Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Austria. Show all posts
I've had the opportunity to visit many, many churches during my first semester serving Franciscan University in Gaming, Austria. Every time I walked in, my goal was to find the tabernacle and pay a visit to Jesus, if only for a moment. But on one visit, instead of a tabernacle, I found a stripped-down, empty room. Nothing but walls and windows, ceilings and floors. It was now just a museum for those interested in 13th-century architecture. It was one of the saddest moments of my semester.

Even when I was in magnificently-decorated Baroque cathedrals, they would have felt absolutely empty without the presence of Jesus. Today, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, it got me to thinking. Mary was the perfect tabernacle for the presence of the Lord, prepared at her conception for Jesus to come and dwell within.

Each of us, flesh and bone that we are, was also made for this purpose. And we are nothing without Him.


These walls will stretch 'till you abide
Vast, vaulted ceilings higher climb
Beams and bricks without you there
Beams and bricks without you living there


This dust was made with you in mind
These stones are but a waiting bride
Empty if not filled with you
Empty if not filled with all of you




Who am I, that my Lord should come to me?
Who am I, that my Lord should dwell inside of me?
Take my body, take my blood
Take these sticks and all this mud
And build a shelter where your heart can come to rest


Basilicas and sanctuaries
Cathedrals, shrines, are just so many
Empty shells without your presence, Lord
Marble, gold I don't possess,
But, Lord, it is my happiness
If you would make this humble heart Your home
Make me your home


So find a candle, strike a flame
And leave it here to light your name
Jesus walks along these halls
Jesus lives and loves between these walls


-Sr. Mary Gemma, T.O.R.
"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."
~John 1:9

The tradition of the Light of Bethlehem started after the Two World Wars of the 20th century in order to remind the world that true peace comes from CHRIST, not from politics.

Each year since it's inception after WWII, one Austrian child is given an award for virtue and peacekeeping and is thereby chosen to fly to Bethlehem to get the flame from a candle from the Church of the Nativity, which marks the place where Jesus was born.

That child flies back to Vienna where emissaries from different parliaments receive the light and a complicated chain forms and goes to churches and shrines throughout Austria and even into other neighboring countries - and from family to family on horseback throughout the valleys and villages. 

People gather at their town churches and cemeteries, carrying their own candles or lanterns to receive and pass along the flame from the lantern that is brought to them on horseback.

Then, the light bearer reads a proclamation about Jesus being the true source of peace.

Afterwards, each family takes their lantern back to their home for the Christmas octave. Many in the town of Gaming put theirs by their front doors, and every grave in the local cemetery also has a lantern lit from the light of Bethlehem. 

We sisters put ours in our chapel next to baby Jesus in the manger under our altar and light the vigil candle next to the tabernacle from it.

We pray that these last few days of the Christmas season are blessed for each of you!
- Sr. Joan Paule Portenlanger, T.O.R.

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