This Roman Virgin suffered martyrdom at the age of thirteen under the Emperor Claudius in the first century.
Nothing much going on here today... It's pouring rain, Maria is being something of a schnitzel, I've finished all the books I received for Christmas (thank you all very much) except for Anne Carroll's Christ and the Americas which Lisa and I are reading together. Father Gerald asked me to write something for the bulletin at Old St. Pat's, I don't know how much of the following he'll include in the bulletin but here is what I sent to him:
Grüss Gott! (The Austrian greeting: may God greet you!)
Lisa and I (and Maria) are delighted to have the opportunity to share with you all about our life here in Gaming, Austria. It is beautiful here and we love it, but at the same time we miss our friends and family (and parish family) very much, and are looking forward to coming home and seeing as many of you as we can in the summer. Academically, the semester went well for me; it didn’t take as long as I feared to get back into "school mode." I studied mostly philosophy and the Sacred Scriptures (also German).
The family life here is truly wonderful. There are something like 65 children in the I.T.I. community; in other words, the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family practices what it preaches! I can hardly imagine a better environment for raising children. Maria especially loves running around in the courtyard with all the other kids after Mass and the Divine Liturgy are over on Sundays.
One of the aspects of life here that has really been a unique blessing is the Institute's emphasis on bringing together the Eastern and Western Catholic traditions. Many of the students here are from Eastern European countries (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Russia, Czech Republic). We decided early on to take advantage of the opportunity to attend the Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy on an almost daily basis and are glad to have done so. Even though it’s not called "Mass", the Divine Liturgy is, of course, essentially the same Eucharistic Sacrifice, but the ceremony and ritual are very different.
For example, the Divine Liturgy is chanted all the way through, with nothing spoken except the homily, and (sometimes) the Creed, and the Our Father. There are no hymns; instead we chant different set antiphons depending on the day. Sometimes we and the priest chant in dialogue form, and sometimes the priest whispers silent prayers to God while we are chanting another prayer. This last practice is actually quite instructive as it serves to remind us that while we are all praying and worshipping God together, it is the priest and not we, who offers the sublime sacrifice to God in the person of Christ – our task is to offer ourselves to God in union with that one perfect sacrifice.
Another difference between the Mass as it is now usually offered in the West and the Divine Liturgy is that in the latter the priest and the people stand facing the same direction, rather than facing each other. For the homily, of course, and at other points the priest turns to face us, but when he speaks to God he turns to face God. Although strange at first for all of us who are used to seeing the priest's face all the time, we have really grown to love and appreciate this because it minimizes the priest's presence in the sanctuary and allows for a deeper focus on God.
Perhaps the most difficult adjustment practically speaking was the manner in which Communion is received in the Divine Liturgy. The priest holds a chalice filled with the Precious Blood and with many Sacred Hosts. When we approach we tip our heads back and open our mouths while the priest uses a golden spoon to carefully drop the host directly into the mouth. Since they use leavened bread, it soaks up the consecrated wine and thus we receive both the Body and Blood of Christ together, without anyone handling something so sacred.
Since Fr. Gerald (always concerned for others as he is) asked how we are doing financially, I'll just say that we knew at the outset that it would be difficult since we are not able to work here, but we decided to follow the path to which God was calling us and trust in Him to take care of us. I did find out recently that anyone who is interested and able to help us financially (always appreciated!) can go to www.itiusa.org and donate tax-deductible money to the Institute. If you note that your donation is specifically for "US Students Financial Aid," and email me the amount of the donation, it will benefit us directly.
I suspect I've been running on longer than Fr. Gerald intended me to, so I'll wrap this up and just tell you again (as I’ve done far too infrequently) how much I loved my time at Old St. Patrick’s, how grateful I am to all of you for the love you’ve shown me and my family, how grateful I am to Fr. Gerald for allowing me to work among you, how much we all miss you and love you and look forward to seeing you again! May God bless you always!
Lisa and I (and Maria) are delighted to have the opportunity to share with you all about our life here in Gaming, Austria. It is beautiful here and we love it, but at the same time we miss our friends and family (and parish family) very much, and are looking forward to coming home and seeing as many of you as we can in the summer. Academically, the semester went well for me; it didn’t take as long as I feared to get back into "school mode." I studied mostly philosophy and the Sacred Scriptures (also German).
The family life here is truly wonderful. There are something like 65 children in the I.T.I. community; in other words, the International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family practices what it preaches! I can hardly imagine a better environment for raising children. Maria especially loves running around in the courtyard with all the other kids after Mass and the Divine Liturgy are over on Sundays.
One of the aspects of life here that has really been a unique blessing is the Institute's emphasis on bringing together the Eastern and Western Catholic traditions. Many of the students here are from Eastern European countries (Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Russia, Czech Republic). We decided early on to take advantage of the opportunity to attend the Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy on an almost daily basis and are glad to have done so. Even though it’s not called "Mass", the Divine Liturgy is, of course, essentially the same Eucharistic Sacrifice, but the ceremony and ritual are very different.
For example, the Divine Liturgy is chanted all the way through, with nothing spoken except the homily, and (sometimes) the Creed, and the Our Father. There are no hymns; instead we chant different set antiphons depending on the day. Sometimes we and the priest chant in dialogue form, and sometimes the priest whispers silent prayers to God while we are chanting another prayer. This last practice is actually quite instructive as it serves to remind us that while we are all praying and worshipping God together, it is the priest and not we, who offers the sublime sacrifice to God in the person of Christ – our task is to offer ourselves to God in union with that one perfect sacrifice.
Another difference between the Mass as it is now usually offered in the West and the Divine Liturgy is that in the latter the priest and the people stand facing the same direction, rather than facing each other. For the homily, of course, and at other points the priest turns to face us, but when he speaks to God he turns to face God. Although strange at first for all of us who are used to seeing the priest's face all the time, we have really grown to love and appreciate this because it minimizes the priest's presence in the sanctuary and allows for a deeper focus on God.
Perhaps the most difficult adjustment practically speaking was the manner in which Communion is received in the Divine Liturgy. The priest holds a chalice filled with the Precious Blood and with many Sacred Hosts. When we approach we tip our heads back and open our mouths while the priest uses a golden spoon to carefully drop the host directly into the mouth. Since they use leavened bread, it soaks up the consecrated wine and thus we receive both the Body and Blood of Christ together, without anyone handling something so sacred.
Since Fr. Gerald (always concerned for others as he is) asked how we are doing financially, I'll just say that we knew at the outset that it would be difficult since we are not able to work here, but we decided to follow the path to which God was calling us and trust in Him to take care of us. I did find out recently that anyone who is interested and able to help us financially (always appreciated!) can go to www.itiusa.org and donate tax-deductible money to the Institute. If you note that your donation is specifically for "US Students Financial Aid," and email me the amount of the donation, it will benefit us directly.
I suspect I've been running on longer than Fr. Gerald intended me to, so I'll wrap this up and just tell you again (as I’ve done far too infrequently) how much I loved my time at Old St. Patrick’s, how grateful I am to all of you for the love you’ve shown me and my family, how grateful I am to Fr. Gerald for allowing me to work among you, how much we all miss you and love you and look forward to seeing you again! May God bless you always!
With all our love, John, Lisa, and Maria Joy.
1 comment:
Can you give me Fr. Gerald's email? Thanks
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