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")