Serious bells and smells.
Ambrosian Mass at the altar of the great church of Sant' Ambrogio in Milan. The altar sits right over the resting place of Saint Ambrose.
I love the bells chiming during the Eucharistic Prayer, and of course the clouds of incense.
Facade and atrium court of the great 11th century church
interior of the church with some of the earliest and widest ribbed vaults in Europe, built in the 12th century
The interior with sunlight
The ciborium and apse of the church
The 9th century gilded silver altar frontal.
Saint Ambrose himself with 2 other martyr saints in the crypt under the altar.If the Episcopal Church ever starts venerating corpses, I'm joining the Quakers.
Gag me with an aspergillium.
Beautiful service and you are right the bells during the Eucharist was lovely! The clouds of incense were something, too. That was a long video, but cool to see.
ReplyDeleteAnd those saints - that is yucky!
We travelled along the Adriatic a few years ago, in Croatia. Every church has bits of saints. We went to a convent's monastery that was full of reliquaries of parts. Yech!
ReplyDeleteI remember visiting the treasuries of a few great churches in Florence, and wondering just how many arms did John the Baptist really have.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about Methodists and high church? Most of the former Methodists I know in the Episcopal Church are very Anglo-Catholic. I'm a former Methodist, and I love worship with lots of bells and fire and water. I love it whether it is intricately choreographed as in Byzantine Divine Liturgy, or very messy as in a Hindu puja. I like it in grand settings like this Roman Catholic Mass in a great historic church, and in intimate private settings like the dining table in a Jewish household used for the Sabbath rituals.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of current Methodists who would love this.
I've known former Quakers in the Episcopal Church who also went very Anglo-Catholic. Perhaps this was in reaction to the plainness of their native traditions. It could also be that the sense of immanent divine at the heart of so much Anglo-Catholicism (the American version anyway) resonates with their Quaker upbringing.
I don't mind worshipping over tombs, as long as ridiculous claims aren't made about body parts, or their "Special Powers".
ReplyDeleteNo, ya know where *I* draw the line?
"Baby Jesus" (or "The Divine Child Jesus" or "El Nino Divino")!
I'm sorry, the Second Person of the Trinity may (being God!) have memories of being a child---even a very young child!
...but there is NO SUCH THING as a current "Baby Jesus" to pray to! Jesus grew up all ready---get over it! [Oy vey. Popoids---I'm watching too much EWTN again. ;-/]
There's praying over corpses, and then there's putting them on display. It's the latter I object to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the whole Baby Jesus cult.