Prayers Please

Lisa took Thomas into the hospital in Eisenstadt this morning, because of a fever that reached 40.1 (that's just a bit over 104 Fahrenheit). They'll be there for the next couple of days so that the medical folks can keep an eye on him. Maria and I were there this afternoon, and he seemed okay - just a little bit frustrated with the I.V. running out of his hand. They got rid of the fever, but hopefully they can also get rid of whatever caused it.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Of the Blessed Virgin Mary

I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice He hath covered me, as a bride adorned with her jewels.

First of all, let me wish a blessed patronal feast day to the U.S.A. My idea a few weeks ago was to have a big American celebration: hamburgers, spicy chicken wings, watery beer, etc. But I forgot, and today the stores are all closed, so we'll eat whatever we have in the fridge. Maybe next year.

Katie and I took Maria to Eisenstadt for Mass this morning (Lisa stayed closer to home with Thomas, who has a fever). Eisenstadt is the city where Joseph Haydn lived and worked for most of his life. Mass heard his Harmoniemesse at the Haydnkirche, pictured below.

It was a bit rainy out, but that didn't stop us from having lunch under some umbrellas at the local Adventmarkt after Mass. Below is Schloss Esterhazy, (former?) residence of the noble Hungarian family of that name, whose court musician Haydn was.

Upon returning home in the early afternoon, Maria helped Katie and I pick out a good Advent Tree for our living room, and we decorated it with purple ornaments.

St. Nicholas's Day

Maria and Thomas were both pretty excited about what they found in their shoes this morning.

A couple of car loads of us went to Vienna this morning for Mass at the Stephansdom. We were lured by the promise of Haydn's Rorate Coeli Mass to be followed by visits to a couple of the city's many Adventmarkts. Beautiful as the Mass was in many ways, I must say that the alternation between spoken German and sung Latin (to the music of Joseph Haydn no less) is a little bit strange. Afterwards, when we finally made it to the Christkindlemarkt am Rathausplatz we were pretty hungry:

Huge baked potatoes piled high with chili con carne, bacon and onions, and ham and garlic sauce, respectively.

Das Wiener Rathaus

We stopped by another Adventmarkt in front of Schloss Schoenbrunn

Maria was a little bit afraid of St. Nicholas

Back at home, finally, we had a drink in honor of the good saint

St. Nicholas Cookies

While spent spent the day writing at the Schloss, the three ladies here worked away making cookies for tomorrow's feast of St. Nicholas.

Stirring the cookie dough

Adding the decoration

Awaiting St. Nicholas's arrival

St. Barbara

As well as being the feast day of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church, today is also the feast of the very popular St. Barbara. At least, that is, on the traditional calendar of the Roman Church. She, alas, with many other popular favorites (e.g. St. Christopher, St. Valentine), fell under the axe of the liturgical deformers. I've mentioned before, I think, that the overhaul of the calendar of saints is, in my opinion, one of the most grievous aspects of the post-VII liturgical deform. I say this because it reached not only into the public liturgy of the Church, but also into the private "liturgy" of the domestic church. The various customs which prevailed throughout much of the Church, by which the people marked the days and seasons, were suddenly felt to be on only a thin foundation. How does one still cut branches from an apple tree, to put in a vase and to water until Christmas, waiting for them to blossom with the coming of the Messiah, if St. Barbara has no more feast day?

Ostensibly acting in the name of the people, for the sake of the people, the liturgical "experts" proceeded to alter almost everything within their reach (it was only an intervention of the pope which prevented the liturgical commission from obliterating even the Roman Canon, the beating heart of the Church's spiritual life) according to their intellectualist notions of how things should be, and in doing so, ripped the rug right out from under the feet of the people whom they claimed to represent.

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.