Tuesday April 17th 2007

AUSTRIA!!!

Sonntagberg: a conference on the theme "Children are a blessing". Sonntagberg is the most glorious place, a great pilgrimage church on top of a mountain, with a welcoming pilgrimage-house next door, run by our friends the Doblhof family who had organised this conference. An excellent gathering of people from a number of Catholic groups, focused on the idea of the family as the "domestic church". Not a conference of plastic folders and name-badges and self-importance, but a large-minded, friendly gathering, plenty of children joining us all for meals and spending the day in the lovely mountain-top park or in a room set aside for them with toys and with the most heavenly views in all directions....friendly Bishop opened the events with an excellent talk. Everyone very realistic about the problems facing Europe, and the Church in Europe, atmosphere well-informed, thoughtful, talkative.

Jamie and I were the first speakers on Saturday morning. For most of the weekend we all spoke German, but I was able to give my speech in English: it was about childhood, and the way the culture of childhood is being attacked in Britain and in the West (regular readers of this Blog will know about my indignation re filthy teenage mags, removal of good books from children's libraries, etc etc etc.....). Jamie followed on with information about some of the anti-family antics at the United Nations and elsewhere....including alas our latest nasty lesgilsation here at home which will force Catholic adoption agencies to hand children over to homosexual couples for adoption....

The whole tragedy of Europe's sense of losing contact with its authentic roots, and of course of the falling birthrate with all that this means, was a theme echoing through all the talks and discussions. It was so good to be able to talk in a frank, open and genuine way. Excellent bookstall (with a number of excellent new books about the Holy Father plus of course, lots by him), good conversations, useful contacts....

READ ON!!

We hear about the problems of the Church in Austria, but on Sunday morning, at 8 am the great church (and I do mean great - think Brompton Oratory, but larger) was FULL for Mass, with lots of singing. And that wasn't the main Mass of the day - that came later, and the church was packed again, and with more music. Then, it being Divine Mercy Sunday, the whole place was full - very, very full - of pilgrims all afternoon, families with children, older people, and the church was overflowing for a big service, led by young people with songs and readings, and two looooooong lines of penitents approaching each confessional.

AND MORE.....

We spent our last evening with friends on a glorious walk through the woods and out along the mountain-path to the inn where a big jug of most was waiting (local cider, made with pears) and delicious speck and cheeses and so on....We stopped at the Turkish Chapel, site of the place where a Turkish soldier was halted en route to burn and sack Sonntagberg, his horse sinking into the ground, and the village being saved (the great basilica was built in thanksgiving - see the full story on the Sonntagberg website. Then we took the path along the line of the hill, past farms and with snow-topped mountains in the distance, each turn lovelier than the last, and all the time soft April air, and good talk with good friends,and a senser of Easttertide and of Divine Mercy.... A glowing sunset turned all the edges of the world red in the west. The old Austrian name for the West is Abendland - the evening land.....


AND THEN SALZBURG.....
On Monday, as a treat, J. and I gave ourselves a full day together exploring the city of music and Mozart and churches and more...a swift train to Salzburg, lots of wurzel at a pleasant restaurant, then churches galore....in this city, you can, on an ordinary Sunday, choose from a feast of fabulous liturgical music in the Cathedral, or the church of St Peter, or the Franciscan church - all offering the glories of the Mass with music of the sort most people in Britain are only likely to get on Classi FM. Here, it's all there in the setting for which it was intended, ie the Mass!, and it's free, and is simply part of the city's life! We found the convent where Maria von Trapp tried her vocation, and I found its dark Medieval chapel a great contrast to the baroque glories of the city's churches, no wonder she went running to the hills just to get a feeling of space and width and joy...of course there are now "Sound of Music" tours and special buses and so on...meanwhile we found churches and fountains, cafes and street-stalls, pony-and-trap rides and lines of fat teenagers on school-trips with, all bare-middled and in tight low-slung jeans and looking rather glum as the fashion is....

As we enjoyed our final coffee-and- thick-cream (me) and beer (J), the bell of the cathedral pealed out for the solemn Mass that was being held to celebrate the Pope's birthday, with a promise of a feast of joyful music. His picture dominated the newspapers, and special stamps commissioned to mark the anniversary, and he's visiting Austria later this year, leading pilgrims to the great shrine at Mariazell....

And then finally to the airport and the last flight out of the city at night-time, and first sight of a British newspaper for some days: the Independent, with a vicious story denouncing young doctors for refusing to do abortions and hinting that more coercive laws might be neccessary in order to crush this sort of moral and Christian tendency...

A feeling of the holiday coming to an end....British drunks shouting on the plane, and then the foul-mouthed youth next to me looked suddenly all pale and vulnerable as the descent into London was announced and he confided that he simply hated flying and was scared, and I found myself wanting to offer him a rosary to hold....

And then home, and a great pile of letters, and much bustle to get clothes washed and things organised for a busy morning start to a new week and everyday work....