Salzburg

My first of nine days running about Austria and the Chez Republic was spent in Salzburg! Due to late a late train we didn’t reach our hostel in Salzburg until 1am Friday night, but I had made plans for the following morning so Chris and I were up bright and early. We had a modest breakfast offered in the hostel before our hike through the city to a hill just north on which is the Church of Marian Plain. The hike took us through a small suburb of the city with quaint traditionally built houses. A beautiful marker of the deep Catholic history, along our root to the shrine were stone markers in which were pictures of the mysteries of the rosary. They were strung out on the path, in front yards, in fields all along the way.

Half an hour into our treck we reached the foot of the hill, the morning chill was still only fading as we climbed making the trip more enjoyable and less exhausting. Once we nearly had reached the top we came across a small chapel dedicated to the agony of Christ in the garden, and a few steps later, a chapel dedicated to the scourging. And so the chapels followed the entirety of the sorrowful mysteries in like manner until we finally reached the summit, where the three crosses looked out over the city.

We took a small cobblestone road a few steps to the entrance to the church. It was an immaculately kept high baroque church with beautiful royal blue running with gold and silver. Interestingly it has a rood screen, if that is the correct term, which is a sort of western Iconostasis. Needless to say it was a gorgeous church. We spent some time in admiration and prayer and as we departed people were beginning to funnel in in their lederhosen and dirndls for a local wedding.

After getting back to the hotel I stopped by the train station to get a city pass that allowed me to get into all the museums and churches as well as entrance to the castle and bus lines. I was planning on having lunch with Chris, Bing and Ashley but I was split from them in bus confusion and found myself alone in old-town Salzburg. My first order of business was lunch, I bought a Bosna which is a Austrian sausage sandwich, from a vendor in one of the squares. The place was packed, the weather was beautiful and there was a small traveling circus in town, those ingredients and lots of beer made for quite the party throughout the entire old town. After a mobile lunch, which afforded seeing much of the excitement throughout the streets, I spent some time in the cathedral dedicated to Saints Rupert and Vergilius.

After some time in the cathedral I used my fancy city pass to enter the cathedral treasury, a gallery filled with medieval chalices, rosaries, vestments, paintings, monstrance’s and every other liturgical and churchly item. I saw some amazing items ornamented with thousands of diamonds, rubies, and pearls imbedded in gold and silver. Most amazing was a crosier and miter which once belonged to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, which were adorned more richly than could be imagined. The gallery led along and fed into other galleries and museums, one with many religious paintings, another on music and so on. I spent a bit over an hour in the gallery but it was well worth all the time spent.

Afterwards I planned on taking a tram up the mountain to visit the castle, but getting slightly lost I ended up in St. Peter’s graveyard. It is very well kept and very pretty which was probably why it was filled with people. I said some prayers for the dead, and went into the “catacombs” connected to the graveyard. In reality it was just a few altars in side of the mountain dedicated to offering Mass for the dead, which is still epic.

After the catacombs I entered the Church of St. Peter, which was directly next to the graveyard. It was another magnificent baroque church, my favorite church of all that I saw in Salzburg. The most outstanding point of this church was it’s many beautiful side altars. Interestingly they were positioned not in either of the aisles but down the main the nave with the altars facing either of the aisles.

Next was my excursion to the castle. After St. Peter’s Church and Cemetery I finally put my mind to it and found the tram that takes riders up the mountain into the heart of the castle. It was only a thirty second ride up to the summit and I got of the tram to a breathtaking view of the old-town, the modern side and even beyond the city of Salzburg even to see the Church of Maria Plain on a hill on the opposite side of the city. I gazed out over the city for a few minutes before walking about the castle. In the castle there were exhibits of ancient to world war two era weaponry, as well as a chapel, and states rooms.

After the castle I was getting a bit tired but I had a few more churches to see. I went by the Franziskanerkirche, a Franciscan church which had a side chapel with some of the beautiful phrases from one of my favorite Gregorian chant, the Dies Irae. I got all excited about that. I saw a few other churches before going to see the birthplace of Mozart.

Then I took a leisurely stroll along the river where many local vendors had set up shop. One was selling homemade pesto and dip, nearly twenty kinds and I sampled many of them, which were delicious.

I proceeded across the river and I went to the graveyard run by the Fraternity of Saint Peter, where Mozart’s family is buried. Unfortunately I thought they were having Mass at the church attached to the graveyard but they had it earlier in the morning. An hour later I went back to the hostel to get my bag, met up with the rest of the gang and wandered over to the train station on our way to Linz.

Cinque Terre

Our destination weekend after our International Finance Midterm was Chinque Terre, Italy. We arrived in Monterosso, the largest of the five towns in the evening with the sun beginning to set behind the mountains and the tourists beginning to exit the beaches. We rented an amazing little apartment, just outside of which there was a small patio overhung by grape vines. The grapes are in season and we were allowed to pick them right there and eat them.


After we had checked in and gotten settled we took the train one little town down the track to Vernazza. One of the girls traveling in our group had found a quaint but highly recommended pasta place for dinner named The Pirate. I had a delightful salmon grattoni dish, everyone really enjoyed their meals. We split a half orange half chocolate filled cannoli for desert, as I enjoyed a grappa. After dinner we took as stroll through the town that was still buzzing with tourists shopping and eating dinner. We were all fairly tired and we were not prepared for the evening chill so we went back to the apartment for the night.

Saturday we spent most of the day on the beach enjoying the sun and the Mediterranean sea. After relaxing in the sun for the day we got cleaned up and took the train to where we had dinner. Waiting on the train platform I ran into a man who is in charge of a facility run by the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Austria, we enjoyed a long talk and he offered to let us stay in Gaming as we traveled through Austria.

Once we arrived in Manarola we inadvertently took a long walk up a hill opposite the town, and though we were very hungry we took in the gorgeous views of the town and of people swimming in a natural pool created by the rocks descending into the ocean.

At dinner I started my meal with sardines, though most people are opposed to them from their stigma in cartoons the Cinque Terre region specializes in sardines. Cinque Terre is also famous for their lemons, so I ordered sardines marinated in fresh lemon and herbs. They were very strong, and when taken with some fresh bread they were a delicious local way to start the meal. For my main course I ordered a chefs specialty, ravioli with fresh sea bass. Another beautiful dish filled with local flavors.

Once finished we took the train down to Riomaggiore, the only town we had not yet seen. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we arrived but people were still out and about enjoying a stroll through the still humming town. We had a nice stroll ourselves, stopping in some of the local stores, and grabbing a drink at a small local bar. Once we had seen the town we were once again on the train heading back to the apartment for the night.

On Sunday I got up early and helped check out of our apartment. After we checked out we went to a local beachfront restaurant for breakfast, I enjoyed some toasted focacchia bread and fresh-squeezed orange juice. After a simple breakfast I went to the local church, San Giovani Baptista for Mass. Compared to other churches of Europe it is a relatively simple church, but still beautiful with a wonderful baroque high altar and unique polychromatic columns.

In the square there was also another church originally built and run by the Mortis et Orationis Confraternitas or the Brotherhood of Death and Prayer, which was dedicated to the help of widows and orphans particularly of husbands and fathers lost at sea. The whole theme of the church is death, and in the picture below is the skeleton of a bishop with his miter and crosier sitting in the millwork above the altar. The church seemed like it is now rarely used and mainly open just for tourists to see. A church with a very unique theme and design to say the least.

After Mass I had some time to myself and I hiked a steep hill that splits the town of Monterosso in two.  I found a beautiful view and a statue of St. Francis of Assisi overlooking the town and the sea. A bit more of a hike and there was a Capuccin Monastery, with a small well kept chapel dedicated to St. Francis.

When I see open doors I just go through them and hope I find monks chanting, so when I saw an open gate I proceeded through it, it led me even higher and eventually I reached the pinnicle of the hill. There I found the town’s cemetery. I prayed for a short time and headed back down and towards the train station.

I met the girls at the station around one and got on the train back to Riva. This coming week I am off to Salzburg, Linz, Gaming, Melk, Vienna and Prague, so there is lots to come. Stay tune and God Bless.

Venice

Two weekends ago I was blessed to be able to travel with Chris to Venice. We knocked out our finance final, threw together our backpacks, crammed down some lunch and headed for the train station. About half of the people were heading somewhere in Italy for the weekend so we all piled onto the train to Milan. In Milan Chris and I said goodbye to the others and jumped on our connecting train to Venice. We both took a nice nap on the train and were pulling into Venice before we knew it. We hopped off the train, down the platform and out into the square on which the station is situated.

Venice is an incredible city! No cars, only feet and many many boats! Right before us was the Grand Canal, the main canal that runs all the way through the city. We had a general idea of where our hostel was so we hung a left and started walking.

We walked about a mile through crowded streets filled with vendors and hagglers. After a few minutes we came across the church in which the body of St. Lucy is laid. The churches in Venice are relatively well kept, with only a few if any in serious disrepair, but what was most notable to me the tourist about the operation of Venice churches is the demand for respect.

The churches all seemed to have the same protocol for entry, shorts to the knee, no shoulders showing, obviously no hats for men, and some even had shawls for women to use and then return in order to cover their legs or shoulders. Additionally most of the churches did not permit any photographs, so while I saw many wonderful churches I came away with relatively few photos. To enforce reverence dress and behavior many of the churches had a custodian who kept watch in the church. It pains the tourist in me that I could not take pictures of the beauty that I saw, but the side of me that longs to see greater reverence in churches was happy to sacrifice pictures so that the sacredness of the place could be better appreciated.

Back to the Church of St. Lucy, in this church her body is kept and is still on display. It was a relatively modest church, but her sanctity drew adorned the church with a beauty equally and even more real than that which is perceivable to the eye. My brother as well as my family has always had a devotion to St. Lucy so I took some time to pray there. After prayer we returned to the business of finding our hostel, and after climbing bridges over canals, and walking down a few shoulder width narrow streets we made it to our hostel.  We checked in, dumped our stuff off and headed out into the city.

As our guide we only had a crumby map of the city provided by the hostel. Before the sun set we had wandered onto the Rialto Bridge, the main bridge over the Grande Canal. It was packed with tourists taking pictures so we took a few quick snaps then headed out again to find St. Marks Plaza.

We walked for probably an hour or more down tiny little streets flanked by five story apartments. In each small plaza we would find a well and a church. So we took many small detours into open churches, enjoying the sacred stillness not overtaken by the relentless motion of the city filled with tourists. Eventually, after many instances of total locational dissolution and a lot of backtracking we found our way into the plaza of St. Mark’s Basilica just as the sun was disappearing an the night was coming on. We sat down on the square steps to enjoy our bagged dinner we had brought with us from Riva.  Afterwards we walked along the canal front until our feet had had enough, we got some gelato and after even more wandering and losing our way we made it back to the hostel for the night.

The next morning we got up and ate a simple breakfast which we had bought at a grocery store the night prior. We had tickets to tour St. Marks Basilica early in the morning so we made our way over to the Plaza where we had been the night before.

We went to a local open air market, which was impressive due to the quantity of sea food for sale, all fresh from that mornings fishing. After a quick lunch and meeting a doctor from Kansas, we went to get a ticket for the Vaporetto, the public transportation system of Venice. The Vaporetto is essentially like a subway system but with boats. On our way we ran into some hokies who had graduated a few years ago, we chatted to them a for a few minutes and snapped a picture.

Once we had our ticket we were on our way to the island town of Murano. There are many islands just a few minutes boat ride from Venice, Murano is one of the largest, and it is famous for its glass making. Once there we saw the Church of Church of Santa Maria e San Donato and San Pietro Martire. We spent some time walking about the town and looking in a few glass shops. After an hour or two on the island we got back on the Vaporetto and sped off to Torcello.

Torcello is another, smaller island. It is mainly a wildlife preserve with only a few buildings on the whole island. There is really nothing spectacular of this island but there is a ancient once-cathedral  church of the 7th century, Santa Maria Dell'Assunta. In the church is a beautiful, recently restored mosaic of Christ in Glory. After the church we took a break and had a local beer at one of the few restaurants on the island.

From there we caught a ride to Burano, our final island for the day. Burano is famous for its lace making and it’s colorfully painted buildings. There we spent some time in some of the lace shops, saw the local church, San Martino Vescovo, and wondered about the town. About an hour there and we were on our way back to Venice.

That evening we went to a local restaurant for dinner, we did it up with  bruschetta,  seafood risotto, wine and a sample of the local fresh shrimp and calamari.

The next day was Sunday, Chris and I went to Mass at the Church, San Simeon Piccolo, a church run by the Fraternity of St. Peter. After Mass, for our last excursion we went one of the largest churches in Venice, the Basilica dei Frari. It is a glorious church unfortunately overshadowed by St. Mark’s but for that, much quieter peaceful and prayerful. We spent some time in admiration and prayer before heading to the train station and back to Riva.

On the Religion of the Day

 John Henry Newman often employed the phrase “the religion of the day”, referring to the sentiments of modern religion, its emphases, priorities and its decidedness in certain areas of the religious life, and its lethargy, quietness and its inactivity in others. In one of this sermons he relates to his flock-

“When its (religion’s) terrors disappear, then disappear also, in the creed of the day, those fearful images of Divine wrath with which the Scriptures abound. They are explained away. Every thing is bright and cheerful. Religion is pleasant and easy; benevolence is the chief virtue; intolerance, bigotry, excess of zeal, are the first of sins. Austerity is an absurdity; even firmness is looked on with an unfriendly, suspicious eye.” 

Newman seems to have caught this grave evil much before our time and warned his flock of it. But today the modern catholic is imbued and overrun with notions nearly identical to what Newman condemned one hundred and fifty years ago. Today there is an endless gush of friendliness and community from pulpits, cascades of kindness and pleasantness, even ejections on climate change, gun control, animal treatment. All these are normal Sunday fare for the modern catholic. But to him, hell, satan, eternal damnation, fasting, heresy, mortal sin, confession and all of this genus are foreign and taboo It is medieval nonsense that is no longer relevant but   “judgmental”, and to most speaking of these things is “unchristian”.

Presently there is an obsession with avoiding such topics; no one can talk about them, not the priest at the pulpit, nor any faithful Catholics. “Pope Francis would never say such things.” is the common jingle. But Newman testifies it is the Devil who has worked this modern religious idea that is contrary to the true faith.

“What is the world's religion now? It has taken the brighter side of the Gospel,—its tidings of comfort, its precepts of love; all darker, deeper views of man's condition and prospects being comparatively forgotten. This is the religion natural to a civilized age, and well has Satan dressed and completed it into an idol of the Truth.”

And here we are today one hundred and fifty years later, and still this false conception of Christianity not only looms, but has become so influential and so preeminent that it now flexes it power to excuse modern social evils that are clearly condemned by Scriptures and Church Tradition. And those who dare to stand up against these are rejected as bigots, extremists, and zealots unless they will so candy-coat the plain truth as to make it nearly unrecognizable from the crystal-clear teachings of our fathers in faith.

"Still, after all, here is an existing teaching, only partially evangelical, built upon worldly principle, yet pretending to be the Gospel, dropping one whole side of the Gospel, it's austere character, and considering it enough to be benevolent, courteous, candid, correct in conduct, delicate,-though it includes no true fear of God, no fervent zeal for His honor, no deep hatred of sin, no horror at the sight of sinners, no indignation and compassion at the blasphemies of heretics, no jealous adherence to doctrinal truth... no loyalty to the Holy Apostolic Church, of which the Creed speaks, no sense of the authority of religion as external to the mind: in a word, no seriousness."

The Catholics who have the faith to stand in the tradition of the Fathers and preach the entire faith, even its less appealing truths, are seen as unkind because they will not disguise the teaching of the church so exhaustively in pleasant phrases as to render them meaningless.  Others, who cannot swallow the admonitions and plainness of the fathers, look on and will rebuke, saying that modern religion has no place for “intolerance.” Unfortunately often it is firstly the clergy who level this claim against those who believe in all the truths of the faith.

They will even go so far as to twist saintly personages into fluffy characters. St. Anthony of Padua, once revered for his defense of the true faith was known as the Hammer of Heretics, now all he is known for is playing with Baby Jesus and finding keys. St. Francis of Assisi, known for his love of birds and hatred of fossil fuels once said “We should realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done so and did not, the devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate it.”

The Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, who is held by Catholics as the foremost philosopher and theologian once exclaimed, "The worst wolves in sheep's clothing are the heretics and then bad prelates." But today his words are too strong, his hatred of heresy so antiquated that only his more neutral and mild writings, or at least those free from any of the divisive topics opposed to the religion of today are ever sited. All of these personages and many more have been twisted, their offensive writings and sermons ignored to fit the religion of this age.

"The worst kind of heretic is the one who, while teaching mostly true Catholic doctrine, adds a word of heresy, like a drop of poison in a cup of water."- Pope Leo XIII

There is a war between the truth and the “drop of poison” which has fallen into the Cup of the Holy Church, making the new drink so much smoother and more pleasant but at the same time stripping it of its purity, integrity, and holiness. So may this modern religion be despised as the work of the devil as Newman said, and may the zeal that Newman desires ever increase in the Church and Her members that the truth may be proclaimed ever more. Even in the face of every modern resistance, clerical, political, and all others, the truth must be proclaimed and the world must be converted. So may the religion of our day die a horrible death and may the Catholicism of our Fathers once again shine forth for the conversion of the world!