Melk Monastery

Okay, this is going to be a picture heavy and word light post.  I know that my family and friends back home are eager to see pictures of the beauty of Europe!  And my thoughts are not organized enough yet to write a full blown blog post.  

The pictures below are of the monastery of Melk, a Benedictine monastery that has been operating for roughly 1000 years.  That is hard to imagine when you are from a country that is only a few hundred years old.  Just for clarification, this is not where I am living.  The monastery I am living in is no longer a monastery, but a 4 star hotel!  I will post pictures of the Kartause and the town of Gaming later.  And now, ladies and gentlemen, here is Melk:

 A picture of the main courtyard. 

 An outdoor corridor.  Isn't it peaceful?

 A hallway in the former imperial guest suite.  Apparently the doorway at the far end of the hallway is a little bit shorter than the one at the end where I took the picture.  This makes the hallway seem even longer than it is... and it was already pretty long!

The front of the monastery church.  The church is probably bigger than the cathedral in my home diocese!  It is painted yellow because of its association with the Hapsburgs, a family who ruled the Austrian empire, whose castle the monastery complex once was.

A view of the Danube river from the balcony in front of the church. 

The high altar of the church.  In the middle, above the tabernacle, you can see Sts. Peter and Paul shaking hands.  There are many statues and gold decorations all throughout the church.  But, since it is gold leaf/gold plating it only took 6 pounds of gold to decorate the entire church.

A view of Melk from across the Danube as we were driving to lunch.

52 Blog Posts...and Other Things

This year I have (once again) made the resolution to post on this, my blog, once a week.  And I think that there is a much higher chance that I will actually follow through with it this year, because I am beginning to enjoy blogging, even if no one ever comments on what I write (hint, hint).  It also gives me motivation to continue to improve my writing.  In other words, by December 31^st I plan to have written at least 52 blog posts.

I have changed the look of my blog (again).  Not really sure if I like the way it looks yet, but I think I will keep it around for a little while and see if I get used to it.  Originally I wanted to have a background with a travel theme, but all of the travel themed backgrounds I could find were a little too cheesy.

Right now I am working on applying for a summer job at a Catholic camp.  The application is challenging me to take a deeper look at why I am Catholic and at who I am as a person.  This application is much different than the one I submitted a few months ago for an RA position at my school and is challenging in a different way.  But the jobs have similar goals: to help every person I encounter become the best person they can be – a saint.  What makes me qualified to help people do that?  Nothing – except that I am also trying to become a saint. 

Surprisingly, this week really has not been too crazy.  But that being said, it has been stressful.  More stressful than I realized, until I picked up my new glasses today and thought they were the wrong ones…after I got home.  So I went back to the eye doctor to double check.  It turned out that they were the right ones, but the pair that I originally tried on was a different shade because the color lot of the plastic was different.  The ladies at the eye doctor were kind enough to switch out the lenses since I liked the coloring of the model frames better.  That’s what I get for ordering variegated glasses frames!  The whole ordeal made me realize that I’m more stressed about this going abroad thing than I thought. 

Finally, I will be saying "auf wiedersehen" to you all until after I get settled into the Kartause.  I won’t be posting again until I am in Austria!  Pray that all of us studying abroad this semester have safe travels.

Instant Saint: Just Add (Holy) Water

Sometimes (especially right now) I don’t want to work at things.  If it isn’t going to be quick or easy, then I won’t do it.  Which is why I have not cleaned out my sewing machine and oiled it so that I could sew a present for a friend, and why I have not sat down to read a long book.  I want instant results with as little effort as possible.

In some ways this is definitely a result of the culture I live in.  We get everything we want whenever we want.  That’s why we have microwave popcorn, fast food, instant hot cocoa, text messaging, sports updates on our smart phones, and yes, even Facebook.  All these things give us the desired results with very little effort on our part.

And so, if you are like me, you might become lazy and impatient.  You might start expecting instant results in your relationship with God when you have given Him very little of your time and life.  You might get lazy and thing that just because you are nicer to that one person now, you are a perfect human being.

But that isn’t true.  As St. Josemaría Escrivá said, “Sanctification is the work of a lifetime.”  There is no such thing as instant sainthood.  We can’t wake up one day and automatically be holy.  It takes hard work, discipline, and a continual openness to the grace of God in order to live a life of virtue and to become the saints that He wants us to be, the fullest version of ourselves. God is always calling us to go deeper and to discover more and more about Him (and ourselves).  But it isn’t easy.  We must be patient and we must work hard.  

That's why the New Year always encourages me.  Just like confession, it gives me a chance to start over and to renew my commitment to become a virtuous and holy woman.  So here’s to continuing to work hard towards sainthood in 2013!

St. Josemaría, pray for us!