What is new on the website:

• Provosts of Klosterneuburg  <click here>
  Learn about both the office of the provost and the 66 men who have governed this community for nearly 900 years.
   

• More Panoramic Photos  <click here>
   

• Photo Gallery of all the Canons of Klosterneuburg  <click here>

What is new at Klosterneuburg:

• Advent
  A new liturgical year begins this week with Advent, the season of double expectation, remembering the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Bethlehem and expecting His coming again at the end of time.
  
  In Austria, the principal Advent tradition is the Advent wreath.  So you will find them all over Austria in public places, in homes, in our rooms and even an enormous one in Vienna.  You will see a different one each week.  This one comes from the Juniorat, where we live.
  
  The Advent wreath is a beautiful reminder of the meaning of this season, that is to prepare a home for Jesus who had no home when He came to Bethlehem. 

   

   

  
  
   

  Advent prayer by Fr. Elias In preparing for Christmas this year, the Holy Spirit has led me to consider three points which may be assist you as well.  They are summed up in three words: desire, hope and joy. Desire Advent is a season to ask for renewed longing for Jesus; to ask Him to come again into our hearts.  Desire is not something we control.  Many times we become exhausted, bored or indifferent to God.  Our desire for Him is weak.  This is where we start in Advent.  But we do not have to arrive at Christmas exhausted.  A simple frequent prayer to Jesus will change this.  Jesus, fill me with desire for you!  Moreover it a good time to consider what does He desire for me?  He tells us this in the Gospels.  We should seek to discover the desires of God.  What does He hope for me?  Whatever His hopes are for me, He has gone to a lot of trouble to speak to us by becoming one of us.  Praying to desire Jesus and to be filled with His desires is the first point.   Hope Advent is a season that looks to the first coming of Jesus, which we celebrate on Christmas.  However, it is also a season for looking to the future.  In this spiritual life this touches upon the theological virtue of hope.  It is through this gift, which we have received at our baptism and was strengthened and completed at our confirmation, that we are able to persevere. Hope in practical terms deals with trusting in the promises that God has made to us.  We might begin by considering these questions: What are these promises?  Do I know them?  What do they mean to me?  Where do I find them? Then we search the Gospels.  Jesus will speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  There is a promise that He wants us to consider.  What is it?  Perhaps I might consider in whom do I put my trust?  This will help us discover where my relationship with God is weak because I will find that I trust in many things and persons other than Jesus.  Here is where Jesus comes to our assistance, by empowering the virtue of hope to trust where I have so little.  Knowing the promises of God and trusting in them is the second point. Joy Desire for Jesus and possession of Him, who loves us, as well as trusting in Him, who hopes for our happiness and salvation, leads to joy.  There is no better gift of the Holy Spirit than joy for it lightens the load that we each bear, makes good times better, gives sweetness to our daily life, brings good cheer to those with whom we share our lives and is the infallible witness to holiness.  If I want to be a saint, then joy ought to pervade my life.  If we want to spread the Gospel and help those who are alienated from God or ignorant of Him, then let us ask to be filled with joy. The gift of joy is the third point.

   

   

• Leopoldifest Redux
  A late photo for your enjoyment from the First Vespers.  Fr. Elias bears the principal relic of St. Leopold.  Propst Bernherd is behind him in full pontificals (miter, crozier, pectoral cross) and assisted by Fr. Clemens and Br. Josef.
  
   

• December 2nd: Memorial of Blessed Jan van Ruysbroeck, priest 
  The canons celebrate the memorial of this 14th Century Flemish mystic.  A curate at the church of St. Gedula in Brussels, where his uncle was a secular canon, he longed for a less worldly life.  So, he, his uncle and another canon left St. Geduda and formed a new community in Groenendaal ("Green Valley").  The duke of Brabant gave them this hermitage to pray for his beloved deceased wife.  For 40 years Jan lived there, serving as the prior for many of them.  His renown attracted many visitors including Gerhard Groote, the founder of the influential Devotio Moderna movement, one of the Catholic lights in an age of decadence.  He died 89 years old, spending 64 of them as a faithful priest of Jesus Christ.
  
  Later Groenendaal (left) became a part of the Windesheim congregation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine, which was founded by some of the followers of Gerhard Groote.  This congregation, like the canons during the 11th and 12th century, took up the cause of reform of the Church and her sinful members.  Among its most famous members is Thomas a Kempis, the author of the Imitation of Christ.
  
   

• December 4th: Blessed Archangelus Canetoli, priest
  Archangelus came from strife torn Bologna, where his father and brothers were killed.  He entered the canons regular of the Most Holy Savior in Venice where he served as guest master, even welcoming those who had murdered his father and brothers.  He was later ordained a priest and later moved to a more strict community of canons in Gubbio.  However, as his renown for sanctity grew, he was called up to leave his beloved Gubbio and serve where he was needed.  He died in 1513, known throughout central Italy as the "Apostle of the love of neighbor."