Meet Sr. Joan Paule

Although she studied at Franciscan University a couple decades ago, Sr. Joan Paule Portenlanger has never been to Gaming before now. She is not totally a stranger to Europe, though, having taught a year in Switzerland a decade ago. She has a fondness for Europe because

1) it is on this continent (Rome, to be exact) that she received her vocational call and

2) it is in Europe that she experienced the true universality of the Catholic Church for the first time.

She is excited for the students who are coming here and to be a part of their discovery of a deeper richness of the Church. She hopes that they all, like herself, fall more in love with their Faith because of the trips they’ll be taking which complement their curriculum so perfectly. A sense of the Beauty and the transcendence of God is so tangible here, primarily in the sacred art and architecture that abounds in spades. In her teaching days, Sr. Joan Paule considered herself to be a "field trip queen" and took her classes on any field trips she could which complemented the literature she was teaching.

Having the opportunity to accompany the students around Europe fits well with what comes naturally to her: hands-on experiences, sights and sounds, which supplement book learning and greatly enhance the learning experience, making the knowledge much more memorable.

Sr. Joan Paule entered the Franciscan Sisters, T.O.R., of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother 10 years ago this month. She taught herself guitar a few years after entering the community and has really enjoyed liturgical music ministry and leading praise and worship in her religious community. She is joining the staff at Franciscan University as the coordinator of music ministry on the Gaming campus. In addition, she will be coordinating the Eucharistic adoration hours in the chapel. She will be taking German along with the students and looking forward to not feeling so illiterate here in Austria.

She looks forward to getting to know the students who are coming to study and travel here, and asks for prayers for her memory as she attempts to learn 180 new names and faces – each semester.

Hurrahing in Harvest

Ah, presently the farmers are cutting the hay all around the fields in Gaming and its environs. The air smells sweet, of cut grass and warmth, and sunshine. Believe it or not, the air is even beginning to change as well -- there are slight portents of fall in the cool night air and even some leaves are beginning to change and fall off the trees.

Pretty soon, the pumpkins, gourds, and cornucopia's will be out in full swing. We'll be wearing sweatshirts, and hiking in the mountians. But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's enjoy summer while it lasts for the Farmers in Austria are predicting an early winter!



Check out these beautiful pictures of the haying which is occuring across the street:

This agrarian beauty aptly reminds me of one of my favorite Hopkin's (1844 -1888) poems: Hurrahing in Harvest.

My father introduced the poem to me this summer and I can't get over the beauty of the verses:

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SUMMER ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise

Around; up above, what wind-walks! what lovely behaviour

Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier

Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across skies?


I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes,

Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour;

And, éyes, heárt, what looks, what lips yet gave you a

Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies?


And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder

Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!—

These things, these things were here and but the beholder

Wanting; which two when they once meet,

The heart rears wings bold and bolder

And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.

Congratulations, Mrs. Wolter!

Weddings are always big news, and here at the Kartause on Sunday, August 2, 2009 Philosophy professor Ms. Maria Seifert was wed to Mr. Tom Wolter.

It was a lovely international ceremony with people flying in from all over the world. Family relative and Auxiliary Bishop of Salzburg, Bishop Laun, celebrated the Nuptial Mass. The toasts, the BBQ’s, and all the accoutrements were just perfect. Everything went smoothly, beautifully, and even the wedding cakes looked impeccable.

Presently, the married couple is honeymooning in Italy and in their own words, “having a fantastic time.”

Upon their return, Maria will begin class prep and Tom is going to work as the University driver and maintenance assistant for the year. They both have been a blessing to the University and its community. They have a lovely courtship story since Tom was a seminarian in Louvain, Belgium and Maria was also in the vicinity working on her doctorate. You will have to ask them to tell the rest of the story…

An Eastern Wedding Chant sung at the reception below:

Another type of Butterfly

When students come to participate in the Study Abroad program in Gaming, Austria, they usually unconsciously come with one of the two following perspectives on life:

1. The attitude of a pilgrim.
2. The attitude of a tourist.

The pilgrim approaches the semester with reverence.  In other words, he remains internally silent, in order to give the different opportunities and experiences an chance to speak.  The pilgrim views the semester sacramentally: in other words with the attitude that the visible things of this world often contain and make visible the truths which are invisible.  People, nature, travels all thus have inestimable significance as they teach the pilgrim of the mystery of God and of man. Moreover, the pilgrim views the semester as a gift and is filled with gratitude through both the ups and downs which inevitably befall the student.

On the other hand, there is the tourist.  The tourist goes through the semester without reverence.  The dimension of depth is completely excluded.  The semester is “one big party.” To “feel good” or experience novelty, pleasure, and fun is the end-all, be-all. 

It is to the latter group—the  tourists -- which philosopher Dietrich Von Hildebrand refers to as “butterflies” – men who live only for the present on the exterior level of human consciousness.

Hildebrand writes, “How many people there are who are never lastingly influenced by a great work of art, by delight in beautiful landscapes, or by contact with great personalities.  The momentary impression may be strong but it strikes no deep root in them…these men are like a sieve through which everything runs.  Although they can be good, kindly, and honest, they cleave to a childish, unconscious position; they have no depth.”

So, as the fall students prepare to come out to Gaming to study, travel, and experience life in a foreign country it might be wise to reflect on your attitude towards life: Are you a pilgrim or a tourist?  Men – are your values built on solid ground?   Or, are you a “butterfly”, one who lives on the surface of everything searching solely for novelty and pleasure.”

I hope you’ll come to Gaming as a pilgrim and in so doing, the Lord will reward your pure heart with many delights.  God has build this world on the paradox of the cross and so too in Gaming, those who come as pilgrims end up having more fun and a better overall experience than the butterflies!