Ellie’s First Holy Communion

Ellie received her First Holy Communion on Sunday, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe!

Gathered with our small community at the Kartause Maria Thron church in Gaming, it was a BEAUTIFUL celebration!

Failed Christmas card picture attempt:

Ellie read the Second Reading.  She’s been reading at daily Mass most weeks this semester and loves it!

She brought up the gifts:

Receiving Jesus' Body and Blood for the first time:

Immediately afterwards she had a huge smile on her face.  She told me that the bread and wine, now Body and Blood, tasted good :)

The "theme" for her First Communion was a beautiful Novena a friend shared with us.  Each of the nine days leading up to her First Communion, Ellie recited a prayer asking Jesus to help her make her heart into a beautiful garden.  She "made" each flower by working toward a specific virtue.  We hung up pictures of the flowers with the virtue written on them around a copy of Da Vinci's The Last Supper (no big deal that we took her to see the original mural a few weeks prior).  And our neighbor did the decorations for the church with this theme in mind, creating a garden of flowers surrounding the Host and Chalice! (See the first picture above, where Ellie is standing in front of the altar).

After her First Communion Mass, we visited the cemetery, as we have been doing often this November to pray for the souls in purgatory.  Because Pope Francis granted the period for which an indulgence can be gained for a poor soul all throughout November, if in a state of grace and having received Holy Communion that day, Ellie was excited to go and pray for a poor soul!

That night we went to our weekly Praise & Worship and Holy Hour for the kids and Ellie was so excited to pray her final Novena prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament:

In general, preparing Ellie ourselves - with the assistance of this wonderful community (our neighbor who is Byzantine took her through the Byzantine chapel and explained the Icons to explain the Eucharist) - was such a great experience!  We used the Faith & Life Series religion books as our guide and I especially loved this assignment where she had to interview someone about their First Communion and she chose her friend who lives two houses down (also she was the one whose shoes Ellie wore!)

It was also a huge blessing to have visited Blessed Imelda a few weeks ago.  Ellie really enjoyed getting to know this saint.  And has enjoyed learning even more about her through a book that her friend who was living next door (and is now back in Steubenville) had sent to her!

It really is a great joy and blessing to be handing down the faith to the next generation!  In this case, I was literally able to hand down the faith because my parents saved my Bible...

And my First Communion dress from 1990, which Ellie wore...

Thank you, Jesus, for everything!!

Exploring Erlaufschlucht

We got to explore an amazing gorge (in German: schlucht) about 20 minutes from our home!

We have driven by the entrance to the Erlaufschlucht many times, but never really noticed it because it is tucked between a soccer complex and a bowling alley!  We had no idea what was right along the River Erlauf that we pass by so often.  Thankfully our friends told us about it and we decided to check it out!  

It's definitely one of those places that I don't think would be legal to visit in America, or - at least - would be covered with a million "enter at your own" risk signs!  It was quite the adventure walking along the gorge, under a waterfall (which Francis decided to go through), through caves, and over huge roots!  We only did about half of the trail before we took the "emergency exit" out - so about 45 minutes in total for us - but we look forward to going back to complete the whole trail in the future :)

Saints in the House

We've had a lot of Saints in the house this November!

For All Saints' Day, we had a nice celebration!  Halloween isn't really celebrated here, but the kids like to dress up!  So on All Saints' Day a lot of the Kartause kids dressed as a saint.  We met at our house and then processed to the church singing "When the Saints Go Marching In"!  Isaac went as St. Isaac Jogues (who had part of his fingers gnawed off by those he was trying to serve).  And Ellie went as Mary, Queen of Heaven.  Francis and Clare just went as themselves; good thing they have saintly names.  At the church we had Praise & Worship and Adoration.  It was beautiful to see so many saints singing and worshiping our Lord!

A few days later, we had the relics of St. Louis and St. Zelie Martin -- St. Therese of Liseux parents -- stay with us for the afternoon!  At first I felt bad having them in the kitchen -- but it was the only place I was sure Clare wouldn't grab them.  But I stopped worrying when I realized they are parents, so they must have understood!  This advent they've inspired me to try to read A Family of Saints: The Martins of Lisieux.

And here are a few other November pictures from Gaming :)

This is what Isaac wanted to wear to Mass one day:

All You Holy Men and Women, pray for us!!