Disabled List

Well, I've joined Katie and Elijah on the DL. It was a lower back strain on Tuesday in Trumau that did me in. Fortunately, it's just the 15 day DL for me, unlike Katie who is still on the 60 day DL.

Second Sunday after Pentecost

We took a lengthly hike this afternoon to the top of nearby Gfoler Alm where there is a little farmhouse sitting in one of the many beautiful mountain meadows. The woman who lives there brought water and apple juice out to refresh us, as well as cheesebread, apple strudel, and coffee. It was really delightful, and we even managed to buy some fresh churned butter from her cows. But we are exhausted. Carrying these two kids up and down these mountains is getting pretty tiring.

And the Tigers are losing badly, so perhaps I'll throw in the towel and head to bed...

Lunzersee

Since our comrades all backed out on our planned trip to see the Grossglockner mountain in the Hoehe Tauern National Park, we decided to take a bus to nearby Lunz am See instead. A much tamer adventure, to be sure, but fun nonetheless. We made it to the Lunzersee by about 9:00 in the morning, and had the place all to ourselves. Almost as soon as we sat down on the shore to eat some breakfast, however, we noticed a large white swan swimming in our direction...

Feed me! Feed me!

Maria was absolutely terrified of the thing, which is quite understandable actually, considering that once it had climbed out of the water it was apparent how much bigger it was than she. After eating, we escaped the swan by renting a peddle-boat and heading out into the middle of the still empty lake.

Thomas and Maria

Feast of Corpus Christi

He fed them with the fat of corn, alleluia, and filled them with honey out of the rock, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. (Psalm) Rejoice to God our helper; sing aloud to the God of Jacob. Glory be to the Father... He fed them...

We drove from Trumau into Vienna to celebrate the great feast with Cardinal Schoenborn at the Stephansdom. It was a mixed experience, but mostly a very positive one. I say "mixed" because of the oddity of celebrating a twentieth century (modern) ritual with eighteenth century (baroque) music in a twelfth century (gothic) cathedral. Although the orchestral style of music is not the most appropriate for the Mass - that primacy belongs to gregorian chant, with sacred polyphony in the second place - it was great to hear Mozart in the cathedral of Vienna. Would that it had adorned the rite of Mass for which it was written.

After the Mass, the procession. As far as memory serves, this was, believe it or not, the first Corpus Christi procession that I've attended. Lisa has attended many, but I've had the misfortune either to have attended not a one, or to have attended one or many so forgettable as to be completely gone from memory. After such a preface I need hardly remark that I was greatly impressed by what I saw: a great public display of faith in our Lord's Presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. The huge procession began from the Stephansdom and wound its way through the city streets, stopping traffic all along the way.

The big guy in the middle was my favorite in the whole procession.

The priests who had concelebrated the Mass were appropriately vested in gothic chasubles.

The Cardinal carried our Lord beneath the canopy,

and behind a rather intimidating looking fellow.

We discovered that the ITI's own Christiaan is a Knight of Malta!

If you count heads from the left (ignoring the men in grey), he's the second one.

The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.

Schloss Trumau

Wednesday was a big moving day. A big truck arrived in Gaming in the morning and we loaded it up with furniture and then hopped in the vans and followed it to Trumau, the new home of the I.T.I. near Vienna. For more info on the move and the new location, see the I.T.I.'s website.

The Schloss (castle) which forms the centerpiece of the new campus is pictured to the left.

After unloading the truck and stashing the furniture in what will become the library of the school we moved ourselves in (about a dozen of us) to spend a couple of nights in the Schloss.

After settling in and getting cleaned up, we ate a lovely dinner (cooked by Lisa) on the back terrase overlooking the gardens. The gardens include cherry trees, pear trees, apricot trees, and apple trees; we found the cherries to be ripe and delicious, as well as the red currents, red raspberries, and gooseberries. Below are a couple of pictures of the terrase, a nice feature which Maria enjoyed a great deal.

The Holy Trinity

Before the earth or moon or sun

Or stars began to be;

Before Creation was begun.

When all was empty space and none

Of anything or anyone

Could yet be seen, or see:

There always sat upon the Throne

That is, Eternally,

August, adorable, alone;

THE HOLY TRINITY.

~ Old Testament Rhymes

by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson

Trinity Sunday

Well, cool weather and tired bodies combined to keep us from any excursions this weekend. Looking out the windows at the rain, we feel pretty confident that a quiet Sunday at home was the right decision. This coming week should hold some more adventures in store for us. With the Feast of Corpus Christi on Thursday, we'll have only a three day work week; on Wednesday many of us will have to drive to Trumau to unload big moving trucks there, and then I think we'll probably spend the night there in order to spend the feast day in Vienna (I'm eager to celebrate the feast with the FSSP's Haus Sankt Leopold).

Then, the talk amongst the students here is to attempt a one or two day trip to the Hohe Tauern National Park in Carinthia and East Tyrol. The park features glaciers and hundreds of peaks over 3 km including the biggest mountain in all of Austria, the Grossglockner.

Ember Friday

Today is both an Ember day (traditionally a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer for good priests) and the first Friday of June. First Fridays in general as well as the whole month of June are dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so today is an especially appropriate day for devotions to the same. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is approaching on June 19th, two weeks from now, which is the day chosen by our Holy Father to begin a "sacerdotal year" in honor of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney. (n.b. indulgences are available - see here ;)

Our kids have been wracking up the milestones this week. First, I came home one day to discover that Maria had learned how to sommersault. "Winter-peppers" are the next challenge. Today she received her first tricycle. One of the families here that is packing up for the move to Trumau had no further use for it, so I brought it home for Maria. She was crazy excited.

Thomas, meanwhile, has begun to eat (relatively) solid food. He loves that rice cereal, and it took him no time at all to get the hang of eating with a spoon.

Tortilla Recipe

As I said in an earlier post, I have begun cooking lunch for all the summer student workers at the Kartause. The total number of people I cook for is between 15 and 20 a meal. Yesterday, I cooked Mexican food. Tortillas are 2.50 euro for a package of 8. Small ones. I couldn't really afford to buy enough for everyone on our budget, so I made some myself. They were a little time consuming (although making enough for a family meal wouldn't be so bad), but with Thomas strapped to my back, and Maria playing with the leftover scraps of dough, it was doable. And they were really easy, and really good. I made white tortillas, and whole wheat. The white ones were more like the tortillas I'm used to, but the wheat ones were tasty too, and seemed easier to roll out. Here's the recipe (I quadrupled it, and for the wheat ones, I used half white flour, half whole wheat):

Combine 3 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1 tsp salt. Blend in 4-6 T butter, shortening or lard (I used butter) until mixture resembles coarse crumbles. Slowly stir in up to 1 cup warm water, until a soft, but not sticky, dough forms. Knead until smooth, just a few mintutes.

Separate dough into 12 equal sized balls. Cover and let rest at least 15 minutes, more is fine. Once rested, heat a griddle to high heat. Slighty flatten the balls to make disks (this will make rolling out into circles a little easier), then roll out into very flat circles.

As you can see in the picture below, not all my tortillas were perfectly round. They got better as I did more of them, but the odd shaped ones tasted just as good. Next, put on the griddle. Cook on each side until golden brown marks form. Cover cooked tortillas with a clean, damp towel. This makes them soft and bendable, instead of stiff and brittle.

The finished product:

For about 50 cents more than one package of 8 small ones, I made 48 hot, fresh, tasty tortillas. I realize they are not quite so expensive in the States, but give these a try. They're great!

Happy Birthday, Dominic!

Happy 1st Birthday, Cousin Dominic! I suppose Maria should stop calling you "Baby Dominic" now. We wish we were there to celebrate with you, eat a piece of cake for us! We love you.

Whitmonday

The whole month of June is dedicated to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Feast of which falls on June 19 this year. Magisterial texts include:

~Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Annum Sacrum (On Consecration to the Sacred Heart), 1899.

~Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Miserentissimus Redemptor (On Reparation to the Sacred Heart), 1928.

~Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Caritate Christi compulsi (On the Sacred Heart), 1932.

~Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Haurietis aquas (On Devotion to the Sacred Heart), 1956.

The mystery of the divine redemption is primarily and by its very nature a mystery of love, that it, of the perfect love of Christ for His heavenly Father to Whom the sacrifice of the Cross, offered in a spirit of love and obedience, presents the most abundant and infinite satisfaction due for the sins of the human race... (HA 35).