A Holy Communion in the Cologne Cathedral

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On the 5th of May, I was invited to my godchild’s Holy Communion in Cologne. No matter whether you believe in God or not, I found the celebration quite impressive, that’s why I would like to share it with you.

My godchild Benedikt attends the Domsingschule, a primary school with the purpose of educating the children that will later on sing in the Cathedral Choir in Cologne. It was not easy to get him into this school. Of course, you need to be Catholic, but also, he and his parents had to go through a number of assessments before he was finally accepted. Already his school enrolment had taken place in the spectacular Cologne Cathedral. The fact that the Holy Communion took place in the Cologne Cathedral is so special because the Cathedral does not have a parish anymore and the Holy Communion for the Domsingschule’s students is the only one that takes place in this church throughout the whole year.

The Communion was quite a big thing. The celebration started with a church service on Saturday evening in a smaller church not far from where Benedikt and his family live. I was very impressed by the vicar who had taught the children throughout the preparation year and who was the one to hold the church service. He had a way of explaining and interpreting everything that made it easy for the children to follow, but even as an adult I did not feel treated like a baby, and I must say that I even learned some things. For example, there is (amongst other explanations) a Biblical interpretation of the design of the flag of the European Union: it has twelve stars like the halo of Virgin Mary. One may believe in it or not, but I found it interesting.

The Holy Communion itself took place in the Cologne Cathedral itself on Sunday morning, a most beautiful day. The huge Cathedral was filled up with people, and we were lucky to have reserved seats, otherwise we would have had to stand up during the entire church service. Again, I was very impressed with the vicar, I think he did a fantastic job. The mass was even transmitted on the radio and is (for my German-speaking readers) available here. Benedikt is the good-looking tall young man with the blonde curly hair. I won’t post a photo of him and his parents because I don’t know whether they would want their pictures to be on the internet, so if you want, you can guess which of the children he is 😉.

After the mass, we went to a boat that is up the river from the Cathedral from where you have a beautiful view of the Cathedral and the bridge that crosses the river Rhine just next to it. It was nice to see my family and especially to see Benedikt all happy! I stayed there for quite long and did not get back to Hamburg until late in the evening. What a wonderful celebration for the young man!

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Photos

Cologne Cathedral
Picture from www.unesco-welterbe.de

"Alte Liebe"
The boat on the river Rhine on which we celebrated the Communion.

View from the Alte Liebe
... towards the Cologne Cathedral just down the river.

Balloons with good wishes
Each balloon had a postcard with all the guests' good wishes for Benedikt.