Pilgrimage to Heiligen Kreuz

We haven't talked about the Stift Heiligenkreuz.   Not far from here is the monastery which used to be the center of all the lands around here, and which has a college and many devoted monks, young and old.  Pater Edmund Waldstein invited us to the profession of four monks and so we experienced our first German and Latin Mass on the Assumption.  The huge gothic cathedral is full of beautiful statues, wood carvings, stained glass, and its greatest namesake treasure, the largest piece of the True Cross north of the Alps.  It is housed in a monstrance and kept on the altar.  For the skeptics that think there's probably enough relics of the "true" cross to rebuild Noah's ark, a fellow in the 1800s did some calculations based on the weight a man could reasonably carry, and the total pieces claimed to be floating around, and found the collected pieces not even nearly adding up to enough to be comparable.  Not that that proves anything,  but it seems a little premature to dismiss a tradition going back hundreds of years, just because it is a tradition!  Here's an article that discusses some of this: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/taking-the-measure-of-relics-of-the-true-cross
Afterwards Pater Edmund invited us to the dinner celebration in the courtyard, as a traditional Austrian band played for us in honor of one of the newly professed, who was a member of their band.   P. Edmund gave us a tour of the monastery, and explained the meaning of many of the paintings, the reason for the particular architectural shape, the history of its founding, and we saw the funeral chapel, where the monks are laid for 24 hours before burial, which had creepy black skeleton statues.  P. Edmund said with a big smile: "When I die, I will be laid here."    /http://www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org/english/

 Pilgrims returning, Jakie and Irene in front

 Pater Edmund on the cover of their newest CD

 Clouds over our buildings

 Trumau parish church

 Irene's school

 Jenny on the deck



Rachel, David and Maureen went for a walk in Baden, happened upon Beethoven's house and also some dancers in the street:

  Beethoven's house in Baden (where he composed the 9th symphony)

St Stephan's in Baden


Last week most of the family joined the ITI students for a pilgrimage walk to Heiligenkreuz monastery (20 K) on Sunday in honor of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Kreuzerhöhung) which is a big deal feast there. They pulled out all the stops at the Mass, (literally, since the organist is particularly dramatic) and with all those singing monks (the ones who make the famous Chant CDs) singing Latin, as well as beloved German hymns in the large Gothic cathedral, it was spectacular, though for many of the pilgrims it was chiefly a chance to sit down!   The homily was by Cardinal Schönborn, the fellow who started the ITI with some others, and who was also instrumental in writing and organizing the latest Cathechism of the Catholic Church.  After Mass there was a procession, but there were so many people in the church that by the time they all joined the procession it had come around and re-entered the church...we all trooped around to the wall behind the altar to pray and sing about the Holy Cross, and to kiss the relic of the cross and receive a blessing.  The priest doing this amazed me, as he had the happiest smiling face while he focused on each person receiving the blessing, and intoned song after song and prayer after prayer.  This is one of the prayers on the cards they handed out: "Wir beten Dich an, Herr Jesus Christus, und preisen Dich.  Denn durch Dein heiliges Kreuz hast Du die Welt erlöst" (we adore you O Christ and we bless you, because by Your holy Cross You have redeemed the world")

School Begins!

Happy Birthday, Madeleine!

Mariazell

 

At the Monastery in Melch. 

       Now that it's September 16th, I thought it an appropriate time to wish Madeleine a Happy Birthday on the blog! Keeping with the Quackenbush tradition of not celebrating too close to the actual day. Monday, September 5th was not only Madeleine's birthday, (we wish we could have been with you to celebrate, Madeleine!) but it was the first day of school for all of us. Rosie and I had our matriculation ceremony at the ITI, after singing for Mass at the parish in Trumau and a procession back to campus. The ceremony was in a  room in the Schloss--where all the classes take place. For some reason a room full of silent people staring at somebody signing their name in a book cracked me up, as well as the fact that each person carefully replaced the lid to the pen, meaning that each next person had to carefully remove it again three seconds later.  Other than that and the fact that I took five times as long as everybody else because the pen confused me, there's not much more to report.

Afterward there was common lunch, and the girls arrived back from their first day of school. Rachel, Claire and Jacinta are all going to a school near Baden (about 12 minutes away I think...?) called Don Bosco, (some of the other kids from the ITI go there also,) and Irene is going to the Volkschule just a few blocks away. Irene's been doing fairly well there and enjoying it I think, (she just got moved up a level because she's simply too smart, although she usually offhandedly remarks that school was "fine. I sat in a room and listened to people say a bunch of stuff I couldn't understand." But I think she's picking up a lot of German all the same) but the other girls are having a bit of a rough transition. Beginning a new school in a new country is a big enough change for me and Rosie here at the ITI, I can't imagine

Day before school, on our way back
from Marizell. We stopped to get Eis
and visit a church in a beautiful valley along
 the way, and Jakie and Claire made a new friend. 

beginning it in a new language as well! They certainly are troopers.
On their first day, Claire reports that during a break Jakie left her classroom to find Claire's and make sure that the "other kids were being nice to her." This was no small feat in Claire's eyes, who had had some difficulty figuring out where her class was supposed to be, and hadn't yet understood that the teacher leaving the room and everything erupting in chaos meant "break," and that apparently when everybody started yelling, "Sie kommt! Sie kommt!" and scrambling back to their seats that this meant break was over. Anyway, Jakie did not seem too daunted by this, and didn't let her uncertainty about what was going on stop her from checking on her sister! It's been fun to hear Claire's description of the other students and their reactions to the Americans. Claire says that they'll crowd around and ask questions, and if she replies then they seem taken aback, excited and surprised, as if to say, "It speaks!" Apparently yesterday the only student in her class who hadn't spoken to her yet came up to Claire and said with a timid smile, "You are long and shiny." Claire thinks that what was intended was "You're hair is long and shiny."

Brownie Picnic!

     Rosie and I are doing well and enjoying things for the most part! We've been playing soccer on the weekends with the other students, (last week it was all guys except us two and one other girl) which has been a lot of fun. Usually it means walking around a bit awkwardly for a few days afterward due to soreness, but it seems worth it to me. Rosie is still playing guitar and learning a bunch of neat songs and singing them over and over and over and over. Last weekend she made brownies, and we went for a LONG walk to the other side of campus (approximately 3 minutes) to the plum orchard to have a brownie picnic and sing/play guitar. We're both enjoying our readings, although classes are taking some getting used to. Rosie isn't too thrilled by them, I think there's hardly any talking on the students' parts' in her class, and I'm also learning how to just sit and listen more than to discuss. However, this week there seemed to be a little more student participation than last week, and there really is a lot one can learn from reading and then just listening to the professors, although it feels very different than TAC. Today Rosie is going with her Fine Arts class to Vienna, and hopefully we'll get an update about what that's like. :)

Heureger! Waiting for seats, food and wine!

     Last weekend there was a swing dance class that Rosie, Claire and I went to. It was fun and led very well, for beginners, and it has gotten Claire extremely interested in learning more! Every day she says, "Gemma, are you too tired to do some dancing today?" and so hopefully now that it's the weekend for me, (I only have one class on Fridays) we'll be able to practice some more. Rosie, Claire, Rachel and I also went with a big group of students to a heuriger after the dance class. We drove to a bunch of vineyards where the farmers set up shop and sell their new wine and some food. After some difficulty finding enough seating, we looked at the menu to see if we could order any food. We were with several other Americans who didn't know German, so we decided to get one of everything on the menu. (Little starters and things.) Unfortunately, after we had finally decided there turned out to be no food left, so we just ordered two liters of wine for ten euro and shared it around. The heuriger one vineyard over was playing some loud, catchy dance music, and eventually us Quacks and the family we were with got tired of dignified relaxation and conversation, and made our way over to the other one, where we danced the night away. :) It was a blast, and rather exhausting, so when we'd had enough the girls and I wandered through one of the vineyards and plopped down in the grass to star-gaze.

Marizell!

    The Sunday before school started we went with the school on a pilgrimage to Mariazell, the town with the Church that is the home of the the most visited shrine in Europe. Our Lady of Mariazell was visited by JPII and declared to be the patroness of Austria, the "zell" has something to do with the monastic cells that were there originally. It was a beautiful church and town, and we got to stop at several other places on the way there and back. We stopped in Gaming where the ITI used to be--a much more scenically beautiful area than Trumau--and Father Juraij from the ITI gave us a tour of the place. It was interesting to hear about how hard it was for people to have to leave there when the school moved, but also how beneficial and good, as they were reminded that the value and beauty of the school was in the people, not the place. When we arrived and finally found the group (we drove separately, everyone else took a bus), we had a big group lunch--one huge pot of soup for everyone to share and lots of cold beer.

At a Monastery in Melch that we visited on our
way back from Mariazell!

Our first stop on the way To Marizell, Mom and
Irene we're looking for a WC (bathroom). This
is some sort of cellar thing under the Church.
As I took this picture I heard Irene say, "Well,
it looks dark and dreary enough to be a potty."

Enjoying a Sunday Breakfast with the Parish!

     Sunday we went to Mass at the parish in Trumau, and then went over to the Church hall for "coffee." This turned out to be more like a feast with all sorts of pastries, wine and bread. We enjoyed talking with wonderful Pater Pio, the Parish's hilarious and holy priest.
     I thought it should be mentioned that Claire, along with going to school, learning German, and picking up dancing, has taken up carpentry. (Sort of.) A few weeks ago she opened her top drawer full of clothes and it fell out of the dresser and lay smashed on the floor. So we ordered two nice dressers from IKEA, and they arrived a few days ago. However, they had to be put together upon arrival. So for the last two days, with Jenny's help and then all on her own, Claire's been screwing and hammering and banging in our living room, cheerfully chatting away about school while building her dressers! I went to bed last night with her still working, and this morning there are two lovely, completed dressers standing in the living room. Good job Claire!

Rosie in a church on our way
to Marizell.

The Daily Stuff

           

Jakie: "Heloooo there, my adoring fans..."
Irene: "I'm coming for YOU."
Rosie: "Heh heh, we're normal! We're happy!"
Claire: "Please let this be a normal field-trip..."

     We arrived back in Trumau about a week ago, and since then have been finishing up (or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say beginning) the last minute school preparations. Today Rosie and I finally had some meetings over at the Schloss with various school officials, and now we have a slightly better idea of what we'll be doing this year academic-wise. It has been rather odd to be aware all this time, in the back of our minds, that we were going to be starting school here soon, while knowing next to nothing about it! As of today, however, Claire, Rachel, Jacinta and Irene have their schools squared away and ready to go, and Rosie and I have our stack of books, and all that's left to do (in my case anyway) is to actually get accepted to the school as a student so that I won't get kicked out of the country! So I've spent today writing an essay on a segment of Saint Athanasius' "On the Incarnation," and resisting the temptation to just copy and paste his work since he says it better than I do anyway. As Dad put it while we walked back from our successful, clarifying meetings and with arms full of our long-awaited books, "Well, there've been many confusions and random details and challenges, and probably more to come, but from "about to start packing up all our stuff to fly to Europe," I think we've come a long way!" Then he said, "Oh, Rosie, I'm about to go sign some papers saying that you have in fact graduated high school. You've graduated high school. Congratulations."
Rosie, mildly surprised: "Oh. Thank you."
Rosie says that this is what we call an "informal graduation ceremony."

Congratulations Rosie!

     A few days ago Rosie's new guitar arrived in the mail, and now I think it's staying in tune a little better than when it first arrived and she plays it as beautifully as ever. Irene's violin arrived today, and it looks grand although the bridge is bent and the strings aren't tuned (and look surprisingly difficult to tune...).

Can't wait to start playing
with you again, Irene!

Our expedition begins!

      Day before yesterday all of us girls (except Rosie, who stayed at home to draw the most adorable picture of Gianna) went on the search for ice-cream. We walked an hour along a train track to get to Traiskirchen, the town close by that has most of the grocery stores that we go to and, of course, ice-cream shops. We were originally going to walk along the road, but there is no place for pedestrians and it was stressful with so many cars. So we thought it would be LESS stressful to walk along a currently used train track for an hour! So we did. And it's true, it was lots of fun. We were very careful and alert of course, and right near the end we heard some whistling of a sort, saw some cars stopping ahead and decided to jump off the track down the slope a bit. A one car tram thingie whizzed by and I think we were all a little proud of our "narrow" escape.              

Eis officially GOT.

You know can't leave me now. 

Just before lift-off.

     Irene and I went for a walk yesterday to find a playground that Mom and I had discovered a few weeks ago, and we had fun playing on a neat zip-line. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it meant that I missed the first school meeting I was supposed to go to, for new students, but I've been discovering that playgrounds are important. And that European playgrounds are really fun. I did intend to get back in time, but Irene is very sneaky and used the old, "NO, don't go! You're already gonna be late anyway.... We'll never come back if we leave now..." As you can see, WHO could resist such persuasive arguments? Anyway, it didn't end up mattering much, and we timed it just right so that I got back in time to realize that it would simply be too awkward to walk in in the middle, so we went right back to the playground and the river near it and splashed around to our hearts' content.

Yay we're almost legal!

Except us two.  I don't think
we'll ever be legal.

     We had a successful trip to Baden to apply for Visas for everybody (except Rosie and I are too old to just be here as part of the family and have to be officially accepted as students so we can reapply as such, hence the rushed ITI application process), and we got to have a nice Kebap lunch in the warm rain afterward.
     All in all, all's going all well! However, there has been some sickness going around, and Mom's foot is pretty painful for her. She's trying not to walk on it, but she hasn't had much of a chance to rest it because of Mom-duties and the need for her German speaking capabilities in registering the girls. So prayers are appreciated!