Servant of God (novel)

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Gottesdiener is a 2004 novel by Petra Morsbach . The main character is Isidor Rattenhuber, an older Catholic village pastor in the Bavarian Forest . The novel traces his biography in flashbacks, mixed with episodes from everyday life in his parish.

content

Passau Cathedral, choir

The action begins in the run-up to Christmas in the fictional town of Bodering. Pastor Rattenhuber struggles with himself because he has harshly rejected the request for a Konnersreuth pilgrimage. During dinner in the rectory, he goes over some of the “notorious pilgrims” in his community and their motives. He has been a priest for almost 30 years now, and the novel will follow the changes in his professional role during this time.

The second chapter looks back on Rattenhuber's childhood. Why did he become a priest? Isidor Rattenhuber thinks of a joke: What could he do with this name, red-haired and stuttering? He sees a deeper reason behind this: the church “offered the opposite world to his desolate parental home. His parents weren't bad people, but they were desolate, loud and aimless. ”When he reads liturgical texts, he never stutters. After this is discovered by chance, his pastor encourages him. He comes from his poor family of small farmers to the Benedictine boarding school and later enters the Passau seminary . Contrary to expectations, his home pastor remains dismissive when Isidore informs him of his decision to become a priest: someone has to do it.

"The Passau student days burned itself into Isidore's memory as an eternal bright spring." It was the time of the Second Vatican Council . But Isidore also enjoys the austerity and pomp of the old liturgy and the festive setting that the cathedral's architecture offers. He makes two friends among the seminarians, Franz (the artist) and Gregor (the rebels); together they are ordained priests in Passau Cathedral, which Isidor experiences as if in a frenzy. Shortly afterwards the primacy in his home village in the summer heat was quite different : “Isidor in regalia felt like a sacrificial bull in front of the euphoric crowd and thought: They are celebrating because a priest has emerged from their midst. But what did they do for it, besides torturing me? "

As chaplain Isidore is assigned to the authoritarian and unpredictable Pastor Gruber; He, the stutterer, can hardly reach his friends Gregor and Franz by phone. Finally, Isidore takes his courage and writes his request for a transfer.

After he has been pastor in Bodering for a while, Judith meets him: "She was in her mid-twenties and looked half rushed, half longing, a little disturbed." A community project in which she is involved enables Isidore to cultivate an infatuation with but Judith is not allowed to notice anything. When she wants to marry the scrap dealer Pachl, Isidor is torn from his daydreams. Pachl has to have his first marriage annulled. This gives Isidore the opportunity to explain the marriage annulment provisions to the man he sees as a rival "in an inappropriately ironic manner" , which he savored, but then regrets. Judith enters Isidor's life again when she is terminally ill and is looking for spiritual guidance. Isidore realizes that there is no way he can do that himself. But he wants her to be accompanied by the best pastor among his neighboring pastors. The choice is not easy for him. Finally, he confides in Ludwig, a fanatical nature lover and mountaineer. In conversation with him, he separates himself from Judith, whereupon Ludwig takes over the company of the dying.

Isidor comes to life when his cousin Rosl moves in as housekeeper. His life becomes more balanced and comfortable for a few years. Then Rosl is diagnosed with severe kidney disease, and Isidor believes he is being generous because he does not part with her (as originally agreed in the event of illness). Although her doctor's appointments are a burden for him, he regularly drives her on dialysis . An unexpected turn occurs when Rosl gets to know a widower during the cure, "who offered her his hand and one of his kidneys". Isidor self-critically recognizes that “to be honest, he hadn't thought for a second of donating a kidney himself.” Rosl had never hinted in this direction, but she said goodbye to him with the words: “You pastors are all together great egoists. "

The novel has now arrived in the present; Isidore celebrates his Christmas Eve mass. During the night he receives a disturbing phone call. Isidor wants to ask her colleagues for advice, but only gets her answering machine. After that he sinks into restless dreams. Before he dies, he meets the important people in his life one more time.

particularities

Each of the eight chapters begins with a longer section from the liturgy of priestly ordination, each sub-chapter with quotations from the standard translation of the Bible, mostly selected from Ecclesiastes , the Psalms or the Gospels.

reception

The reviewers paid tribute to the figure of Isidor Rattenhuber, who despite his pathetic name was by no means perceived as a caricature of a pastor. Eberhard Falcke ( ZEIT Online ) sums up his biography like this. "The weariness of one's own role, the women, the doubt about faith, the desire to drive a BMW, the feelings of powerlessness, the alcohol, the celibacy pain, the inner emptiness, the awareness of sin, the loneliness, the inferiority complexes, the missing housekeeper, the existing housekeeper . Isidore goes through everything, in his quiet, humble way [...]. His author [...] stylizes him neither as a hero of tolerance nor as a spiritual lamp. "

Udo Dickenberg ( Wiener Zeitung ) wrote: “The author sends the sensitive pastor into an unfamiliar environment in order to observe, research, reason and reflect on her behalf as an outsider. Long reviews of his socialization illuminate how he has become the reserved, self-absorbed person he meets us as. "

Work edition

  • Petra Morsbach: Servant of God. Novel. (1st edition Eichborn, Frankfurt / Main 2004) 2nd edition, btb, Munich 2006. ISBN 978-3-442-73321-7 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 16 .
  2. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 104 .
  3. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 123-124 .
  4. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 157 .
  5. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 243-245 .
  6. ↑ Petra Morsbach: Service of God . 2006, p. 333-335 .
  7. ^ Eberhard Falcke: Literary pastoral care. In: ZEIT Online. November 11, 2004, accessed January 21, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Udo Dickenberger: Morsbach: Gottesdiener. Don Camillo from Lower Bavaria. April 9, 2004, accessed January 21, 2019 .