Beautiful Whirlwind

When I first arrived here in Austria, I was honestly a little worried that I would have sooo much extra time, and that I'd be sitting around doing nothing for hours.  In the last 4 days, I have realized that I couldn't have been more wrong, and that is a wonderful thing.

Saturday morning, we woke up early, ate a hurried breakfast, and jumped on board a bus to Vienna!  After the 2-hour drive, we arrived and walked to Mass (which was at a Cistercian Monastery).  Following Mass, we had an hour long walking tour of the city which led to our lunching location- the Twelve Apostles Keller.  3 flights of stairs into the basement, and we were in what seemed like a safe place to be if a bomb went off.  It was a cute bomb shelter, though :D

My friends ordered wine, I got a lovely cup of coffee, and we all had traditional Wienerschnitzel, German potato salad, and apple streusel!

Following lunch, we were on our own for 5 hours.  My friends and I decided to venture to the National Treasury, where we saw Imperial robes, baptismal sets (be warned: my expectations for the Baptisms of my future nieces and nephews have been raised! :P hehe), and lots of relics: a piece of the true Cross, a piece of St. John's robes, relics of all 12 apostles, St. Veronica's veil, and many more!

  

And then we did what every awesome Catholic tour group does: Church hopping!  We visited 4 or 5 different churches; oh, goodness, were they beautiful!  Our faith is just full of beauty upon beauty, and I absolutely love it!

After running around chasing a good place to eat dinner, the group split up: half ate dessert in a small cafe, and the other half (including myself) ate "real dinner" in .... an Italian restaurant.  Except we didn't know it was Italian until we were seated.  I have to say- it was delicious!  I had gnocchi with a garlic sauce, spinach, and tomatos.  We had our first experience of ordering (and paying for) water, and of giving a much smaller tip than we're used to.  European culture is so interesting!

The drive back to the Kartause was rather uninteresting... pretty much everyone slept :D

Sunday was also uneventful, except for Mass (where all the Liturgical minsters were commissioned!) and a wonderful brunch (waffles and Nutella, anyone?).

This semester, I have once again volunteered to be the student head of the Extraordinary Ministers, so I'll be working with one of the sisters here for that.  I will also be her "assistant" of sorts, with other things she may need.  I started today, and I'm excited to be serving in this way again!

And THEN, I said a couple posts ago that I hoped to help one of the families here with their children..... I will actually be helping TWO families!  One will be on Wednesday mornings, and the other on Thursday mornings.  I start on Wednesday, and I am extremely excited...

That's one thing I am loving about Gaming- the professors and their families are so much more present and accessible to us students!  I don't fault the professors on main campus for doing otherwise, but when we're all far away from our families here in Europe, it's nice to have families who are willing to let us into their lives for at least a short time.  Most, if not all, of the Kartause families attend daily Mass with us, and we see the children playing in the snow in the courtyard on a regular basis.  Such a blessing!

Oh yeah, and we've got some homework too :P  Meaning, I have lots of reading to do for almost every class.... at least it interesting!  Yes, even Philosophy, although my encouraging brother has assured me that I will very quickly dislike it.  We shall see, we shall see....

All that being said, there is no possible way that I'm going to be bored while I'm here.

So long for now, I must go clean my room for our room check tomorrow!!

~Allison

The Beauty of Faith

Being a Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion (EM) is truly a blessing.  It never gets "old", and there isn't a single Mass that I minister where I'm not blown away by what I am doing and Who I am holding.  Sometimes, though, there are Masses that make me three times as excited to minister in this way.

Yesterday, I distributed the Precious Body at Saturday morning Mass.  It brings me so much joy to see people receive the God of the universe.  I am always especially struck by the people who are obviously excited to receive Jesus.  I'll be honest, usually these people are women.  But yesterday, a guy approached; he was really tall and I had to reach up as I went to place the Host on his tongue.  And as I did so, his face lit up.  He smiled and said what was possibly the most reverent "Amen" I've ever heard.  He received Our Lord with such a simple joy that it made me tremendously joyful.  I don't know who he was, but he made me think about the Eucharist a lot after Mass.

How often does receiving Jesus become just "part of the Mass"?  Do we always understand Who is coming into our very beings?  He's not just a Man who was raised from the dead; He's our God!  This guy's beautiful faith reminded me how incredible Mass truly is!

xoxo,

Holding Jesus

Last Friday, I had the privilege of distributing Jesus' Precious Body for the first time.  Because the priests always distribute Jesus' Body, the EMs most often distribute the Precious Blood.  (Lest you think I'm complaining, I most certainly not.)

Yes, I have held Jesus in my hands when I receive Communion in my hands, but because I most often receive on the tongue, I don't have the chance to hold Jesus that often.  (I prefer receiving on the tongue because there is less of a chance on dropping a particle.  Just a personal preference.)

But on Friday, there was only one priest, so I was assigned to distribute the Precious Body.

Wow.

It is truly a different experience from distributing the Precious Blood.  When you have the opportunity to hold Jesus in your hands, not in a chalice or ciborium but physically in your hands, it is a whole new experience of adoration.  I never fully understood what someone meant when he said he used EMing as adoration, but now I do.

I was also assigned to purify the vessels after mass, which I had done about 4 times before.  The guy I was purifying with made a comment about what he thought about when distributing the Precious Blood.  He said that he always thinks of himself as Veronica, wiping the blood from Jesus' face, because that's essentially what we're doing.  Now I have something concrete to meditate on when I distribute under either species.

If you EM, what do you think about as you bring Jesus to the Church?