St. Paul all his life had a burning love for Jesus. He founded the Congregation of Passionists. He and his brethren were preachers of "the mystery of the cross and of devotion to the Passion." He died in 1775.
Sorry for not posting yesterday. We were exhausted when we returned home from the zoo and went straight to sleep. Here is a summary of the day:
We arrived in Vienna at 10:00, and Mass was at 10:30. We took the subway to the neighborhood in which the Traditional Latin Mass is said every Sunday by the FSSP, and would have arrived well before Mass started, except that we couldn't find the Church! After wandering down the street much farther than we expected it to be, we finally spotted a steeple, and outside the church a man in a suit. Perfect, we thought, only a couple minutes late. However, it was a Lutheran church, and the man had no idea that there even was a Catholic church in the neighborhood. So, we decided that it was a lost cause, and headed back to the subway station hoping we could make it to Stephansdom in time for noon Mass there. Fortunately, as we passed by a beat-up looking building, John happened to look on the wall, on which was a plaque with the name of the Church, pointing inside the builiding. So we followed the sign, and the church (more like a chapel) was inside the courtyard of the building. We were a little late, but not too much. The more times we hear Mass in Europe (outside of Gaming), the more we notice the emptiness of the churches, and the complete lack of children. Whether we attend a Traditional Latin Mass, or a Novus Ordo, it's always the same. A few older adults, a few young adults. Yesterday, in fact, there were two children besides Maria, and that was out of the ordinary. Europe needs our prayers!
On to Schloss Schönbrunn... Before entering the Zoo, we took advantage of the beautiful weather to wander through the gardens of the palace (open free to the public). Remember, Schönbrunn is Versaille's only rival in all of Europe. Although it's too early for many flowers, the trees are just beginning to blossom, and it was gorgeous. We will go again, when we have all day with nothing to do but wander (and hopefully we can leave Maria with someone else).
The zoo was fantastic! Maria was sleeping when we first went in (we tried and tried to get her to fall asleep on our way to the palace, as well as in the gardens, but she stubbornly refused, until immediately after we entered the zoo). So John and I looked at lots of the animals, and there were many we had never seen before. There are also "houses" that imitate different climates, for instance, the rain-forest. However, it was a crowded, one-way only path through a hot and humid house that ended by forcing us through a dark room where bats flew freely around our heads. After that, we decided that we never wanted to visit either the rainforest, or another one of the "houses." We were just thankful Maria was still sleeping! She woke up as we were looking at the big cats, and I'm afraid they really scared her. For awhile she was quite afraid of all the big animals (the elephant, giraffe, hippo, etc...), but she warmed up to them after awhile, as long as they didn't come too close (I don't think she understands glass or fences completely yet). Even so, without a doubt her favorite animals were the penguins and monkeys. We could have looked at them and nothing else all day, and she would have been happy.
You can see all our pictures from yesterday here, or on the sidebar as usual. Here's a preview:
Maria looking at the giraffes, or as she calls them, "Raffes."
This little guy really was quite impressive!
"Wow!"
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