Lent Begins...

Lent in Austria

I thank God for the joy of having a Liturgical Calendar to walk us through life as Christians.  If I didn't take the time once a year for 40 days to discipline myself by giving up pleasures I may end up a slave to my pleasures one day.  Lent is so healthy for our soul and in this being my 7th Lent as a Catholic I'm realizing this more and more.

Lenten Traditions:

We didn't add any new traditions this year, but stayed with the ones we've been using.  

- we always fast something as a family

- we pray a station of the cross as a family daily and try to go once a week to pray them all

- we have a pretzel before supper and we say something we are thankful.  (The pretzel is an old Lenten tradition and its origin is that it was made for Lent since most folks fasted dairy products).

- we find ways to give more alms

- and this year we were able to send Becca on a spiritual retreat

Lenten Challenge:

Pick up a copy of St. Augustine's 'Confessions' and read book 10.  This is a beautiful chapter of the book that will really help you reflect on our own sinful state during Lent and leave you with thirst to go to Confession.

Candlemas 

We celebrated Candlemas in a unique way this year.  Using our blessed candles we walked through the Scripture reading of where baby Jesus is presented in the temple.  We used food to represent each stage of the event and as the event finished - we ate that food.

We began with white chocolate.  The white represented the holiness of Mary and Joseph and Jesus.
Next we had some sausage.  The meat represented them entering the temple where animal sacrifices were being done.  The radishes represented the turtledove (it's eggs) that was given by Mary and Joseph.  The pure water of course represented Mary's purification after delivering a baby.

The pretzels represented Simeon the prophet as they are the representation of a posture of prayer (hands crossed over the chest).  The black chocolates with 'yummy' inside represented Anna.  She was a widow (the black), but spent her life in prayer (the 'yummy part).  The white cheese with the lego swords of course represented Mary and the sword piercing her soul as Simeon prophesied.  And finally the edible candles represented Jesus - the light of the world.

Becca's Spiritual Retreat

This is the Sisters of Bethlehem Carthusian contemplative convent (Kinderalm- near Salzburg) where I went away on a three and a half day spiritual retreat. It was heaven! This is a picture of the convent in summer but the convent was actually covered in about 8 feet of snow when I was there! Beautiful! I had a very small, simple "cell" where I slept, prayed and ate meals that were delivered to me in my room (in keeping with the Carthusian way).  I went to confession, attended Vespers, Laudes, daily Mass with the nuns (a 10 minute uphill climb to the church) as well as 1-2 hours of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament each day.  I tried to explore the great outdoors as much as I was able with 8 feet of snow outside. It was nice to be away from it all, to sleep soundly, to read and to talk with and listen to God. Even the 7 hour train adventure to get here and 7 hours to get home again was relaxing. I felt that I came away refreshed in every way and that I came away closer to Jesus. I am so thankful I was able to go. 

*While on retreat I read "Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska" and "Father Elijah" by Michael O'Brien- both highly recommended! 

Mass with the nuns

This is an icon of Mary visiting Elisabeth which I was particularly drawn to. It was at the bottom of the stairs leading to where Mass was held each day.  I spent a lot of time staring at this icon before and after Mass. I love how baby John the Baptist is bowing to Baby Jesus. I felt our baby move for the first time during this weekend too!

First family train trip: Trumau to Wiener Neustadt: Despair to Joy

We decided to try out our new familienpass where we get a family discount on the train and took a train ride to a city about 30 min. away.

Alas, our fluency in German wasn't good enough to read what was happening here, but we figured out they were grave stones of 5 Jewish Rabbai's.

We stopped for a snack and this was Benedict's pose with the apple.  Funny guy!

Many of the Turkish folk immigrate to Vienna.  Everywhere you go are Turkish Kabob stands.  Here are Tristan and Benedict chowing down on the lamb Kabob.

Of course we always visit the Cathedral.  This door, Tristan thought, was just the right size for him.

There were no statues of saints in these arches, so we figured we get a picture of future saints in these arches!

Benedict loves stories I tell about 'Sir Benedict the Brave'.  Here was a great knight on the wall of Cathedral just for him.

Our first train trip didn't end so well... we came home and that night Becca and I went out on a small date.  During dinner I asked if she had brought my camera upstairs.  There was silence.  Then Becca said that we left the camera on the train.  Now this camera was my professional camera that I bought new for $5000 a few years ago.  It was the most expensive material object we owned to our name.  My heart dropped into my stomach and my food didn't taste so good after that.

We went home and called the train station, emailed and filled out the Lost and Found forms.  We were told three days and an items from this train that were left would be brought to Vienna to the main station.  Three days past - no camera.  I had folks praying everywhere.  5 days past - no camera.  A week passes and I'm beginning to lose hope.  Finally in desperation I begin a novena to St. Anthony (the patron saint of lost things).  On day five of my novena we get a call from the train station and someone had returned my camera!  This was a miracle!!!  We were flabbergasted and thankful and dumbfounded.  Thanks be to God!

Kenton's Course List for the 2nd Semester

Latin

German

Moral Theology: Virtue and Vice

Ethics I: Ancient Moral Theology

Natural Philosophy II: Motion and Order

Introduction to Theology: Man before God

Mysterium Salutis II
Pentateuch

Deutsch Theatre 

Kenton's February Reading List

The Wife of Pilate, Gertrud von le Fort

The Judgment of the Sea, Gertrud von le Fort
The Tidings brought to Mary, Paul Claudel

Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle

Summa Theologica II Q.23 and on, St. Thomas Aquinas

Physics, Aristotle

Genesis and Exodus, Moses

Confessions, St. Augustine

Sermon from the Vineyard:

I've learned so much I think I'll do a couple sermons here.  The first one is quite personal.  When I lost the camera that I used for my photography business I, of course, began running through a number of 'why' questions.  Why didn't my guardian angel remind us?  Why didn't the Holy Spirit tell me to turn my head?  Why did I take it off my shoulder and put on an empty seat when I'm never that careless with it?  Why? Why?  My reflections led me to the topic of humility.  One thing I would have to do is go back to my friends here on campus and tell them I lost my camera.  I realized then that having this expensive camera made me feel good about myself.  Then I asked myself why on earth I need a physical, material object to feel good about myself?  How ridiculous.  But there it was.  I was proud to have this camera.  I liked the attention I got when I took out and folks 'ooo'd and awww'd' over it.  I liked that I had one of the best cameras out of all of us guys.  I was proud.  I realized that if God had to take away my possessions to make realize my own pride - then it was worth it.  I didn't want this vice.  It was an expensive lesson to learn, but a few $1000's was a small price to pay to move one step closer to being a more virtuous man.  After about a week and half of thought and prayer, I told Becca that I had a peace about losing the camera and that I've learned a lesson in humility.  I prayed the novena to St. Anthony (as I mentioned above) as an act of faith as I'm learning to believe and trust, but I was at peace if it wasn't returned.  And low and behold - God returned it.  My mind is still spinning...

Sermon from the vineyard #2:

We've been reading and studying St. Augustine's 'Confessions' in class.  One of the elements that has really hit home for me is this idea of distraction.  Now one may ask where I'm getting the word distraction from the book - and actually I'm not.  St. Augustine rather uses the word 'continent'.  I need to be a continent man.  What does this mean?  "For by continence we are collected and bound up into unity within ourself, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity."(Ch.XXIX)  A continent man is one who is at peace, not disturbed by the turbulence of life, not moved to excessive passions, not moved to excessive sorrow, unified in thought and goal and purpose.  The more I meditated on this image of a man I began to realize how things in life seem to want the opposite for me.  Life moves so fast and there is so much to engage in and so much information to be had  and so many opportunities to employ that we spread ourselves out in "multiplicity".  The CCC states "It is important for a person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of conscience.  This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection," (1779).  So first of all this all brought me to a place of self-reflection.  What was it like to be 'sufficiently present to myself'? Am I unified enough that I can hear the voice of my conscience?  The voice of God?  I found that as I got back into a routine of Eucharistic Adoration after the Christmas holidays were done this peace came back.  Pride distracts me.  Any attachment to a physical pleasure to the point that I have to think about because I miss it becomes a distraction to me.  

Finally, I'm taking this further and looking now at my family.  Am I raising continent children or are they running from distraction to distraction?  Am I teaching them to be at peace, to be content, to take time to reflect and to take time for themselves?  Continence is a virtue and we know that virtues don't come naturally.  Virtues are habits.  So Becca and I need to look at the habits we are generating in our children's lives.  Continence: one step closer to the virtuous life and to holiness and thus to happiness.

Here is our sponsorship video.  

This is our video to played at St. Mary's for those who wish to support us on this journey.  We are believing God for the $8,000 to come to cover the tuition cost each year as this over and above our budget.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exmQ2NPJDRw

Pictures for the Grandparents:

Benedict (and his pirate hair) treating Winter as a Lady.

This is Anna and Winter helping Benedict learn to skate.

Benedict learning to skate by pushing a large blue jerry can!

Love, Kenton, Rebecca, Winter, Tristan, Benedict, Kate and the new baby

Mailing Address:
Schloss Trumau
Schlossgasse 21
2521 Trumau, Austria

The Year of Faith

January 2013: The Year of Faith

Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed this year the 'Year of Faith'.  This is really a challenge sent out to all of us.  It is time to ask God to 'help our unbelief' and begin to believe.  This is tough.  Faith takes humility in saying you can't do it on your own and it takes trust, which is even more difficult.  Our journey is definitely challenging our faith and hopefully increasing it!

Melk, Austria

We began January with a trip with our friends Ryan and Vidya to Gaming.  Gaming is where ITI used to be situated: right in the rolling hills of the Alps.  On the way there we stopped at Melk to visit the Monastery.   This Benedictine order is over a 1000yrs old and this monastery was built in the early 1700's.  It is stunning.

This is our ladies walking up the path to entrance.  Vidya with Anne and Becca with Benedict.

That is them on the path below as I take the picture up on the hill.

We didn't pay for a guided tour as I'm not sure the kids cared too much about the history.  Plus there was enough to explore and see just by trying different doors and walking until we hit a locked one.

The chapel is unbelievable!
From their website:
The high point of the baroque monastery is the church. Following the wishes of the abbot and monastic community, this is intended to make the religious purpose of the entire construction and its orientation towards God clearly visible. The leitmotif “ABSIT GLORIARI NISI INCRUCE” (Glory is found only in the cross) is found in the inscription over the Benedict Hall at the beginning of the tour, and continues through the abbey to the church, in whose splendour the glory of the cross is clear.

This relic of an unknown saint was gifted to the monks from the last monarchy in Austria.  St.
Colomon's  relics are the left of the high altar lying in his sarcophagus.  St. Colomon is an important saint here in Austria and even has a dessert named after him!

The meaning of the Melk Abbey Church can be seen in the inscription on the high altar: “NON CORONABITUR NISI LEGITIME CERTAVERIT” (“Without a legitimate battle there is no victory”) (2 Timothy 2,5). The battle which leads to victory is embodied on the high altar through the martyrdom of the apostles Peter and Paul, and further depicted by that of St. Coloman (Coloman Altar). It is most strongly expressed by the monk’s battle for virtue, the theme of the nave fresco, in a depiction of St. Benedict. The victory in this battle is portrayed on the one hand by the large victory crown on the high altar and the dome frescoes, in which the heavens open, and on the other hand by the victor’s laurels over the monk, who has achieved spiritual fulfillment, in the nave fresco.

If you look carefully you can see the large crown above the high altar.

We were able to follow a tour into the church and take a look around.  Here is small video of our view.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukgZw_AoX1M

Winter exploring the caverns underneath the monastery.

The view overlooking the city of Melk and some of the gardens.

Gaming, Austria

We stayed in Gaming for 4 days.  We were able to get a deal for 25 Euros for the whole stay because Ryan and Vidya had some contacts.  We stayed in the Kartause.  This is a monastary built in 1300s for the Carthusian monks.

When this monastery was purchased and rented to ITI there was a lot of work that had to be done to refurbish it after the wars.  One thing they had to do was dig up the graves up the monks buried here.  A bunch of the monks unearthed were incorruptibles!  An incorruptible is someone who lived such a holy life that there body doesn't even decompose.  In fact, to be declared an incorruptible by the Vatican, the body still has to be limber (no rigamortis).  The incorruptible monks were delivered to the the Prior of the order, but he asked that they be reburied and not declared as saints for according to their 'Rule' they are not allowed to be cannonized by the Church (declared a saint).

The courtyard at night.

One of our most enjoyable moments was getting totally dressed up in winter gear to go sledding at hill we were told had snow.  Here is the hill below:

Yup.  No snow.  So what did the kids do?  Well, lets see if we can sled on wet grass!

Tristan and Eli about try our new Austrian sport!

It works!  The kids loved it.  They could get speed and make it all the way down to the bottom of the hill.

Here is Winter and her new friend Emily taking the plunge.

 2 videos: kids sledding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX4KoYE6D8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGjlNjKL8QU

Benedict hoofn'er up the hill for another ride to the bottom.  Needless to say, all their winter gear was soaked right through to the bone.  But fun was had by all.

This picture looks boring.  And is.  But the red roofs in the middle show you Gaming nestled in the hills of the Alps.

Ryan took me for a tour of the area.  This is Lunz am See (Lunz on the Lake).  This crucifix is typical all over Austria.  There are shrines everywhere of Mary and Jesus that always remind us to pray.

Epiphany

Epiphany here is big celebration and a huge day for giving throughout all of Austria.  Kids in groups of 4, dressed as the three kings and an angel, from parishes everywhere go door to door and raise money for the poor.  It is the biggest day of giving for the whole year for charitable donations.  We missed the celebration as we were in Gaming.  On this day, the priest would bless water and chalk and people write above the door of their home with the chalk '20 C+M+B 13'  with the "20 "being the millennium and century, the "C" standing for the first Wise Man, Caspar, the "M" standing for Melchior, the "B" standing for Balthasar, and the "13" standing for the decade and year. It is also popularly believed that the Kings' initials also stand for "Christus mansionem benedicat" ("Christ bless this house"). - fisheaters.com

Since we missed this day, we joined the Byzantine Catholics and had Fr. Juraj come to our home after the mass of the Baptism of Our Lord the Sunday after Epiphany to bless our home and icons and candle.  This is the day in the Eastern rite traditions where the priest blesses the waters of a river or lake and throws the cross into the water.  Then all the men dive in after it.  The one to retrieve the cross is blessed for the year.  We went down to the channel behind the Schloss and Father blessed the waters and just dipped the cross into the water.  We wouldn't let the kids jump in after it - too cold.

Prayer

                                                                                        Here is a short video of the prayers the kids       

                                                                                                        have been learning.

One area we have been working on as a family is 

prayer.  The more we can organize our day around prayer, the more things go the way they are supposed to.  

Morning (before breakfast): 

- read the Bible

- read a story of a saint

- memorize part of the Baltimore Catechism

- light a candle and make intentions
- pray the Psalms

- pray the rosary (we are up to three decades with the kids in English, Latin and German).

At the table:

- we are working on praying with our bodies                             http://youtu.be/7LP0vPryb8U

daddy calls this 'our posture of prayer'.                                 

- we begin the meal with prayer and the 

kids can't leave till we end our meal with prayer.
- we also review the prayer parts of the mass 

Daily Holy Mass:

- we are working on being reverent and silent and participating in the mass as much as the kids are able.

- we are slowly working on saying the parts of the mass in English, German and Latin, but this is a slow process.

At Bedtime:

- we pray the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel and a prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours

It would be great to add the Chaplet of Divine Mercy at 3pm, but this hasn't worked out yet. 

January Miracle #1:

In January we had the unfortunate event of my hard drive crashing.  A student's worse nightmare.  My choices were limited and expensive.  Imac's are not cheap.  And fixing them in Europe is not cheap.  We prayed for a solution.  So a friend (with some technical experience), Chris Owens, decided to replace the hard drive ourselves and save some money.  Here are our photos:

We had to purchase these suction cups to pull off the screen on the Imac.

Then we opened it carefully and unplugged the wires.

Then we took off the screen. So far so good.

We replaced the 1tb harddrive with an SSD drive 256GB drive.  Substantially smaller but enough to run my applications.  Then we bought an external drive that I save photos, video and data to.

And .... thanks be to God! .... it works!  Great!
Total cost: around $500.  A far cry from a new Imac at $2400.

January Miracle #2

Many of you received a cry for help from Rebecca.  She has been on medication for her high blood pressure all year since Kate was born.  Then we found out we were pregnant with #5 and Becca wasn't allowed on her medication anymore.  After a day or so of quitting the medication her blood pressure began to rise and rise.  We needed a miracle!  Everything that she had tried doing to lower the blood pressure in the past had failed, so we were out of options.  Becca was trying to hunt down herbs from other countries and we put out a call for prayer.  Within a couple days her blood pressure dropped to normal and has been staying healthy since then!  A miracle!!!  Thank you so much for all your prayers!!

This is an icon given to us from a family here at ITI.  It is passed to expecting mothers to have and pray with.
There have been a series of miracles with this icon including fertility miracles and pregnancy difficulty miracles.

It is a blessing to have another sacramental in our home and another reminder to commit the protection of our new baby into the same arms that protected the Son of God.

Grandma/Grandpa's Christmas Present Comes in the Mail:

As mailing anything here seems to be a crazy price and takes a long time - people back home were very creative in the gifts they sent us.  My mom and dad sent the kids costumes.  Light and worth hours of fun.  Here is Tristan and Benedict as Wolverine and Batman!

My little is Benedict is a warrior.  He talks about fighting the bad guys every day.  One evening he told us at the supper table that he was going to find the bad guys that crucified Jesus and bash their heads together.  Another time Benedict said "If the snake ever gives me an apple," (referring to Adam and Eve) "I'll chop off his head!" That's my son!

Snow!  Finally!!

We have had a couple days where it snowed, but it always melted within a day.  We finally got dumped on and this is the most snow Trumau has had in 20 years!  

The Schloss in Winter: where I take classes and where we have daily mass.

Entrance to the Schloss.

Sledding with snow:

At first we went sledding on butts because we had no sleds.  (The sleds we saw at the stores were $33 each!  Too much!)  That was fun.  Then we tried an Ikea bag and that didn't work at all.  Finally, a neighbour told us of a store selling sleds for 5 Euros!  Yeah - we can sled for real!

This was Kate's first sledding experience.  Very exciting.

Kate's first sled ride!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q7jECQLGBc

 Kate's first sledding crash!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxvD7eq3_tk

Kate likes it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZoMqNOGNjQ

January Miracle #3:

This is a small miracle in comparison to the others, but one just the same.  Becca needed a strainer for loose leaf tea. We found one in the store finally for $40!  Yikes.  I wouldn't let Becca buy it and told her to pray for one.  The next day, our neighbour brought one over and told her she could use it for as long as she needed it!  Thanks be to God!

Education in Austria: Very different, very interesting...

Here is a copy of the email I sent to my teacher friends:

I'm learning a lot about a different way of doing education here and find the system here fascinating.  There are good and bad things about of course, but all cause for reflection on what we do in Canada.  Here are a few interesting things that happen here in Austria:

- Winter was placed in the first grade even though she was in grade 2 because of her not knowing German.  I was unimpressed to begin with, but this is the norm for all students.  If students are not mastering their languages they are kept back a grade because language is so important.  I'm tutoring a 13 year old boy now that had to redo a grade because his English language mark wasn't high enough.

- Winter has the same teacher from grade 1-5 in elementary.  

- From grades 1-5 they go to school only till noon.  They are always given a page or so of homework to do at home at the grade 1 level in language or math.  I think this increases as the grades increase.  

- In grade 1, penmenship is super important.  When they can write letters perfectly in small spaces (single lined paper) they move up to writing with a fountain pen.  Winter is now writing her notes with a fountain pen with refillable ink cartridges.  To be honest I at first thought this was dumb.  But then I thought about how poor the penmenship is in grade 4 and 5 in Canada for many kids and I wondered if there may be some merit here.  The boy I tutor in gr. 6 puts my penmenship to shame!

- Winter only takes 6 classes in grade 1.  Language, religion, math, phys. ed, art and music.  With no health, social or science they have a lot more time to spend on literacy.  Winter stays late an extra day for an hour to get private lessons with German.

- A homeschooling mom here from the US was forced to put her kids into the schools or pay 200 Euros/day/kid.  Her daughter was struggling with the amount of work in grade 6.  In grade 6 they take bio, chem, physics, latin, greek, english, social, geography, and some other ones.  She compared what she was learning in the sciences with what the States was doing back home.  Her kids in grade 6 was learning the same things that grade 11's do in the US.  Crazy.

- Between grade 6-9 you only have to go to school 3 full years, but you must pass 3 full years in those 4 in order to carry on into high school.  So the kid I"m tutoring will take the 4 years to get into high school.  I'm not sure what they do in the fourth year if they passed the three... I remember someone saying it is a year to focus on music... but I can't be sure.

- Music in Austria is so important that all music lessons are subsidized by the gov't by 2/3's!

- Catholic religion classes are mandatory at every school until high school where they still have to take religion but get to choose the religion they want to study.  

- If someone doesn't pass into high school they are put into vocation schools to learn trades.  One must get into high school in order to get into university.  One can get into university later without high school, but they make it difficult to do so.




Homeschooling at it's best!
The kids are studying
ancient Egypt in history
and learning about mummies.

Here they wrapped Tristan up,
added spices and oils, put on a mask and mourned his loss. Then they paraded him to his own pyramid.
                    

January Miracle #4:

Speaking of education... we had prayed and asked God to move the hearts of the politicians to allow Tristan to homeschool during the Kindergarten years and then we'd put him into the Volkschule for grade 1.  Most folks around us thought for sure this was a no-go as the system here is very strict.  Well, God again answered our prayers and we received a letter on the 22nd of January granting us permission.  Thanks be to God!

ITI Brewery

Chris Owens, one of our American students here with his family, is turning the keller into a brewery for the students.  This will include a pub as well.  Here are the pictures of the kids helping to sanitize 152 bottles for bottling our pale ale.

Here, with friends Johannes and Anna, the kids are sanitizing the bottles.

Here is Chris checking the alcohol level of the brew - a nice 4%.

Benedict taste testing the brew.

http://youtu.be/Oxis8GLXk3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arl0jb4Vvfs

January Miracle #5:

Benedict needed pyjamas.  Badly, actually. His belly showed and his sleeves were too short.  We looked for pjs but couldn't find any.  Austria is kind of like Vancouver in that way.  No big box stores like Walmart (oh how I miss Walmart) and everything is sold in individual, private stores.  I don't even know if we prayed for pjs, but God saw our need.  One of neighbours came over with a box of boy clothes for Benedict's age and inside... 2 pairs of spiderman pyjamas!  Oh my.  You have never seen a happier kid.  Thanks be to God Again!

Kenton's holiday reading list:

Princeps Fury by Jim Butcher

The Bible looks at Fathers by Annemarie Ohler
A Landscape of Dragons: a battle for your child's mind by Michael O'Brien
Cold Days by Jim Butcher

Of Human Acts and Final Ends: Summa Theologiae Part II by St. Thomas Aquanias

Sermon from the Vineyard:

The year of faith... more faith has been my prayer for the last six months.  Pope Benedict's insight couldn't be more accurate.  It is much easier to put my faith in my own work and ability to make money, then to trust God to meet my needs.  In fact, most of us in the Western world are rarely in a position to even have to trust God because we are so rich compared to the rest of the world.  A student here from Lithuania wanted to go home for Christmas and it cost 100Euro there and back by bus.  She had the 100 Euro to get home and trusted God for a way to get the money to come back.  God came through.  

I now find myself understanding the students from the Eastern block.  There is a trust there that I haven't had to have yet.  Now, I'm crying out like the father in Mark 9, "I believe Lord, help my unbelief!"  The honeymoon period is definitely over.  Actually, it was over in October.  It is crazy difficult for me, as the father not to be working and bringing in an income for my family.  I could (and sometimes do) let myself get caught up in worry and get stressed over every cent spent... but I'm learning.  I believe God wants us to be here.  We are here for this preparation for our future in some way.  Thus, I need to trust that He'll help us stretch our funds for the 5 years and will provide the means to pay my tuition.  And really, the proof is in the pudding.  Writing this blog was a real witness to me of how God continues to look after us - even in the little things. 

So what is my message this month?  Just exactly what I'm learning: faith.  To have faith.  Believe.  Trust.  Romans 10:17 says that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God."  So I can increase the amount of faith I have by hearing the word of God.  Where do I hear the word of God the most?  The Holy Mass.  The Holy Mass is saturated with Scripture.  So, my answer is clear: attend Holy Mass as often as possible.  

Phew! It is good to preach to yourself sometimes!

Kenton E.

Videos for Grandparents:

Kate says 'hello'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smw2JFSKx8E

Dance fest at the Bifferts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls0_3B0UBEQ

Kate laughing

Biffert needs and prayer requests:

For those of you praying for us here are a few our needs and wish we could haves:

 - Piano: music lessons are subsidized by 2/3's here in Austria by the state, but we can't send the kids unless we have a piano to practice with at home.  This would be a real miracle.
- Midwife: a midwife to birth your baby at home is not covered by state health insurance.  It is important to Becca to birth at home and so we are praying for the funds to do so.  About $1300.
- Books for the kids: there is no library around where we can get out English books for the kids.  So we're buying some from amazon.de, but everything here is taxed at 19% so it gets expensive.  If any of you have books you'd like to give our kids you can drop them off at my parents place as they are visiting us in the summer and bring them up.  Especially books like 'Boxcar Children', 'Geronimo Stilton', and 'Illustrated Classics'.

We wish you all a blessed Candlemas and a focused, penitential and prayer-filled Lent.

Love, Kenton, Rebecca, Winter, Tristan, Benedict, Kate and the new baby

Mailing Address:
Schloss Trumau
Schlossgasse 21
2521 Trumau, Austria