New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve! What can I say? We're in quiet little Gaming, Lisa is very pregnant, and I'm a touch under the weather. We opened a tiny bottle of Sekt, and toasted the New Year 3 hours early. In fact, we didn't stay up until midnight last year either...

Prosit Neujahr!

Sixth Day in the Octave of Christmas

A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel. (Psalm) Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because He hath done wonderful things.

Another short and belated post because I spent the whole day sick, with the exception of about another hours worth of work for the school, taking out a bunch of recycling.

Commemoration of St. Thomas of Canterbury

Bishop and Martyr

Let us all rejoice in the Lord, celebrating a festal day in honor of blessed Thomas the Martyr: at whose martyrdom the Angels rejoice, and praise the Son of God. (Psalm) Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just: praise becometh the upright.

A short and belated post because I spent the whole day (10 hours) working for the school to prepare our new location in Trumau, nearer to Vienna. Our two tasks were raking the leaves in the courtyard of the castle, and taking down a whole lots of curtains for the sake of coming electricians who needed them out of the way. It was rather fun, and it is a huge blessing to be able to earn some money over the winter break.

Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity

While all things were in quiet silence and the night was in the midst of her course, Thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven from Thy royal throne. (Psalm) The Lord hath reigned, He is clothed with beauty: the Lord is clothed with strength, and hath girded Himself.

The Holy Innocents, Martyrs

Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings, O God, Thou hast perfected praise, because of Thine enemies. (Psalm) O Lord our God: how admirable is Thy name in the whole earth!

Two travel updates: (1) I have news from Katie that she and her co-adventurer have arrived safely in Florence, and are enjoying themselves greatly. They'll stay there again tonight before heading on to Siena. (2) The Dublin Airport's website reports that Aer Lingus flight 124 from Chicago is delayed, with a new arrival time estimated as 8:46 (Dublin time); and now we see that they have landed safely at 8:55.

St. John

Apostle and Evangelist

In the midst of the Church the Lord opened his mouth: and filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding: He clothed him with a robe of glory. (Psalm) It is good to give praise to the Lord: and to sing to Thy name, O Most High. Glory be to the Father. In the midst...

Happy feast of St. John. Today is John's name day, and we celebrated by relaxing. There's not much to post about, because we didn't do much today. But that's a good thing, because after the baby arrives I think days like this will be few and far between.

St. Stephen

First Martyr

Princes sat, and spoke against me: and the wicked persecuted me: help me, O Lord my God, for Thy servant was employed in Thy justifications. (Psalm) Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Glory be to the Father. Princes...

I dropped Katie and her friend Jessica off at the train station this morning at 6:30 for the beginning of their Italian vacation. We have news that their flight from Vienna landed safely in Venice early this afternoon, and I'm sure that they are strolling around in Venice right now. They were still adjusting their travel plans even late last night, but it's settled as least that they'll stay tonight in Venice, and then two nights in Florence, two in Siena, and two in Norcia. After that point it's not so clear, but they should be in Rome from about 2 Jan. '09 until their flight back to Bratislava on 9 Jan. '09.

Into the way of peace and prosperity direct them, O almighty and merciful God: and may the Angel Raphael accompany them in the way, and may they return in peace, health and joy unto their own homes.

Christmas Greetings from Maria

The Nativity of Our Lord

A Child is born to us, and a Son is given to us: Whose government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called the Angel of great counsel. (Psalm) Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because He hath done wonderful things. Glory be to the Father... A Child is born...

Frohe Weihnachten! 

Merry Christmas!

Pictures of our Christmas morning are here. Divine Liturgy was at 10:00 and now we are back home preparing a lasagna feast for dinner.

Christmas Eve

This day you shall know that the Lord will come, and save us: and in the morning you shall see His glory. (Psalm) The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world and all they that dwell therein. Glory be to the Father... This day...

Merry Christmas Eve! We got up today and started cooking. Of course, when I say "we" I really mean "they", as in Lisa and Katie, but as you can see, I did help with the rolling of the pasta dough for the ravioli.

The Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great with Great Vespers was at 3:00, which was very nice, although it meant that we again missed the arrival of the Bethlehem light. After the Liturgy, I went over to the parish church to light our Christmas candle from the above mentioned light, while Lisa got the ravioli cooking. Dinner was delicious, and I insisted on playing Pavarotti's Christmas album to accompany our Italian dinner.

Maria is sleeping now, and is very excited that baby Jesus is coming tomorrow (and that she gets to open her presents tomorrow). Some of her grandparents (which is to say all of them) made sure that there is quite a little pile under the Christmas tree for her.

O Emmanuel

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the desire of the nations and the Savior thereof, come to save us, O Lord our God.

Vienna was very nice today, good weather, etc. We wanted to have lunch in the Naschmarkt and to wander around the big Adventmarkts, and we did both. Below is the Christkindlmarkt in front of the Rathous in Vienna.

It only rained on us for about 20 minutes, and we managed to take shelter in the Adventmarkt in the Museum Quarter to wait it out with hot chocolate. Maria enjoyed that idea thoroughly.

O Rex Gentium

O King of the Gentiles and the desire thereof, Thou cornerstone that makest both one, come and deliver mankind, whom Thou didst form out of clay.

What a day! Wow, this one will live in infamy. It started out innocently enough. We all piled into the Toyota van (yes, it matters that it was the Toyota, keep reading) with the Sinitsins and their two kids, and headed for Wieselburg for Lisa's doctor's appointment (everything is going well on that front) and some shopping in the big (relative only to Gaming) Mall. After that, we would head back toward Gaming, stopping in Purgstall first and then in Scheibbs for groceries. 

Well, first there was poor little Amalia's vomiting in the car on the way to Wieselburg, then, half way through our time there we were told that someone else was coming to trade us the VW van for the Toyota; fine and good. We also learned that the VW was needed back in Gaming by 3:30, latest 4:00, so that the Ave Maria students could head for the airport for their flights home. Well that meant that we really had to hurry. 

So we finished eating lunch in Wieselburg, and headed for Purgstall where we made the van exchange. Lisa and Katie ran into Kik (something like a dollar store, but a pretty good one) for some 5 minute Christmas shopping, and we headed for Scheibbs with about 45 minutes to do serious Christmas grocery shopping for two families. We made it through one store, but on the way through the parking lot toward the next I made a turn too sharply in an excessively large van and hit a curb with the right rear tire.... which blew. 

Slawa and I spent the next 40 minutes or so (rusty screws) changing the tire, while the women made record time shopping. We pulled into the Kartause courtyard at 3:50 where we met the surprisingly calm Ave Maria students, who, hopefully, made their flights on time. We, of course, since we had to rush to get them the van, had no choice but to unload our shopping at the Kartause, with far too much to carry the kilometer or so to our homes. I had to borrow the ITI car, which since it was too small for all of us meant that we first loaded it up with the Sinitsins' groceries, and I drove them home and unloaded, and then came back to load up again with our stuff (and ourselves). 

On the bright side, before driving our stuff home, we checked out the abandoned stuff in the Ave Maria common room and made out like bandits. I think we picked up as much there as we did on our entire trip. So, that's my story.

Fourth Sunday of Advent (O Oriens)

O Day-Spring, Brightness of light eternal, and Sun of Justice, come and enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

St. Thomas, Apostle (II Class)

St. Thomas doubted the Lord's Resurrection... but invited by our Lord to place his fingers into the Holy Wounds he passed suddenly from incredulity to ardent faith, exclaiming: "My Lord and my God!" He became one of the greatest Apostolic missionaries and died in India in the first century.

For some reason the Divine Liturgy was cancelled this morning, which meant that we went to the Roman Rite Mass in the main Kartause chapel. Although I could have done without the guitars (see Tra le Sollecitudini), it was nice to hear the Gospel of the Annunciation at Mass. In the Tridentine Rite it would have been read last Wednesday for the Golden Mass, while today's would be John the Baptist preaching repentance. Anyways, though, the point is that there is a beautiful connection between Christmas and the Annunciation as the two feast days that highlight above all the Incarnation of our Lord.

At the end of his homily, the priest read an excerpt from St. Bernard of Clairvaux's In laudibus Virginis Matris, homily 4, 8:

The angel awaits your answer, for it is time for him to return to the one who sent him. ... O Lady, answer with the word that earth and hell and, yes, even heaven are waiting for. Just as the Lord and King yearned for your beauty, so equally now he longs for you to respond with your agreement.... Why are you hesitating? Why are you fearful? ... Behold, the one for whom all peoples are longing stands without and knocks on the door. Ah, what if he were to pass on because you hesitated.... Stand up, hasten, open up! Stand up in faith, hasten in your devotion, open up by your assent! 

Text copied from God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life by Joseph Ratzinger, trans. Henry Taylor (San Francisco: Ignatius, 2003), p. 19.