Serving the Refugees

Saturday morning our family headed to Westbahnhof (train station) in Vienna to help the refugees who are currently staying in or passing through Austria hoping to get to Germany.  We joined a group from Couples for Christ in serving warm meals to those waiting by the trains on their way to Linz, Austria (nearing Germany).  They were all very grateful for the meal -- many said "thank you" in English :)  It felt great to see the children's faces as they waited to have their plates filled to the brim -- especially after seeing the devastating photos in the news of those who have not lived to make it this far.  After we served all of the food we had, we cleared out to make way for another group of 200 - 400 refugees who were just arriving.

We also saw a lot of volunteers from Caritas.  They are the main ones providing food, shelter, and care to the refugees in Vienna.

We then headed to the town of Traiskirchen, about 20 minutes from Vienna.  That is where the refugees who are seeking asylum in Austria are waiting until they are relocated in the country.  We parked our car (along with another van from Couples for Christ) outside of "tent city" -- to our left: a beautiful view of the vineyards and the foothills...to our right: the stone wall enclosing the tents where many of the men are staying, and the buildings where women, children, and the sick are staying.  

A glimpse into tent city (there was a guard inside the gate so I didn't get a good picture)

People were gathered on the street awaiting our arrival and delivery of goods that we knew they needed.  In particular they were awaiting suitcases - so they'll be able to transport what items they have left.  Thankfully, we had several suitcases to give away because we came over here with so many that we wouldn't have needed again until we move back to the States in however many years.  To see the families who quickly grabbed for our bags was saddening (to know their situation) and a bit gratifying (to know that in some LITTLE way we could help).  Clothes, shoes, and toiletries were also given away.  Again, the people were very grateful.  A few we talked to were from Afghanistan and have been at the camp for a month.  A little girl, a bit younger than Ellie, played near our car with her little toy car.  Another girl, probably 4 or 5 years old, ran over to Baby Francis and smiled and giggled as she played with him.  Francis definitely wins first place for making the most people smile.  :)   

How could this guy not brighten your day?! :)

Mariazell Pilgrimage

Today we became some of the million pilgrims who visit Mariazell Basilica each year!

We boarded buses at 7:15am with about 100 students and faculty, and many bishops and priests that are in Gaming for the LCI Conference.  LCI is the other program based out of the Kartause.  LCI stands for the Language & Catechetical Institute.  It is a one-year Catholic education and formation program for young people and religious from the former and current Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and China.  It forms disciples for the New Evangelization through foundational instruction in Catholic theology and the English language.  For two weeks, a special conference is going on - so we are blessed to be surrounded by even more bishops and priests than usual.  And today, we got to hike with them!

Brian and Ellie hiking in between bishops from Albania and Ukraine

The buses took us about 20 minutes away to the Naturpark Otscher-Tormauer.  From there our hike began - through beautiful woods, up the mountain, along the crystal clear river and waterfalls.

After about two hours, there was a stopping point where the students picked up water and lunches.  Ellie, Francis, and I stopped here and rode in the van home.  Brian continued on another 5 hours -- the hike was about 18 miles.  The kids and I took another bus with some others to meet back up with them in Mariazell later in the afternoon.

Fr. Timothy celebrated Mass for us along with all of the visiting bishops and priests once we all arrived at the Basilica.  Mariazell Basilica, also known as Basilica Maria Geburt (the Birth of the Virgin Mary) is one of the most visited shrines in Europe.

Inside, a miraculous wooden image of the Virgin Mary is honored.  The story goes: "On the evening of December 21, 1157, a Benedictine monk named Magnus was in a forest looking for a place to build a monastery. At one point, his path became blocked by a huge boulder that was too big to go over or around, so Magnus took a small wooden statue of the Virgin Mary he had in his knapsack, knelt in prayer, and asked the Virgin Mary for guidance.  Soon there was a great rumble and the rock split in two, allowing him to pass through. Magnus placed the statue reverently on a white branch and soon after, he and some of the local people built a small chapel to house the statue. Word of the miraculous statue of the Virgin quickly spread across the countryside, and the chapel had to be periodically expanded to accommodate the growing crowds. ... Inside, the miraculous statue is housed in the Lady Chapel or Chapel of Miracles, which stands directly over the place where Magnus established his monastic cell in 1157."

Our special intentions were for my dad on his birthday today and my parents on their anniversary tomorrow!

Day-to-Day Life in Gaming

What is our life like when we're not traveling?  Here's an overview so far!

Sundays:  We walk down our street to the Kartause for Mass with the students, faculty, and staff.  (Here's more about the Kartause - where Brian works and we spend a lot of our time.)

Inside the Kartause

In the afternoons, we normally spend time with our neighbors and students in town.

Mondays:  Brian goes to work!  30 minutes later one of the students comes to help me with the kids.  The students can volunteer for Ministry for Moms, where they volunteer to babysit for free (or for chocolate bars and prayers instead :)

Every day we meet Brian at noon for Mass at the Kartause.  Then he comes home for an hour for lunch and helps put Ellie down for her nap.

Monday nights we often go grocery shopping a few towns over in Scheibbs.  The "big" supermarket is Hofer - which is the same store as Aldi in the States (notice how the Aldi sign is actually an "H" - now it all makes sense!!)  This week our neighbor went shopping with us.  It's always an adventure to get groceries...you've got to remember a coin to get the shopping cart and your recyclable bags.

Every other Monday night is Philosophy on Tap at the Kartause Keller.  Last week I got to go - and it was great listening to one of the professor's (our neighbor who I walked with this morning) give a short lecture, followed by student discussion, while sipping peach wine in the lower level of the old monastery building!

Tuesdays:  Today I went for a long walk through the foothills in Gaming with the kids and one of our neighbors and her son.  Then I had two students come to watch the kids and I went to the Kartause chapel for a Holy Hour.

Tonight we had a date night, thanks again to Ministry for Moms (and Dads).We took a short walk around Gaming - up along the railroad tracks behind the Kartause - and then to a little restaurant in town for ice cream and beer (guess who got which one :)

Brian is now at "Whiskey Wednesdays" - which yes, it is a Tuesday here - but apparently these used to be held on Tuesdays.  All of the men and guy students are invited to one of the professor's houses to socialize and be manly - the only requirement is they must wear a jacket.

Last Tuesday we had the privilege of having our nephew Timmy over for dinner.  He's a student here this semester.  Having family here is such a blessing!!  We hope all of our nephews and nieces make their way over :)

Your can see our row of townhouses to the right of the top of the smoke coming out of the chimney.

Our townhouse is the second from the left.

Hey there, Brians!  None of the windows here have screens (hey there, bugs!)

"The hills are alive!"

Wednesdays:  8:30am a student comes to help with the kids!  Then we read, go on walks, spend a lot of time at the playground by the Kartause before Mass.

Wednesday night is what Brian lives for this time of year...Intramural Football!  Last week his teams crushed his opponents, which included Fr. Matt - and Brian had some great moves.  Um yeah, I don't know much about sports.  I enjoyed talking to some of the students and some other girls who work at the Kartause during the game.  The students played with Ellie and Francis the whole time.

At 8:00pm I go to Women Scripture Group at the TOR Sisters apartment at the Kartause, with the Sisters and female students.  I love getting to spend time with the Sisters and girls.

Brian's pre-warm up walk with Ellie on the way to his big game.

Thursdays:  Another student comes for Ministry for Moms.  I normally stay home this time and get things done around the house while she plays with the kids.  Things like laundry and cleaning still exist in Austria ;)  Thursday nights a lot of students head out of town to begin their weekend travels (there are no classes on Fridays).  We enjoy time with the faculty and staff in town.  Last week we joined our neighbors at their home for dinner - and this Thursday we're having some other neighbors over.  Two weeks ago, I joined some of the other women and Sister Faustina at the art professor's apartment - we prayed the Rosary in German (well, tried to...) and then the professor gave us a small lecture on the art museum in Vienna - while sipping red wine.  I'm a nerd who misses things like lectures and small group discussions - so I love this stuff!!

I'm making friends - one of the 6 townhouses, 3 of us have children here and all of us moms get along great.  There are two other families who live just up the road that work at the Kartause.  I have not learned much German yet - so I only "chat" briefly with locals who I pass on walks.  One nice, older woman we pass each day always try to stop and talk and I think she is trying to teach me some German...I'm not picking it up too quickly - but will continue trying.

OK, so that's life so far.  There are a lot of great opportunities and blessings here -- but the greatest is all of the time with family.  Most of our time is still spent doing the usual -- reading to and playing with Ellie, holding Francis, changing diaper after diaper (wish I had the picture of Brian juggling 3 dirty diapers this past weekend), making meals and cleaning up afterwards, putting kids to sleep for naps and nighttime, and rejoicing when they're finally asleep :)

Ellie's bedroom - her first big girl bed (hence the  positioning of the chair to make sure she stays in it)

With all of our blessings, it's hard to know that so many are suffering right now.  Specifically with the refugee crisis all around us.  We are looking for ways to help - and hope to have more concrete answers soon.  In the meantime - and always, we're praying.  We're praying for each of you!  Thanks for keeping up with the Kissingers :)

Good night & God bless!

2 days in Bavaria: Dachau & Munich

Hello!  The theme of this post is photo collages :)  I took quite a few pictures this weekend and on our car trip back put them into collages - a great way to pass the time and to make this blog shorter!

Brian had Friday off from work - so we left in the morning for the state of Bavaria, in Southern Germany (a little less than 4 hours away).

Our first stop was the concentration camp of Dachau.  Reading about the concentration camps is one thing...but then to actually walk around and think about the atrocities performed right there is another.  In it's 12 years of existence over 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned there.  Over 41,000 were murdered.  We saw the "showers" (brausebad), the cremation ovens, and the barracks - designed for 200, but filled with about 2,000 people each.  

We didn't really explain to Ellie where we were in Dachau.  We told our next stop would be a castle, and so it was!  We went to Schloss (Palace) Nymphenburg.  It was built as a summer palace to celebrate the birth of Elector Fredinand Maria and his wife Henrietta of Savoy's son.  Sorry, Brian Francis, you are our little prince - but you're probably not going to get any palace in your honor....but feel free to have your diaper changed on the bench out front of one :)

We stayed overnight in a hotel just outside of downtown Munich.  Saturday morning we started touring downtown - well actually it was 11am by the time we actually set foot anywhere exciting....having kids does slow down our travel a bit.  Our first stop was Frauenkirche (kirche = church).  One of it's famous characteristics is the "devil's footstep."  Legend has it that the devil made a deal with the builder to finance construction of the church as long as it contained no windows.  The builder tricked the devil by positioning the columns so that the windows were not visible from the spot where the devil stood.  When the devil realized he'd been tricked, he could not enter the church - and could only stand in the foyer and stomp his foot, which left the dark footprint.

Our next big stop was the Munich Residence - the Treasury and Palace Museum.  First up are the pictures from the Treasury.  Lots of crowns and such, some nice mirrors (look! that's us in the Treasury), holy objects - like statute of St. George, and this green thing...not quite sure what that's about.

The Royal palace and museum was HUGE and fun to go through.  Well, for the most part (check out the Brians' faces), we did have to carry the kids through the huge palace.  The picture of the Brians below is of them in front of the picture of the Nymphenburg Palace - we were all like, oh yeah, already been there, done that.

History of the palace:  Between 1508 & 1918 the Residence in Munich was the principal palace and seat of government of Bavarian rulers from the house of Wittelsbach.  During this time it developed into one of the largest and most lavishly appointed palace complexes in Europe.  Following severe damage during World War II, the buildings were rebuilt after 1945.

For lunch we went to Viktualienmarkt - and outdoor market and had some of the locally brewed Hacker-Pschorr beer.  We also had a huge gingerbread cookie and pretzel (eaten too quickly to be photographed).

As we walked a couple of blocks from the market to Marienplatz (central square in Munich's city center), we went into St. Peter's Kirche.  It's quite the experience to be walking on these busy streets filled with people, vendors, and shops - and then to literally have these magnificent churches right in the middle of everything.  We've been visiting a lot of churches, so interesting to see the different architecture and materials used.  I loved the depiction here of Our Crucified Lord with the Sword piercing Our Lady's Heart at the foot of The Cross.

We're very much enjoying our time here, and pray you are all doing well!

God bless,

the Kissingers

The Other Vienna

We used to live about 20 minutes from Vienna, Virginia.  Now we live less than 2 hours from Vienna, Austria. On Friday morning we left for Vienna, capital of Austria -- our first two day excursion with the students and our kids. 

First stop was Mass at Stift Heiligenkreuz, not far from Vienna. 

When we arrived in Vienna we went on a walking tour. *Some of our family members did more walking than others. 

We had a traditional Austrian lunch of schnitzel at Zwölf-Apostelkeller. (Ellie had a nontraditional hair style to keep the top of her mullet out of her eyes. *No I did not cut her hair; she's never had a haircut and probably won't for another 2 years.)

Then we checked into our hostel. It was surprisingly very nice and clean. Our family had our own room and bathroom.  There were 2 twin beds and the bunk bed set (and we brought our new "Dream & Play" for Francis).  The downsides were it being really hot at night and not wanting to sleep with the windows open due to the noise, and Ellie being too excited about the bunk bed to sleep. In the end, Brian ended up on the bottom bunk and Ellie was with me (except for the times I was with Francis during the night...so yeah not a lot of sleep for anyone.)  But all things considered, it's pretty awesome to be able to travel to a European city and stay their with your family. 

That night, we ate outside at a restaurant in between St. Stephen's and St. Peter's. Then we went on a horse carriage ride. The weather was perfect out and we all loved it. 

We ended our evening with eis (ice cream...eis is pronounced 'ice' so it's an easy German word to remember :) in front of St. Stephan's. 

After breakfast at the hostel (which brings back many memories of doing so when I was a student!), we went to Mass at Minoritenkirche.  The two priests and the four Sisters serving at the University this year accompany us on the trips - so the priests celebrate Mass when we fill these beautiful churches. *All of the churches we've been able to have Mass in or just visit are absolutely breathtaking. Their age, their artwork, their architecture and knowing how many people have prayed there before you is stunning...it's hard to capture all or any of this in my pictures though. 

After Mass we went to Haus des Meeres, aka the aquarium!  Two students joined us, which was great fun especially as we climbed up all 10 floors - seeing tons of sea creatures you don't find in the U.S. aquariums and a few monkeys. 

The view of Vienna at the top was great!

We had lunch at a festival in front of the Imperial Palace and Ellie got to play with some toy trucks (check out the man in the traditional outfit playing with his son). 

Our last big stop was the Imperial Treasury (Kaiserliche Schatzkammer Wien)  at the Hofburg Palace. It houses many royal items and holy relics received during the time when Vienna was the capital of the Roman Empire. 

Nail from Christ's Crucifixion

Veronica's Veil

Reliquary containing (1) piece of tablecloth from The Last Supper, (2) piece of the loincloth of Christ, (3) tooth of John the Baptist, (4) fragment of the robe of John the Evangelist, and (5) piece of wood from Christ's manger. 

(1) Holy Lance, (2) Imperial Cross, and (3) Particle of The True Cross

We do miss our family and friends in Northern Virginia, but when it comes to our favorite Vienna to visit - the one here in Austria wins :)