Day #96-98 : Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

The Mariathron for Easter!

The Mariathron statue, unveiled for Easter!

I had a beautiful Easter here in Gaming! I went to my first Easter Vigil on Saturday evening. The Mariathron chapel was beautifully decorated for the liturgy, as you can see from the picture. Below is the Mariathron statue, Mary enthroned with Christ on her lap. We began the liturgy out in the courtyard as the sun was setting behind the mountains, blanketed in dark greens of the pines and the lighter greens of the trees. Each of us received candles. The altar boys lit a fire in the courtyard and we lit our candles with a flame from the fire. Then we processed into the dark church and the liturgy began. The Psalms and the readings were so beautiful - of course, it's Scripture, but still... Professor Cassady, our professor from Scotland, chanted the Exultet in English. His voice rose into the rafters of the church along with the incense smoke, deep, beautiful, and reverent. He is one of my favorite professors here on campus, although I don't have a class with him. However, he still knows my name and he still says hello to me. He is also always so reverent at Mass, so absorbed, elevated into the sacred mysteries. One of the LCI students - they are foreign students studying English here at the Kartause - was confirmed at the Vigil, a 

Hungarian by the name of Augustun. 

After the liturgy we had a small Resurrection party with lots of goodies and fellowship. I got to meet Professor Newton, the British professor who teaches sacraments here on campus. He had thanked me for leading music for Holy Thursday after Mass that day, and he asked me tonight if I was a sacred music major. I told him yes. He said, "I understand that the music at the university has changed a lot over the past three years." I told him yes, and it was due largely to the arrival of the sacred music program here on campus. I told him we were going to Vienna for Easter Morning Mass and he informed me of a monastery a little outside Vienna with about 40 monks or so who do some beautiful chanting. I told him that I hoped one day that we could get the sacred music program here in Austria some day. He told me to talk to Professor Wolter about it, and that, "he was very open to new ideas." Perhaps I'll make a stop in to his office before the semester's over...

Easter morning my friend Sylvie and I set out for Vienna at 6 in the morning. We said Morning Prayer on the train, and arrived at St. Stephen's twenty minutes before Mass. We were able to get seats right next to the organ on the right side of the cathedral, almost right in front of where the orchestra was seated. They performed Schubert's Mass in Eb Major, and they chanted the sequence Victimae Paschali Laudes - this is one of my favorite sequences from the liturgical year, especially when it is chanted. The woman chanted the part where the text says, "Speak, Mary, declaring what thou sawest, wayfaring..." The Mass was celebrated by the Cardinal of Vienna, who apparently played a major part in writing the Catechism of the Catholic Church and also wrote a great book on icons which Brian has read. He greeted the people in English at the beginning of the Mass and he also apologized for the length of his German homily to the English speaking people before commencing to preach. At the end of Mass the choir performed Handel's Hallelujah from his Messiah. That was gorgeous! And so memorable! That piece never gets old. Mass lasted two hours, so we had to get right back on the train almost as soon as Mass ended. But it was so worth it! And St. Stephen's is still one of my favorite churches in Europe - that I have seen, anyway. I was sad to say good bye to it. But perhaps I shall see it again, and get to play on the massive organ in their choir loft. Someday.... 

On the way back to Gaming we had a lay over in a small Austrian town for about an hour so we stopped into the Catholic church. They had a lovely statue of St. Agnes there, as you can see... and it was beautifully adorned with flowers for Easter, so I snapped a couple photos. 

St. Agnes, pray for us!

We returned to campus around 5 pm. There was Vespers and Benediction at 6:30 - but I thought it was at 6:45 so I was a little late. However, after Benediction I ran into Professor Cassady outside of the chapel. He thanked me again for the music and I complemented him on his chanting. He wanted to know about where I learned to chant, so I began telling him about our classes back on main campus. He wanted to know how much we studied the theology of chanting and the conversation ended up going for about a half-hour on chant, orchestral masses, what makes music appropriate for the liturgy, etc. It was refreshing to find in him a kindred spirit. He told me how he taught the Byzantine Easter chant to his students one semester because they were all doing poorly on their papers in his class and others, so he taught it to them to give them hope. Then they sang the Matt Maher version of it at the talent show that year. I don't think he appreciated that version as well, but he went along with it. I recommended to him Pope Benedict XVI's The Spirit of the Liturgy. It was such a great help for me with my questions about the liturgy and what is appropriate. We are so blessed to have such a wise Papa! 

Thus, ended my Easter Sunday here in Gaming. Easter Monday was rather quiet. I took a walk into Gaming this morning to see if the stores were open, but most were closed. Joey and I studied for a while in the Francis Room while looking up Elvish music from The Lord of the Rings and various names in Elvish. We then went and played a game called Settlers of Katan in the second floor kitchen with Colin and Nathan. I finished most of my ethics study guide, or what I could finish anyway. We still have one more class tomorrow, so the rest will probably be taken care of tomorrow. My last ethics class! I meet it with some sadness but I am also glad to be finishing up classes as well... I am ready to go home!

Finals are coming up, so please keep me in your prayers! And we have the Beatification of John Paul II on Sunday! We will be leaving on Saturday afternoon for Rome, so keep us in your prayers for safe travels as well. God bless!

Death and life have contended
in that combat stupendous:
the Prince of life, who died,
reigns immortal.

- a passage from Victimae Paschali Laudes