Montserrat February 2011

So, here I am, on the 22nd February 2011, one month and ten days after I arrived, and still I don’t know some of the boys names! To be honest, there is one particular name, Pau (Paul), which seems to be every other person’s name. There are five boys out of ten in the first year who are called Pau, with another one called Pablo (Pau is Catalan, Pablo is Spanish), so sometimes I just end up saying Pau in the hope that somebody will answer back. 

Quite a lot has happened since the last post. Two weeks ago we saw the ordination of one of the novices, which, in terms of music sung, was quite exciting. The litany of saints, which i remember seeming very long in England, seemed more lively here, with various melodies, as opposed to one or two repetitive ones. I also had the opportunity of seeing the novice prostrate himself, something which I had never seen at school (although I was present at various ordinations in the abbey, I had always been sitting with the choir, so I had never seen the actual ordination take place), and my god it looked painful! I say that because if I had to lie down on a stone floor for over fifteen minutes at two different times I would end up snapping my legs when standing back up!

That was a Thursday, which also happened to be the 400th anniversary of the dedication of Montserrat Abbey (the latest of a about 13 buildings which have stood at the site over the last millenium and a bit), and so the church was packed to the brim with visitors, Christians and non Christians alike The next week also saw a big Mass, although this was the funeral of one of the elder fathers, who died just before he was 82 the following Monday morning.

That celebration took on a completely different tone. It started with the usual toll of the tower bell every thirty seconds, and then the body was placed in the velatorio, or candle chapel. The Escolania are not normally allowed to go up there, but these are the only times when they can go up and pay their respects. They were told a bit about the monk, whom some of the children would have invariably met around the school, abbey or squares outside, and then they all sing a Donem gracies al Senyor (Let us give thanks to the Lord), which combined with all the candles made one forget that they were standing a few feet from a dead person!.