Go to St. Jakobus for a Church Service

St. Jakobus Catholic Church is three streets down from our home in Vockenhausen. On Sundays, the church bells start ringing at 10:30 a.m., and I used to tell the boys, "The bells are calling us." In contrast to attending anonymous churches in Frankfurt, just walking down the walkways to church and seeing neighbors in the pews around is very appealing.

Masses geared toward families are on the second Sunday of the month, often followed by coffee and cake. Once a month the lay minister says mass without the priest, but with incense and eight altar boys and girls at her side. A number of church holidays are still German national

holidays. Traditions for these holidays are kept up, such as having processions through the town, chanting Latin around bonfires, and creating images out of flower petals--as the youth group did yesterday for the Corpus Christi mass (see photo).

The church itself was built in 1785 for the village of Vockenhausen. When we moved here, it was being renovated and feels very modern with a pastel interior design. The marble baptismal font (1750) already served the Vockenhausener in an earlier half-timbered chapel. The stained-glass windows were created in 1950 by Frankfurt artisans; the bronze tabernacle and the altar made from travertine are the newest additions (1981).

Church services are held at 11:00 on Sunday mornings and Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m.