Corpus Christi in Heiligenkreuz

Usually the first stational altar in the Corpus Christi Procession is in the courtyard of the Hochschule, but this year, on account of construction work there, the firt altar was at the huge mosaic-sundial which is a monument to Vatican II’s teaching on religious liberty. Thus giving a kind of visual representation of Dignitatis Humanae-as-read-with-a-hermeneutic-of-continuity. I confess to finding this slightly amusing. Remember what Trent says about Corpus Christi processions?

The holy Synod declares, moreover, that very piously and religiously was this custom introduced into the Church, that this sublime and venerable sacrament be, with special veneration and solemnity, celebrated, every year, on a certain day, and that a festival; and that it be borne reverently and with honour in processions through the streets, and public places. For it is most just that there be certain appointed holy days, whereon all Christians may, with a special and unusual demonstration, testify that their minds are grateful and thankful to their common Lord and Redeemer for so ineffable and truly divine a benefit, whereby the victory and triumph of His death are represented. And so indeed did it behove victorious truth to celebrate a triumph over falsehood and heresy, that thus her adversaries, at the sight of so much splendour, and in the midst of so great joy of the universal Church, may either pine away weakened and broken; or, touched with shame and confounded, at length repent.

Pater Johannes Paul’s Homecoming Mass in the Vienna Oratory

One of the best parishes in Austria is St Rochus, the parish of the Vienna Oratory. In a time when many in Austria are trying to find “new” pastoral strategies, the Oratorians do basically what the Redemptorists did in the 19th century under St Clemens Maria Hofbauer, “Apostle of Vienna,” but with something of the mischievous humor of the Oratory’s founder, St Philip Neri. They have glorious liturgy; simple and down to earth preaching and catechesis; perpetual eucharistic adoration; confessionals in which the lights burn most of the day; very effective, unpretentious programs for children, youth, and young mothers, and for the disabled, the poor of Vienna’s third district etc. And their Church is full, they have lots of families with young children, lots of altar servers, and so on. And there have been a good number of vocations to the religious life and to the priesthood from their parish in recent years.

The latest Pfarrkind of St Rochus to be ordained to the priesthood is  my confrère Pater Johannes Paul.  On Sunday he celebrated a homecoming Mass there with all the solemnity with which the Primizmesse is traditionally attended here in Austria. He celebrated Mass in the Ordinary Use of the Roman Rite, in Latin save for the readings and intercessions, and (as is usual in St Rochus) ad orientem. He wore a neo-baroque chasuble, sewn for him by the Cistercian nuns of Marienfeld. Here are some photos (all copyright cross-press.net except for the one of the sermon, which is from St Rochus’s facebook page).

The Introit

The Sermon

 

DO NOT BE SATISFIED WITH MEDIOCRITY

Pater Johannes Paul, who was ordained to the priesthood last Sunday, entered the monastery at the same time as I did. Watching him be ordained, and then next day celebrate his first Mass, was extraordinarily moving. Pater Damian, who was also in our novitiate, preached at the first Mass, and recalled the our entry into the monastery, when we had lain on the floor of the Church (in the same place where later we were to lie for the Litany of Saints at our ordinations) and how the Abbot had asked “What do you want?” and we had answered “The mercy of God and the Order.”

Pater Johannes Paul has always been a great example to me of the monastic life as a passionate response to the question “What do you want?” He has often recalled how his own path into the monastery began when he was listening to a CD with quotes from Pope John Paul II. At one point Pope John Paul said: “Do not be satisfied with mediocrity!” The future Pater Johannes Paul says that he realized that his life was mediocre–that he did and thought whatever happened to be fashionable, and wasted his time on mediocre joys–he decided to try to find life in its fullness.

And that is the promise of the monastic life: fullness of life, a life directed entirely toward the infinite good, that tries as far as possible to resist resting in the second best. As St Benedict puts it in the Prologue of the Rule:

And the Lord, seeking his laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries out, says again, “Who is the one who will have life, and desires to see good days” (Ps. 33[34]:13)? And if, hearing Him, you answer, “I am the one,” God says to you, “If you will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it” (Ps. 33[34]:14-15). And when you have done these things, My eyes shall be upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say to you, ‘Behold, here I am’” (Ps. 33[34]:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9). What can be sweeter to us, dear ones, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life.

Ordinations

Today, His Eminence Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna ordained my confrères Pater Kilian and Pater Johannes Paul to the diaconate and the priesthood respectively. Please say a prayer for them. Here are some pictures from PKW and http://www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org/:

The laying on of hands

The Cardinal arrives

The laying on of hands

The Canon

P. Johannes Paul thanks the Cardinal after Mass

Cardinal Schönborn consecrates a chalice for P. Johannes Paul

In the Sacristy

First Blessings

The Eyes of Christ

The cross above the altar in Heiligenkreuz (a copy of a Romanesque cross in Sarzano, Italy) show the Lord with wounded side, but with His eyes open– that is, it is a depiction of the Risen Lord. The video embeded above shows the cross being unveiled during Gloria of the Easter Vigil, last night.

In his address in Heiligenkreuz,  in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI (sitting under the cross) referred to the open eyes of the crucified:

Our light, our truth, our goal, our fulfilment, our life – all this is not a religious doctrine but a person: Jesus Christ. Over and above any ability of our own to seek and to desire God, we ourselves were already sought and desired, and indeed, found and redeemed by him! The gaze of people of every time and nation, of all the philosophies, religions and cultures, ultimately encounters the wide open eyes of the crucified and risen Son of God; his open heart is the fullness of love. The eyes of Christ are the eyes of a loving God. The image of the Crucified Lord above the altar, whose romanesque original is found in the Cathedral of Sarzano, shows that this gaze is turned to every man and woman. The Lord, in truth, looks into the hearts of each of us.

More Pictures of the Easter Vigil in Heiligenkreuz

Herr and Frau Ingenieur Franz and Franziska Besau kindly sent me the photos they made during the Easter Vigil:

The Gloria

Baptism

Confirmation

The Sanctus

The Pax

Easter Sunday

The Gospel; photo: pkw

On account of the snow the Easter Procession, in which the Risen Lord, “really, truly, and substantially present” in the Monstrance,   is carried under a golden canopy, and which usually takes place out of doors, took place in the cloisters.

The Procession; photo: http://www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org/

Since the Easter Mass is celebrated together with the Parish of Heiligenkreuz, the brass band of the village of Heiligenkreuz played for the procession. They played the greatest of all German Easter Hymns, “Der Heiland ist Erstanden”– a march of  tremendous triumph, with such heroic majesty, and with such Germanic seriousness, violence almost.

Easter Vigil in the Snow

Last night it snowed so hard that it was decided not to have the Easter fire in the outer court of the monastery, but in the “hortus conclusus,” the “paradisus claustralis,” the garden at the center of the monastery, so that the people could stand in the cloisters, and only the deacon had to venture out into the blizzard. Not so much fronde nemus gramina flore favent then, but benedicite, glacies et nives, Domino and stolis salutis candidi; in its own way a fitting sign of the unleavened bread of sincerity, of which the epistle of Easter Sunday speaks, the purity of the new life in Christ.

Photo: http://www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org

Update: P. Thadaeus, O.Cist., from Vietnam, made the following photos:

Deus, Deus Meus

Two brothers sing Psalm 21 (22) during the stripping of the altars yesterday (photo: http://www.stift-heiligenkreuz.org ; cf. video from 2011)

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Loudly I call, but my prayer cannot reach thee. Thou dost not answer, my God, when I cry out to thee day and night, thou dost not heed. Thou art there none the less, dwelling in the holy place; Israel’s ancient boast. It was in thee that our fathers trusted, and thou didst reward their trust by delivering them; they cried to thee, and rescue came; no need to be ashamed of such trust as theirs. But I, poor worm, have no manhood left; I am a by-word to all, the laughing-stock of the rabble. All those who catch sight of me fall to mocking; mouthing out insults, while they toss their heads in scorn, He committed himself to the Lord, why does not the Lord come to his rescue, and set his favourite free?

What hand but thine drew me out from my mother’s womb? Who else was my refuge when I hung at the breast? From the hour of my birth, thou art my guardian; since I left my mother’s womb, thou art my God! Do not leave me now, when trouble is close at hand; stand near, when I have none to help me. My enemies ring me round, packed close as a herd of oxen, strong as bulls from Basan; so might a lion threaten me with its jaws, roaring for its prey. I am spent as spilt water, all my bones out of joint, my heart turned to molten wax within me; parched is my throat, like clay in the baking, and my tongue sticks fast in my mouth; thou hast laid me in the dust, to die. Prowling about me like a pack of dogs, their wicked conspiracy hedges me in; they have torn holes in my hands and feet; I can count my bones one by one; and they stand there watching me, gazing at me in triumph. They divide my spoils among them, cast lots for my garments. Then, Lord, do not stand at a distance; if thou wouldst aid me, come speedily to my side. Only life is left me; save that from the sword, from the power of these dogs; rescue me from the very mouth of the lion, the very horns of the wild oxen that have brought me thus low.

Then I will proclaim thy renown to my brethren; where thy people gather, I will join in singing thy praise, Praise the Lord, all you that are his worshippers; honour to him from the sons of Jacob, reverence to him from Israel’s race! He has not scorned or slighted the appeal of the friendless, nor turned his face away from me; my cry for help did not go unheeded. Take what I owe thee, my song of praise before a great assembly. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the sight of his worshippers; the poor shall eat now, and have their fill, those who look for the Lord will cry out in praise of him, Refreshed be your hearts eternally! The furthest dwellers on earth will bethink themselves of the Lord, and come back to him; all the races of the heathen will worship before him; to the Lord royalty belongs, the whole world’s homage is his due. 3im shall they worship, him only, that are laid to rest in the earth, even from their dust they shall adore. I, too, shall live on in his presence, and beget children to serve him; these to a later age shall speak of the Lord’s name; these to a race that must yet be born shall tell the story of his faithfulness, Hear what the Lord did.

The Mandatum in Heiligenkreuz

In Stift Heiligenkreuz the Mandatum is not held as part of the Mass of the Last Supper, but as a separate ceremony in the morning. Twelve old men from parishes in the pastoral care of the Abbey have their feet washed by the monks, and are then given a meal in the refectory. Usually the Mandatum is held in the cloister, in the so-called “Hall of the Mandatum,” flanked by Giovani Giuliani’s sculptures of the anointing at Bethany and the washing of Peter’s feet (vide this video of the 2011 Mandatum), but this year, on account of the unseasonable cold, it had to be held in the winter chapel. Herr and Frau Ingenieur Franz and Franziska Besau took the following photos from the back of the winter chapel.