Okay, now, in one of the churches around here, the traditionally ethnic German parish which is magnificent condition and only been minimally "renovated," there are lights.

What I mean by that is that the high altar and both side altars – totally Gothic in every way – are outlined and filled in, as it were, by lightbulbs.

Original photo, of this First Communion from 1950, here. No, you can’t see any lightbulbs, but you can understand where they are – outlining the general shape, then up and down the small pillars and outlining the other small arches, etc.

These lights aren’t on during most of Mass – they’re turned on when the priest begins distributing Communion. The first time we went there, it was absolutely startling and almost funny, teetering dangerously on the edge of kitsch. But it has its advantages, and is now even vaguely comforting,  especially with small children, who are taught to sit quietly and watch, in great expectation, for the lights. Problem is when said children are too young to control their excitement at the LIGHTS! which then defeats the purpose of the exercise.

Anyway, I was inspired to post this because of a photo I ran across in the indisepensible Papa Ratzinger Forum, related to an article they published about Fr. Ratzinger’s first parish assignment. Photo after the jump, so we can all control our excitement before we see it:

LIGHTS! LIGHTS!

So…is this a German thing?

Phew!