Posted May 18, 2008

A Weekend In Lithuania

There is so much I will share with you upon my return. The experience is rich and deep. This is a reflection on my first weekend in Lithuania.

Saturday I traveled to Kaunas. It is the second city of Lithuania. My purpose in traveling there was to learn about my family history. I spent the day with a Jewish guide who took me to many places and offered me history of the Jewish people in Lithuania. The part I share with you now is about attending the minion service in the only remaining synagogue in Kaunas. I wore the yarmulke and said some of the Hebrew prayers from memory. The painful history I confronted was that of all the Jews in Lithuania before World War II, only 5% survived. 95% of the Lithuanian Jews were murdered in the holocaust and related exterminations. This is my first experience of being in a place of holocaust, and this place is no doubt where many of my extended family ancestry were destroyed. I will return to Kaunas to do more research into the history of my family. Lunch there was cold borscht and potato latkes, just like I remember my grandmother making for me when I was a child.

Kaunas' only remaining synagogue

On Trinity Sunday, I began by reading Morning Prayer in my room. This is a discipline I intend to keep during the sabbatical. Then I walked to Cathedral Square where I attended Mass. I arrived as the Eucharistic Prayer was being said at the high altar in Lithuanian. By knowledge of the Eucharist and the actions of the priest, I understood all the prayers. The choir was made up of women and men seated in front pews, singing together with no conductor. They wore street clothes and sounded wonderful in the great space of the Cathedral. I received Holy Communion with the others. The Cathedral was filled beyond capacity, and people were standing everywhere, in corners, near pillars, and in archways. They knelt on bare granite floors for prayers and devotions. As the Mass ended, people began to leave, and others who had been standing moved into their seats. The next service would begin shortly. I stayed for the beginning of the service, and participated in the Kyrie Eleison and the Collect. The scriptures and sermon would be beyond my language barrier, and I departed as they began.

On my walk through the old town portion of Vilnius, the principal city, I came upon a magnificent Russian Orthodox Church and I could hear the music calling to me. I went in and listened to the priest chanting with the choir in Church Slavonic. The music was magnificent, and quite different from the Catholic Mass.

Russian Orthodox Church

I had brunch in an outdoor café. I can’t think of the last time I spent such a leisurely meal. Strong coffee and bliny (pancakes like crepes) filled with sour cream and spinach brought back more memories for me of my youth. It seems the tradition here is for people to linger in cafes for sometimes hours.

After lunch I visited the Jewish Museum Centre of Tolerance. I spent several hours learning about Jewish life in Lithuania, and more about the near annihilation of the Jewish population during the holocaust. I also found art, photos and text describing Jewish life at the end of the 19 th century, when my grandmother lived here. I purchased two books about Lithuanian Jewish history, one for my extended family, and one for my own keeping. All this painful information is sobering and the occasion of deep reflection and prayer.

Sketch from death camp

At 6 pm I went to a chamber concert in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the only Protestant Church I found in Vilnius. It was an all Mozart concert, music by Leopold and his more famous son, Wolfgang. The final work was a choral and chamber orchestra performance of the setting of the Mass by Leopold Mozart. Sung in Latin, it was in five parts. There was a Kyrie, a Gloria, a Credo, a Sanctus, and an Agnus Dei. The people around me did some fidgeting, but I was right with everything. The Gloria was in four parts. The Credo had four parts. The Sanctus was in two parts, as was the Agnus Dei. While some could not figure it out, I was able to follow. Although it was a concert for most, for me it was yet another experience of worship. The church contained what I surmise was a magnificent set of statuary of Luther, and the date on the balcony was inscribed the year 1555.

Lutheran Church

On my way back to my room, I walked under the Gates of Dawn, a famous ancient part of the medieval fortifications of the city. The gate is in a Catholic Church devoted to the Virgin Mary of Ostrabama. There is a balcony (I will show you pictures.) The icon of Mary is magnificent. As people pass under the arch, they stop, turn toward the icon, make the sign of the cross, and stand or kneel for silent prayer. Certain services take place outdoors. On this Sunday as I approached the gate near sunset, the Catholic Bishop of Vilnius (and I imagine all Lithuania) was concluding the Mass. There was a large crowd in the streets. It was made up of older women mostly, and some men, young mothers and fathers, and little children. Some were in everyday clothes, others wore dresses and suits. The bishop concluded the Eucharistic Prayer and the choir sang. Then two priests appeared in the street with ciborium, and proceeded to distribute Holy Communion. Instead of people forming lines, the priests went about through the crowd, in a very generous act of distribution. As the service ended with the Hail Mary, many of the older women knelt on the bare cobblestones. Young couples obviously on their way to an evening of fun stopped, turned and made the sign of the cross and stayed for some prayer, then went off hand in hand to their date.

Madonna of Vilnius

This was all in one weekend. The atmosphere was infused with religion, Christian religion, and Catholic in the vast majority. Judaism was not visible unless one sought it out. And I found myself in the strange place of being at the crossroad, with one foot in each place, feeling the deep stirrings of my religious life, past and current, all being called into coexistence. With no one seeking an explanation from me, I could for this time be at peace with being a Jew and also a disciple of Jesus Christ. I remain keenly aware of the beauty and magnificence of the Christian tradition of this land. And I remain keenly aware that had my grandmother stayed here, I would not exist, because she, her children and her grandchildren, including me, would have been selected for extermination.

A weekend in Lithuania.

Paul+