Prague- St. Thomas Church and Palm Sunday Mass

We tried to go to English church services, and were told that St. Thomas had an English Mass at 11 AM. We arrived at 11 AM and the church was pretty empty. We couldn't figure it out. We listened to the choir rehearse a little.  I walked around and took some pictures, because it really didn't seem like we had the right information. Clearly church was not starting at 11 AM.  The kids were itchy, in the way only sitting in church can make you itchy. 

 Because we were waiting for church to start I couldn't ask any questions about the church or the inhabitants of the cases throughout the church. Some saints or martyrs, I assumed. I know this is irreverent, but I was thinking that this was a very uncomfortable position in which to spend eternity.

The choir was up here.  You couldn't see them, but they sounded lovely. It wasn't a big choir, maybe 10 people. Dot and I were speculating, because they had four parts, but there weren't many voices on each part.  You can just make out the director from behind.

Then someone told us what the deal was- because it was Palm Sunday the services were starting at another church and there would be a processional at about noon.  We stayed for the processional and then the church was Really Full. The services started. In Czech. In Latin. In English. And in Spanish.  We had plans to meet a friend of Kent's at 12:30 and so, we snuck out the back.  Here were are, trying to make a hasty retreat, wandering around and failing miserably. We did finally make it out. 

Here's the carving on the top of the confessional.

Here's the matching motif on the door we escaped through.

Here's Mass, still going on in many languages.

Worth going, but mostly for the cross cultural experience.