Advent in Austria: Warten auf das Christkind

We had a wonderful, blessed Advent this year!

With no Advent Markets allowed to open, most of our activities were at home but it was great!  Especially as the kids get older and deepen their faith, it's so neat to see them prepare for Baby Jesus (Christkind).

They drew pictures of how are family prepared for Jesus for a competition in Austria:

Isaac's Advent Wreath Drawing:

Ellie's Drawing (We prepare our hearts and our home for the Christ Child) -- she even included our deceased guinea pigs in the family portrait:

Dropping off Christmas wish lists in town -- in Austria children write to the Christkind to bring them presents on Christmas Eve:

New Advent banners:

Homemade Jesse Tree:

Feast of St. Nicholas presents found in their shoes:

St. Lucy's Feast Day:

Making Jesse Tree ornaments and Nativity Scene figures from Holy Heroes:

Our wooden Jesse Tree (ornaments received from Messy Family Project):

Christmas cookie baking -- Isaac sorting out all the red & green M&Ms for me (the only two colors he regularly confuses are red and green... so in this case it was a win/win!):

Clare trying to help too:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel!

Our First Rorate Mass

We attended our first Rorate Mass here at the Kartause on the Feast of Our Lady of Loreto!

The Rorate Mass is a Votive Mass in honor of the Virgin Mary for the season of Advent.  It has a long tradition in the Catholic Church, especially in Central Europe.

The Rorate Mass takes its name from Isaiah 45:8 in Latin:

“Rorate, caeli, desuper, et nubes pluant justum, aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem.”

“Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened and bud forth a Savior.”

The Rorate Mass is lit only by candlelight.  The priests wear white in honor of Mary.  Everyone in the church prepares to honor the Light of the world, Who is soon to be born, and to offer praise to God for the gift of Our Lady.  In theory -- as the Mass proceeds and sunrise approaches, the church would become progressively brighter, illumined by the sun as our Faith is illumined by Christ.

We left our home at 6:00am and walked to the church through the beautifully falling snow carrying our lanterns (which the kids use on St. Martin's Feast Day and on Christmas Eve to carry the Bethlehem light).  Mass began at 6:15am and was over before the sun had a chance to enter our church -- that's because we're in the foothills and don't see the sun until later in the morning.  After the Mass, we all gathered at our friends' home for breakfast and then the kids were off to school before 7:30am!

It was a beautiful, special Advent morning as we await the Christkind (Christ Child)!

Let it Snow!

There's something so magical about the first snow!

On December 3rd we woke up to a fresh blanket of snow and, sadly, the news that students would not be able to study here in Spring 2021.  It was sad news to receive, but I took this snow fall as a beautiful reminder that God sees us here!  We are now looking forward to students hopefully being allowed to study here during a new Summer term in May/June 2021!