matter. There’s a sweet old couple of 94 and 92 years of age who are participating in mostly all of our activities. My roomie Margaret turns out to have been on the Summer School course in 95 as well.