The Hermeneutic of Continuity

A little time before the carol service to let you have some more photos of Krakow. We visited the Dominican Church which is popular among young people studying in Krakow. The confessionals are busy all day and there are long queues during Advent. This was another "Magari!" moment as I wondered about the possibility of securing one of these glorious gothic confessionals for my Church. We also visited the Church of St Peter and St Paul. This used to be a Jesuit Church and its origin is reflected in the decoration over the entrance. The interior of this baroque Church is characteristically airy and spacious: A side altar in honour of St Ignatius Loyola prevents anyone forgetting its provenance: And at the back of the Church there is an exuberantly decorated organ, I still have photos to post of the Blessed Sacrament Church, attached to the monastery of the Canons Regular at which I lodged. That was perhaps the finest of the Churches that I saw. In the meantime, I must relate a j...

Here is a photo of Krakow by night in the fog. Not the most promising conditions, perhaps, but it gives something of the atmosphere. This is the main square. The Church is the only one in Krakow where the Classical Roman Rite is offered. This is the balcony at the Archbishop's House where Pope John Paul addressed the crowds in Krakow during those extraordinary times when he demonstrated the shallowness of Stalin's jibe "How many divisions does the Pope have?" And below is a photo of the High Altar at the Church of St Mary in the centre of Krakow: I am still pondering the choice of various models of pulpit in Krakow for a new construction in my parish Church. Magari!

This is the site for the Canons Regular of the Lateran in Krakow . Yes it is entirely in Polish and there isn't an English version. But there are some good photos. And I do have some Polish-speaking readers.

Continuing the series on my visit to Krakow: the Church of the Poor Clares; one of so many Churches that took my breath away: Seeing Churches such as this, I always become green with envy and begin to form ideas for improvements to my own parish Church. I was particularly taken with the pulpit here: As with several other Churches we visited, the confessional seemed to speak of the immediate post-Tridentine reform with a basic arrangement for the anonymity of the penitent, the public placing of the confessional and the liturgical nature of the celebration. This structure seems to have anticipated the Nolan Guidelines:

After visiting the Cathedral, we climbed the Sigismund Tower to see the Sigismund Bell, named after King Sigismund I, the Old. With the people in the picture, you can see how large it is: The bell weighs nearly 11 tons and is rung only on major occasions; a recent example was the death of Pope John Paul II. Below, you can see something of the apparatus used to ring the bell: The trip up the Sigismund Tower put me in mind of the nonsense that we inflict on ourselves in England in the name of Health and Safety. As far as I am aware, Poland is also a member of the EU but that does not prevent this tourist attraction remaining open despite the steep stairways, uneven steps and numerous other hazards.

Did I mention that it was foggy yesterday? There was no way to get a decent photo of the outside of the Cathedral - this is one that has a GNU license on Wikipedia . (The rest are mine.) Here is the main entrance to the Cathedral: The Cathedral is on Wawel Hill and is the most important national sanctuary for Poland. The Polish monarchs were crowned here and it has been the place of celebration of major national events. One of the more recent was the blessing of the banners of the Solidarity Trade Union, marking a major step in the downfall of the communist government. In the centre of the main aisle is the altar of St Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr. He found himself in opposition to some of the policies of King Bolesław, whom he excommunicated, and in 1079, he was murdered as he was saying Mass. (English readers will notice some similarity with the figure of St Thomas a Becket. There is, in fact a shrine to him also in the Cathedral.) St Stanislaus was canonised at Assisi in 1253. Belo...

Well that was fun! An early start (6.10am flight) with Ryanair to Krakow airport looked promising to begin with. Then we circled Krakow airport over a thick bank of fog for 20 minutes before getting diverted to Rzeszow (pronounced sheshov but with the sh's more like Zh in Zhivago). Ryanair cheerfully promised us buses for the 100 mile journey back to Krakow but Fr Marcin and I decided to take a taxi - otherwise we would have arrived in Krakow just in time to leave again. We managed to knock the asking price down by about 40% by negotiating. (This was the sort of negotiation where you walk away determinedly, saying you are going to get the bus.) Things did not get better immediately. The road from Rzeszow to Krakow is a single carriageway which is currently being upgraded. The problem is that all the bridges and several sections of road are being upgraded at the same time. So it took about 4 hours with a few stops such as this: Never mind. We got to Krakow at about 2pm which left us...