In early January our first real snow fall came.
 

• More photos from Christmastide...
  
   

   

   

  
   

  
  
  Fr. Bruno lights the Christmas Tree.
  
  
   

Our Christmas Tree in the Rectory




 

Practice in the sacristy before the Epiphany house blessings.

Propst Bernhard and Fr. Bruno

Singing during the Epiphany blessing of the Provost's apartment
 

Josef ready to assist at Vespers for the Epiphany.






You will find other Christmas pictures in the Epiphany "What's New."

• Special Mass in honor of St. Leopold in America

St. Leopold - the first Austrian saint
 

On Saturday February 14th at 10:00 in St. Clare's Catholic Church, 12409 Henderson Rd, Clifton, Virginia, a special Votive Mass in honor of St. Leopold will be offered to give thank to God for all the good He is doing in our lives and to ask for His blessings on our canonical vocations and on those who have supported us through their prayers and sacrifices as well as to ask for Him to send us more vocations. 

We hope that all the friends of Stift Klosterneuburg in America -- that of course means anyone, who is reading this! -- will be there to pray with us, give thanks to God and ask for His blessing.

Fr. Markus Eidsvig, Novice Master and Director of Clerics, and Fr. Elias Carr will be there to offer the Mass with you. 

Afterwards a light reception will follow, whereupon we shall have a chance to enjoy one another's company.

You will be able to get directions from your house to St. Clare's through this link!

 

• Profession of Simple Vows
  
  We are happy to announce that the Chapter of Stift Klosterneuburg has given its consent to the profession of Temporary Vows by Rudolf Stefan Czaby during the Mass of the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, on February 2, 2004. 
  
  This is a most fitting day on which to dedicate oneself to God since it is on this day that we remember that the infant Jesus was dedicated to God and redeemed in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Joseph and Mary brought him there since according to the Law of Israel the first-born son had to be redeemed.  The sacrifice of the doves, the spilling of blood, was meant to remind Israel that it was the Lord who delivered them from slavery in Egypt and in a special way saved the first-born sons of Israel from Pharaoh's war on Hebrew boys.  Jesus therefore is also a redeemed first-born of Israel, numbered among those who were originally chosen to be priests of the Covenant of Sinai, but who shortly thereafter lost the priesthood due to their infidelity and were replaced by the tribe of Levi.
  
   Jesus' redemption points not only to the redemption of the first-borns in Egypt.  It reminds us too of his redemption from a pharaoh of his day, Herod the Great, whose all consuming desire for self-preservation conceived his murderous command to slaughter the Holy Innocents.  Joseph had to take his wife and son to Egypt to find refuge, where well over a thousand years earlier, the Patriarch Jacob and his family found relief from famine.  In that case, another Joseph, the brother betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery, redeemed them through his bondage.  This Joseph foreshadowed Jesus in his willingness to forgive his brothers and to bring his family into a place of bounty and blessing. 
  
  The Holy Family eventually returned to Israel, another exodus out of Egypt, following in the steps of Moses and the Israelites on their passage to the Land of the Promise.  Years later Jesus would lead Israel, indeed the entire human race, on a definite and final exodus, wherein God revealed Himself not in thunder and lightening or a pillar of fire, but in a crucified and risen redeemer, in human flesh.
  
  About Him St. Simeon said to the Lord on the day of the Presentation in the Temple:
  
  "Lord, now let you servant go in peace;
  your word has been fulfilled: 
  my own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
  a light to reveal to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."
  
  The Feast of the Presentation is known as well as the Candlemass in which candles are blessed to bring light in dark places.  Christ is the our light in dark places, given to the nations, to all peoples, who have from the beginning of time lived in darkness about God and about themselves.  Jesus is the One, who shows us who God is and who we are meant to be.  Jesus is as well the glory of Israel, for it was for Him and His coming that this people were brought out of slavery, so that one day, this people would become the way through which all peoples could be brought out of the slavery to sin and the bondage of death that has poisoned Creation since the Fall.
  
  A man taking simple vows in the Canonical Order is called to follow on this same path of Christ: to be a light in dark places as a religious and to prepare for that day when he shall do so as a priest.  He is meant to be a light to his brothers in the community as well as to the world in which he will witness to Christ through a life in accord with the promises he makes on the day of his presentation before God.  No animals will be sacrificed however and no blood will be spilt on this day.  Rather a heart will be generously offered and graciously received by the Father, who will within this man the most Sacred Heart of His Son and through this wonderful exchange, this young man may give glory to the new Israel, the Church, through a life of pastoral charity and apostolic zeal.
  
  Please remember Rudolf in your prayers as he prepares for this great and important day.