Happy 40th, Novus Ordo Missae

...and many more! Wait... hmmm...

40 years ago today, the Novus Ordo Missae officially came into being in the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI's Apostolic Constitution Missale Romanum (3 April 1969) specified the First Sunday of Advent of that year as the date on which these things would go into effect.

Especially interesting is what the pope said in a general audience in the days just before the First Sunday of Advent, in an address now entitled Changes in Mass for Greater Apostolate. It's interesting to reflect upon his words with the benefit of 40 years of hindsight. He begins:

Our Dear Sons and Daughters,

We ask you to turn your minds once more to the liturgical innovation of the new rite of the Mass. This new rite will be introduced into our celebration of the holy Sacrifice starting from Sunday next which is the first of Advent, November 30.

A new rite of the Mass: a change in a venerable tradition that has gone on for centuries. This is something that affects our hereditary religious patrimony, which seemed to enjoy the privilege of being untouchable and settled. It seemed to bring the prayer of our forefathers and our saints to our lips and to give us the comfort of feeling faithful to our spiritual past, which we kept alive to pass it on to the generations ahead... [read the rest]

Happy New (liturgical) Year!

Happy Advent everybody,

with love from Maria!

Well, Jake, Christina, and Gabriel are back in Michigan after passing almost a whole week with us in Trumau. It was lovely having you here! (and John was happy to meet his little nephew at last.) Here are some pictures from their time here.

Vienna

After allowing Papou and Yia Yia to relax the rest of the day on Friday, we spent Saturday with them in Vienna.

In front of the Stephansdom

We enjoyed going inside of the Hofburg for the first time. Our tour included the Silberkammer, the Sisi rooms, and the Imperial apartments.

Maria and Thomas have had enough of museums, it would seem.

I've also finally taken some of Katie's pictures from our recent trip through Italy for the ordination of one of the Benedictine monks of Norcia. I've posted a few of them and back dated it to Oct. 31, so scroll down to see them.

Papou and Yia Yia

Arrived safely and on time yesterday from Milan. It seems that they quite enjoyed their time in Italy and we're certainly enjoying having them here.

Happy Birthday, John

So, we took some pictures of John on his birthday, but they're still on Katie's camera, and I don't know where her USB cord is, so I'll have to wait a bit to post them.

Happy 26th Birthday, John! We love you!

Martinmas

Having discovered that Martinmas is the traditional harvest feast celebration in this part of the world, rather like Thanksgiving, which in fact derives from it, is in the U.S.A. We've decided to have a feast today. Goose (Martinigans) is the traditional food, but having found none of it in the grocery stores of Traiskirchen, we decided to substitute duck. They are both birds that swim and honk a lot, anyways.

I think this is actually Lisa's first attempt at something like a thanksgiving dinner, though, which is rather exciting. At this point, the preparations seem to be going well. As well as three ducks currently in the oven, there's already an apple pie and fresh bread rolls on the counter; potatoes are boiling down on the stovetop for mashing; sausage stuffing is next on the list, and salad is coming with the guests.

Oh, and one of my favorite newly discovered Martinmas traditions is the drinking of the years new wines.

Back from Norcia

We've just returned from a wonderful weekend in Norcia, Italy. The occasion was another priestly ordination of an I.T.I. graduate / Benedictine monk. We left early on Friday morning and managed to stop for lunch in Padua, where we visited the basilica of St. Anthony, and for dinner in Assisi, where we were only able to visit the basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli at the bottom of the hill - it being too late in the evening to venture up into the town.

Regarding pictures... I'm afraid there will be very few forthcoming in the near future since I left the camera unattended beneath the statue of St. Benedict in the middle of the piazza. We haven't seen it since, and at this point it seems unlikely that we'll see it again...

Ah well, though, perhaps we'll be able to steal some of Katie's pictures of the trip to post here.