Sunday morning in my 'hood

I always thought one way to get a sense of a community was to find the local catholic church and see who is there.  Are they young? Are they old?  Is there diversity? An additional benefit is also trying to improve my language skills in the context of something familiar to me, like a catholic mass.

Turns out the Franciscans order's convent was a two blocks from apartment.  Their chapel was small but it had beautiful stain glass windows that were illuminated by the morning sunlight.  They had chairs instead of pews and no kneelers (that should please you , Thomas).

People were friendly. There were some diversity both in age and background though I would have to say there more people over 60 than under.  There were no children at all (not sure if this had something to do with the church itself, French families in general, or the neighborhood).  There were also quiet a few people with various levels of mental disabilities attending mass.

It was evident that my french church vocabulary is very weak.  I think I understood about 15% of what was said.  Just for my sake I am going to copy one prayer in French so I can at least know where we are in the mass.  It pretty much translates word for word with what I learned as a kid, except we didn't have those last two lines.


The Lord's Prayer
(French - "Notre Père")

Notre Père, qui es aux cieux,
Que ton nom soit sanctifié,
Que ton règne vienne,
Que ta volonté soit faite sur la terre comme au ciel.
Donne-nous aujourd'hui notre pain de ce jour.
Pardonne-nous nos offences
Comme nous pardonnons aussi à ceux qui nous ont offensés.
Et ne nous soumets pas à la tentation,
mais délivre-nous du mal,
car c'est à toi qu'appartiennent le règne,
la puissance et la gloire, aux siècles des siècles.
Amen.


Also regarding the interactive part where we shake hands with those sitting near us and offer them peace, here in France they say "La paix du Christ". I did not know this at the time, so I just shook their hands, smiled and nodded.

After mass, I walked to the corner bakery and had a coffee and chocolate croissant.  This could either be a nice Sunday routine or my downfall since besides walking around town (there are a lot of stairs in Paris!) I have not done a bit of exercise.  I sat in the sunny window of the cafe. I read the Sunday magazine that comes with the local French newspaper. It was a nice way to spend a Sunday morning.