Wants and Needs

Perhaps the most recurring theme of my semester thus far has been wants versus needs. Or, better put – things I think I need versus things I actually need.

Traveling has a way of putting that sort of thing in perspective: you discover the essentials and your own creativity in obtaining them. You learn to separate the things you need – like sleep – from the things you don’t – like a bed.

One could argue, for example, that the litmus test for how badly you actually need a restroom comes when you see the “service charge” machine blocking the door. You stop and evaluate: a Euro, a Euro-fifty? Hmm, that’s a half of a meal or better yet – a whole loaf of bread for tomorrow’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner. How often one finds that one did not really need to go that bad!

You learn the tricks, of course: that McDonald’s doesn’t charge for restrooms, that a scarf makes a fantastic pillow, that (as a friend of mine warned me before I came) travel-sized Febreeze is your best friend, that chewing gum can make you feel full…and all those remarkable insights that come with the challenge of traveling.

Returning from ten-day break, for example, my friends and I spent two consecutive nights sleeping in airports. Airports are not bad--when they’re heated, that is. But you learn: you find the warmest hand drier in the bathroom and spend a fair amount of time underneath it. You buy the cheapest, hottest drink (usually tea) and just hold it. You walk around. A lot. You turn the scarf that was a pillow into a blanket and master what my friends dubbed “yoga sleep” – any number of ridiculous positions that manage to conserve body heat.

It’s incredible what you get used to and how quickly you get used to it. Like cold showers, or the kind (in some hostels) that shut off randomly. You perfect the one-minute shower (my family should be happy to read that) simple to avoid having shampoo left in your hair all day.

Yet I do believe that these are some of the most formative situations I have encountered. It takes a sense of humor, an attitude of humility, and a disposition toward simplicity to make it back to the Kartause each Sunday and be able to say: “That trip was a blessing and I was changed for the better by it.”

Blog post written by Cara Weiss, Fall 09 Gaming Student

Students Hang Glide in Switzerland

This past weekend, several groups of students packed their bags and headed to Switzerland. Some hiked, some tasted cheese, other just imbibed the breathtaking scenery. But still others were not to be satisfied without some intense thrill.

This they achieved through hang gliding; check out the pictures below:

Eucharistic Miracles in Europe

With Europe at their very fingertips, the Franciscan University Study Abroad students travel to all corners of the continent. But, many go not just to see but to experience. They go as pilgrims, searching for meaning; they search the Lord with restless hearts. They search for signs of God's love and presence in the world.

In particular, many go and visit patron saints, shrines of the Madonna or to sites of Eucharistic Miracles.

Regarding Eucharistic Miracles, students often travel to Orvieto, Lanciano, Seefeld, Santarem, Siena, or Walldürn to see the miracles and contemplate their meaning.

While the history is vast and spectacular, I want to point out an interesting YouTube video which my mother-in-law passed on about a recent scientific study on a Eucharistic Miracle in Buenos Aires and its relationship with the miracle in Lanciano -- or Oriveto (I forget which one it was!)

Check in out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbg_dhI4XCs

It's in Spanish, but the English subtitles do just fine.

Food Cravings in Gaming

With the student's 10 day break completed and everyone back at the Kartause, it seems that everyone is craving home-cooked food. Southerners are missing their cajan cuisine while mid-westerners are dying to have just some plain old meat and potatoes -- just as long as it isn't pork! City goers, in their typical cosmopolitan fashion, miss their Thai and Chinese specialties.

But, with the change in weather, even the faculty and staff are missing some of their familiar favorites. Prof. Seifert-Wolter was making pumpkin soup last week while Niki and I made a pot of Chicken Noodle yesterday evening. But surely it isn't only soup that we crave. For example, over the break, I was craving Italian Risotto, perhaps because it reminded me of sun, shore, and leisure; my wife's request, a complementary Chicken Marsala.

So, we stopped dreaming and started cooking: Italian risotto with prosciutto and white wine, chicken marsala, steamed broccoli (al dente), a fresh salad, and a zesty white wine. We were happy people that evening!

See pictures below:

First Snow of the Year: Oct. 14!

With all the students on their 10 day break -- many enjoying the warm weather in Greece -- I think they will be shocked with the cold temps that have recently blown in!

Just last week, we had record high temperatures here in the Austrian Alpines; however, in a matter of two days, we are now near record lows!

So, we went from wanting to go swimming to needing to bundle up. In other words, we went from Fourth of July to Christmas in two days!

Check out the first snow pictures of the season below:

The other question regarding Student Life is with the snow, how do we finish up the intramural football season? With the students eager to play, I'm sure we'll find a way, or at least invent one!

Feast of St. Bruno: Oct. 6

Since the Austrian Program of Franciscan University is located in a restored 14th century Carthusian monastery, it only seems natural for the University to celebrate the Feast of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order.

Each year, the St. Bruno's feast occurs on Oct. 6, after the Feast of St. Therese and right before the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Besides celebrating a solemn mass and venerating the relics of St. Bruno, all of us are invited on this feast to contemplate some of the lessons which St. Bruno and his companion followers leave to us Americans who inhabit their former residence.

The Carthusians are well noted for their rigor and discipline, but often outsiders forget that these negations are almost imperceptibly swallowed up by beauty, harmony, and transcendence.

Philip Gröning, Director of the Film, Into Great Silence, about the Carthusian Order says, "This is what a [Carthusian] monastery is, it's getting rid of all the superfluous stuff, and then things become much more transparent--time becomes transparent, objects too. There's this transparency, this inner freedom that comes, which is felt as joy, of course."

Indeed, in the film, are a pair of scriptural texts to which the film returns again and again. One is a text emphasizing discipline and self-denial: "He who does not give up everything cannot be My disciple." The other is a prophetic utterance evoking ecstatic self-surrender: "You seduced m, O Lord, and I let myself be seduced." {This section as well as others in quotes are taken or summarized from Gröning's interview with Decent Films Director, Steven D. Greydanus.}

So, the Carthusians remind us that discipline and joy are not mutually exclusive. So like them, we also have to find moments of discipline and structuring ourselves, and we also must find ways of abandoning ourselves to what life is. And finding this balance is one of the major human requirements.

The Carthusians also epitomize "living by faith." Gröning observed that "They feel like they are in the hands of God, and this is good."

Finally, the Carthusian Monasticism remind us that "a monastery is something that is letting go of things in the beginning, letting go of more and more things, and then a certain liberty and a certain joy will come up."

From Gaming, Happy Feast of St. Bruno!

This Semester's Crew

The picture of the bishop was taken during the opening Mass of the Holy Spirit on August 27. At this Mass, Bishop Küng of our Diocese (St. Polten) delivered a moving homily encouraging all the students to call upon the Holy Spirit to show them the true path which they must walk on the journey of life.