On Monday we started our stay in Austria off with a trip to the major Marian Basilica in the region, Maria Tarefl. The location has a long history of Religious activity that we learned a little bit about. You can see my pictures on Facebook. Up on the hill is not only the Basilica but also a mini tourist village. Most of the shops and hotels are named in association with Our Lady in some way or another. We were treated to a delicious three course meal at the Hotel Rose. Wonderful. There are also pictures of that. I didn’t take pictures of everything but I did snap a pic of the dessert. It was just too perfect to not capture.

After we left Maria Tarefl, we went to Melk. Melk is a very old Benedictine abbey. It is the only abbey that continued to operate when the Austrian government closed all the monasteries in Austria. The only reason it was permitted to stay open was because it operated a school and still contributed to society. We were able to tour the church, dining room, various treasure rooms and some of the library collections. The place was phenomenal. The church was littered with fabulous baroque decor, elaborate statues, paintings, side altars. All way too much to be contained in a picture, not to mention that old churches are hardly the place to take pictures, they rarely come out. Maybe it is because the are just so beautifully made. The library had thousands upon thousands of books. I did a good number of great pictures which…again…can be seen on Facebook.

Tuesday at the Kartause was full of orientation meetings, tours of our living quarters, classrooms, and facilities we are allowed to use as students here in Gaming. We’ve got laundry, computers, fitness, tea kitchens, common areas, huge rooms (ours has a vaulted ceiling) all within the dorm portion of the Kartause. It is strange to think that hundreds of years ago, twenty four Carthusian monks lived here, in silence, praying for the world.

In the afternoon, we were given a special tour of areas of the Kartause that are normally locked and restricted. First everyone was given a history of the Kartause and the Church by one of the professors here. The Kartause used to be inhabited by twenty four Carthusian monks who prayed and worked in silence for hundreds of years. At one point, one of the Austrian emperors, who was influenced by the enlightenment period, decided that unless a monastery was useful to society, it would be closed down. So the monks had to leave and the complex was vacated. Over time it fell into disrepair. Austria was drawn and quartered about the time of World War II and Gaming, the village where the Kartause is in, lay in the Russian Quarter. The place was home to 5,000 troops, the church was used as the stables. After the war ended and Austria was restored a private architect purchased the monastery in hopes of restoring it. The job he has done is a beautiful one. The church now shows no traces that it was used as a stable, most of the paintings on the walls have been restored. The architect invited Franciscan University to the Kartause for it’s study abroad program and we now share it with the Hotel Kartause. The architect now has a private residence located inside the monastery.

We were also taken to the Baroque Library. It is a fabulously decorated room that used to house tons of books. Most of the books have been moved to the Austrian National Library by the historical organization. The only books that remain now are those of the private library of the architect who restored the place. The paintings on the ceiling can hardly be called paintings as they come to life, some are even three dimensional in some aspects. See Facebook…the link is the same as above.

After that we split into groups and ours really got to explore. We went onto the roof. Well not on top outside. The roof is actually in three parts. first there is the peak you see. Then underneath that you see the original indoor roof. Then, after the monks complained of sore throats from the draft due to the high ceiling, the roof was lowered, but the old one was not removed. So we were able to walk on top of the current roof one sees from inside the church and on top of the original roof of the church. Around the faux dome which is above the sanctuary we were able to walk around and there is graffiti from the occupying Russians still etched into the construct. I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of the roof. Besides that my battery was low, I was, truthfully, a tad scared of dropping it and not, safely, being able to recover it. But I did get a few pictures from through the windows up top that are pretty impressive to see how far up the roof is. I’m not going to lie. I was worried. The RDs were up there making sure everyone was safe but they were certain to impress that not too many people could be on certain parts of the roof…just in case if wasn’t stable and we were to crash into the church. A comforting thought for sure.

After our roof excursion we walked through a small museum of old treasures from the monastery. There were lots of old altars, and pictures and the like. It was strange through because it was outdoors. The highlight of the afternoon though, besides almost falling through two ceilings, was visiting the Byzantine chapel. It is a very unique chapel as, the Carthusians were of the Latin Rite. However, for many years, the International Theological Institute was also housed in the Kartause. Many of it’s students are from countries formerly to the East of the Berlin Wall and are of the Eastern (or Byzantine) Rite. They wanted a place on campus that was intrinsic to their faith tradition and so, following the rituals involved in painting icons in the Byzantine tradition, fasting and heavy prayer, they transformed this small room into a beautiful masterpiece of a chapel. The flow of the faith is so strong, the balance of the room is seamless, the care taken in it’s making extreme. Pictures of this beautiful portion of campus will have to follow as my camera battery was dead by this point. But worry not. This chapel, unlike most of the other sights we saw, is open 24/7.

I decided to get more involved in liturgical ministries while I am here so I went to the Eucharistic Minister and Sacristan training. It is cool to be able to serve in such an old church. When you walk into the sacristy you can feel the cool stone all around you. You can look up and see the old Gothic ceiling that has crusted away over time.

The Church is absolutely beautiful, having been restored as best as possible. Some of the areas are still blotted out from years of decay and having been painted over by various occupants. Large sections of some places are missing, faces of various angels on the walls, windows and ceiling are missing, but a vast majority has been restored.

The side chapel used for Eucharistic Adoration and Liturgy of the Hours is very simple. The altar is not movable as it seems to have been built into the chapel, possible from a majority of ‘cement’. The walls are solely white with the exception of the Gothic ceiling decor which, is also very simple. The tabernacle is perhaps the strangest of all. Like the altar it was built right into the chapel, being just the right dimensions for the monstrance it is made of stone perhaps but is very simple, only faced with the Pax symbol (P crossed with an X, a symbol for Christ). It’s amazing how old this stuff is.

Thursday marked the first day of classes, and I started off with Foundations of Ethics. We have a visiting Colombian professor who is just great. His accent is fun to listen to but not hard to understand (a very important thing mind you). The class promises to be lots of reading but a rewarding one. We will be reading lots of selections from various philosophers from the ages, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, C.S. Lewis, and plenty others, all in the 16 weeks we are here. I’m excited.

Later in the afternoon I took my Video Conference class back on main campus. It is to help fulfill my computer science minor requirements. Unfortunately I missed the first class since we were not in session so I get to play catch up but, it happens. It is very interesting taking class through a TV. We also have a projector set up in the room that is connected to our professor’s computer back in the states so that we can see what he is showing the class in the flesh rather than via the TV screen. The only issue is that sometimes the professor with go to the board and is doing an example, and before we can finish taking notes…he covers it back up again with the screen. I guess we will just have to learn how to take notes faster.

Open hours here in Austria are very lax compared to main campus. Perhaps because everyone is in the same dorm anyways, and perhaps because there are less of us to manage. Whatever the reason there are open hours every day. If you aren’t familiar, at Franciscan students of opposite gender are not allowed to be in one’s room except during open hours. These are normally very strict, twice a week, for limited time. Opposite gender can only be wandering the halls during certain hours as well. In Austria, open hours start in the early afternoon and end at 8pm, or midnight on non-class nights. The same rules apply, a “chastity light” must be on and the door must be wide open, but other than that they are quite free. Not that there aren’t places to watch movies, or hang out 24/7. Almost every floor has a little tea kitchen or common area which are open 24/7. The tea kitchens are a real kitchen with stove, sink, dishwasher (some), fridge, and a nice collection of dishes. The Mensa (our cafeteria of sorts) is also open 24/7, although there isn’t food all that time but water is in great abundance. Speaking of water, I have not tasted such beautiful tap water in all my life. Crystal clear, no strange taste, no after-taste, real water. It’s great. Especially since you have to get any other drinks from a vending machine (using Euro cents naturally).

Thursday’s Mass was with the Bishop of the local diocese. Such a holy man. He was General Vicar for Opus Dei from 1970 to 1989 until he was appointed Bishop of Feldkirch and then from there in 2004 was appointed Bishop of Sankt Pölten. He was hard to understand but he was very good at communicating in English for not using it very much. It was quite the experience to see him celebrate the Mass. Very reverent, very pious, very holy.

The snow finally landed. Some sprinkled down Thursday but this Monday morning we have lots of snow. It sort of makes it difficult to get around. It’s a good thing the Monks thought of that when they designed the Kartause. You can get almost anywhere without leaving cover. But what fun would that be? I posted some pictures of the first snowfall on Facebook. And I am planning on taking more sometime this week.

Saturday we took a trip to Vienna for the day. We started off with Mass at a Capuchin church in the First District. It was a beautiful church. Simple architecture but elaborate where it counts. The tabernacle was gorgeous. You might say that Jesus has his own apartment with a spare room for guests. It was huge! Adorned surrounding with plenty of plant life and shining candles. The back of the wall was covered with huge murals depicting Christ in various images. A side altar had a large Pieta upon it. Words can barely describe.

After Mass we went on a walking tour of Vienna, just staying in the First District (the center of town). We got to see two different churches, St Peters (baroque style) and St Stephens (gothic style). Both were very awesome. It was hard to take pictures inside because I didn’t know where to point the lens at. While walking around the Palace, we passed by the Spanish Riding School where are kept the Lipizzan horses of Austria. If you haven’t heard about them, they were given to Austria as a gift. They are very prestigious and very talented. They have a long history of relocation and protection in order to protect the breed. They can be seen performing worldwide showing off their talents to all.

After the tour we had a delicious lunch of Wiener Schnitzel at a restaurant near the Palace. It was very delicious. The Director of the Austrian program and Fr Brad (one of the Friars stationed here in Gaming) both said it was the best they had ever had. Post-lunch, we all split up to freely roam about the city. Greg, along with our friends Annie, Laura, Joe, Kelley, Emily and myself, trekked up to Belvedere Palace which used to be the Summer Palace of the prince. We were going to go on the tour of the place but we apparently bought the wrong tickets and only got to walk through the Upper Palace. What we got to see was well worth what we paid, and we wouldn’t have had time for anything more as it were. We saw beautiful paintings and sculptures, and rooms. Gorgeous. Unfortunately we were not able to take our cameras into the rooms with the art so I don’t have any pictures of the inside of the Palace. But take my word for it, the place has plenty of great stuff to see. We didn’t even see a fraction and we were in awe.

We spent most of our day in Belvedere and headed back to the center of Vienna at dusk. We found the Hotel Sacher which is famous for its original Sachertorte. There is a great story behind how it became so famous but, you will just have to research it yourself. However you can see the delectable dessert which we all encountered on Wikipedia if you care to drool.

The day was long but so worth seeing the city. It was beautiful and calm. Apparently Vienna is said to be the safest and slowest of the big cities. Nobody rushes anywhere! (Quite the opposite of NYC). Pictures from the Vienna excursion are posted…again on Facebook.

As I type this we are entering our second week in Gaming. The first week has been so amazing and exhausting but so worth it. I excited to delve into my classes and get this semester moving! It feels like I’ve been here for ages already (not that this is a bad thing mind you). If you could have the chance to spend even a little time here at the Kartause, I strongly encourage you to. If you already have, then you know why. The place has an uplifting feeling deep inside it. Knowing that the monks lived here in silence, praying for those at the Kartause and for the world, day and night settles me, knowing that I am well protected. Did you know that the Monks never slept for more than three hours at a time? They woke up to pray throughout the night. They could look our their window at the moon dial to see if it was time to pray yet. Talk about devotion!

Well I have taken quite enough time writing this post up, and you have enough to read now so I shall say Au Revoir, go to class, then start on my next post.

God Bless You!
Chris