i already wrote about how freiburg, germany is becoming a very special place to me because of my recently-found connection with henri nouwen. i absolutely love his book 'life of the beloved' and learned not too long ago that he wrote the book while living in freiburg. so... i have returned to freiburg a couple of times just to swallow up all of the nostalgia i can... and to search for any traces of henri that might still be there!
this past weekend... well, it was pretty incredible. my two companions (c and p) and i spent a lazy saturday afternoon in freiburg... wandering around, meandering through the streets, and eating bratwurst! i explained to them about my recent love for henri, told them that he wrote his book while living in the franciscan community of freiburg, and wondered aloud if it might be possible for us to find that franciscan community.
as we were meandering, we looked up to see a man in a very white robe walking down the street. c promptly identified him as a monk and suggested that we should follow him and ask about the franciscan community... so we did. except he was walking very fast... so we had to chase him down the street! we must have been a funny sight-- 3 women running after a monk! we finally caught him and learned that he was a monk from the dominican order, not the franciscan order... but he knew about the franciscan community and kindly gave us directions to find it.
we hopped on a tram (and first went the wrong direction through the city!) and then followed
the directions he gave us. after asking several people along the way, we finally stumbled upon the franciscan monastery... the very place we had been searching for!
in excitement, we ran up to the front door, but then we sort of hesitated... we were definitely 3 women approaching a monastery... full of males! do women even visit monasteries? we had no idea! what would they say? so we rang the doorbell... and we waited... and finally, a Polish friar came to the door and spoke a little bit of English. i showed him my book and told him about henri nouwen and why we were there... he assured us this was definitely the place where henri would have stayed and written the book.
we were still standing outside when c bravely spoke up and asked if we could have a tour of the monastery. the friar said yes! and he walked us through the building, showing us the chapel, library, dining hall, and gardens. we then met another monk in the gardens who spoke even more English and explained more to us about the monastery. there we were in the garden-- 3 girls, 1 friar, and 1 monk! =)
we thanked our new friends and then walked a block or two down the street to visit the cathedral which we had been told was henri's "church" while he lived in freiburg. we snuck in the back door while evening mass was going on, sat in on a bit of the service, and snuck a few photos.
it was an adventure that i will never forget. i guess you really can't find a dead guy... but we came pretty close! and we now we have an open invitation to visit the franciscan monastery in freiburg whenever we want. =)
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