“Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya
Kumbaya my lord, Kumbaya
O Lord Kumbaya”
Listen HERE while you read
Why it’s still planet earth!
The moon looks exactly the same! There are real people and they are willing to try to speak English.
I have learned to say “God’s Greeting” in German. “Grouss Gott!” It’s the only thing I can say in German except “Machts nichts!” It doesn’t matter.
My husband counsels me to use that latter phrase sparingly
in the right context.
Other religions expect carnal delights in the next life, but Christians expect to receive the reward of God Himself.
I once had a dream about this third beatitude taught by Jesus Christ.
In the dream, a priest entered and found me and my friends asleep on a giant bed in Mercer Island, Washington, USA. He said, “You are asleep!” I literally was asleep. But he meant I was not watchful, waiting for the coming of the Lord.
He took me outside to the front of the house — a huge mansion. He pointed to a vague area behind the house, which looked like a giant vacant lot. It went on for miles. Ah, the Land!
And he said, “You like dessert. Go to the back of the house (the Land), and I will meet you there and give you dessert.” Then he went back into the house.
Here in Trumau, we dwell together with God in a stunningly real way. It is part of the charism of the school, which grants three canonical degrees in Sacred Theology, studies the
original writings of the great Masters of Theology, in addition to Sacred Scripture, especially the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and offers a rich Catholic community that lives and prays together in close proximity. Students from all over the world and Eastern Europe provide us with a genuine experience of the universal church, which must "breathe with both lungs" East and West (Pope Saint John Paul II).
And the classes — conducted as lecture and discussion seminars — are Wunderbar!
Interested in studying at the International Theological Institute? You can apply here.
Each student at ITI is only charged 6,000 Euros a year in tuition, but the actual cost of the education is 20,000 Euros.
Donate here
Why it’s still planet earth!
The moon looks exactly the same! There are real people and they are willing to try to speak English.
I have learned to say “God’s Greeting” in German. “Grouss Gott!” It’s the only thing I can say in German except “Machts nichts!” It doesn’t matter.
My husband counsels me to use that latter phrase sparingly
 |
| Susan and Lawrence Fox on the way to Seattle to take a plane to Austria Aug. 15, 2016. |
Lawrence — the husband in question — and I have landed at the International Theological Institute in Trumau, Austria, for our first semester of graduate study in theology. The school was founded by Pope Saint John Paul II to help prepare Catholics for the New Evangelization. The world is asleep! We will shake them awake.
This blog has been very quiet over the summer as we sold our house in Denver, Colorado, disposed of all our belongings and like Abraham and Sarah set out for a land that is not our own, hopefully according to God’s call.
I left my easy chair in Denver as I explained on Mardi Gras 2014 “LENT AGAIN: Fast from Your Easy Chair. Put on Christ!”
I landed in Paradise. Around our apartment there grows rosemary, chives, sage, thyme, strawberries, tiny kiwis, plums and pears — all free and available to the enterprising student who likes to cook (like me). And I didn’t have to plant them! After creating vegetable gardens in most of my recent homes, I really appreciate that someone else does the work and all I have to do is harvest.
This blog has been very quiet over the summer as we sold our house in Denver, Colorado, disposed of all our belongings and like Abraham and Sarah set out for a land that is not our own, hopefully according to God’s call.
I left my easy chair in Denver as I explained on Mardi Gras 2014 “LENT AGAIN: Fast from Your Easy Chair. Put on Christ!”
I landed in Paradise. Around our apartment there grows rosemary, chives, sage, thyme, strawberries, tiny kiwis, plums and pears — all free and available to the enterprising student who likes to cook (like me). And I didn’t have to plant them! After creating vegetable gardens in most of my recent homes, I really appreciate that someone else does the work and all I have to do is harvest.
Sometimes I don’t even have to harvest, for one of the students knocked on my door the other day and handed me a giant jar of plum jam made from the plums in our communal garden. Another gave me hedgerow berry jam she made in the UK. Can life be any sweeter?
When I go to the drug store and the clerk says something in German that I don’t understand, I say, “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” Two days ago I asked the question and two women in line behind me passionately volunteered to translate for me. I was overwhelmed with their generosity.
At Mass on Sunday, we celebrated the harvest at the Trumau parish church. They handed out delicious grapes after Mass. At Mass, there was the most beautiful 32-person choir I have ever heard. Lawrence and I were stunned when their opening song was Kumbaya in English, a standard spiritual sung around the campfires of America since the 1950s, during which time both Lawrence and I were born. (I won’t tell you who was born first.)
We have lovely liturgies daily in English (the Byzantine Rite), Latin (the Roman Rite) and German (also Roman Rite).
Today a young priest said his first Mass for us and we received his blessing.
On Oct 1, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn will dedicate our new Byzantine Chapel and the Archdiocese of Vienna has promised to give us first class relics of both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John Chrysostom!
I have fallen in love with the Akathist Hymn of the Byzantine Rite, which is a sung litany to Mary. It is the loveliest song I’ve ever heard. We have it every Wednesday night with confession.
Along with the easy chair, I gave up the big French peasant sink, the garbage disposal, screens on our windows and two separate private offices. But, hey, who wants to be turned
into a pillar of salt? (Lot’s wife looked back as her family escaped from Sodom and Gomorrah, and so she became a pillar of salt.) Or who wants to be like the Children of Israel in the Book of Exodus grousing because they can’t have meat and onions like they ate when they were slaves in Egypt? They ate well while their newborn sons were murdered by the Egyptian Pharoah. Put your hand to the plow and don’t look back — that’s my motto.
What I gave up in the United States is very small in exchange for so much happiness.
I am making a ton of new friends, young and old. We have served dinner in our apartment to Catholic youth from Singapore, Germany, Holland and Australia. We have socialised with countless others from Ireland, Syria, China, California, Lithuania, Slovakia, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. Every one spoke of their homes where Catholics are poorly catechised and ignorant of their faith. The whole world is awash in spiritual apathy! Our new young friends all confided they wanted to learn their faith well so they could share it in their native countries, and elsewhere in the world.
These Catholic youth literally want to save the world! The story of each one is unique, but it comes down to the same bottom line. Evidence of their youthful enthusiasm and sacrifice fills me with joy. The International Theological Institute is a bit of Eden on earth.
Did you know Eden was an actual physical place? The geographic description of the Garden of Eden is in Gen. 2:10-15.
“A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
Amazingly the description of the Land God promised to Abraham and his descendants — the Holy Land — is the same place!
“Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” (1Kings: 4:20-21)
That is what is called the literal sense of Scripture. It describes an historical fact. But what happens to the literal geographic Promised Land when God makes it holy? It becomes a spiritual place where man dwells with God like in Eden. God pitched His tent among men. That is His plan. He wants to live with us.
“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land… and they will be My people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:21,23)
The land is holy and God wants all there to put away their idols and live a holy life. So He gives them the 10 Commandments, a place to live (Paradise on earth), and asks them to worship Him alone.
So follows in the Old Testament, the life and death story of a people who fell away from God, had bad things happen, and then repented and returned to Him until finally some rejected and killed God’s own Son. The Temple — their place of dwelling with God — was destroyed in 70 AD.
This is the story of all men without Christ.
This is the story of our world today. The Catholic youth here attest that is taking place in their home lands. I know it is also occurring in the United States.
It is most apparent in the tragic story of the wars convulsing the Middle East. These conflicts threaten to wipe out all of the Christians in that ancient land.
“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land.” (Matt 5:5) If we lived Christ's words in His Sermon on the Mount, humanity would not be facing such tribulation.
The Land was everything for the children of Israel: family, safety, peace with God. For the Christian, who worships God in Spirit and Truth, it is — spiritually — God Himself.
When I go to the drug store and the clerk says something in German that I don’t understand, I say, “Sprechen Sie Englisch?” Two days ago I asked the question and two women in line behind me passionately volunteered to translate for me. I was overwhelmed with their generosity.
At Mass on Sunday, we celebrated the harvest at the Trumau parish church. They handed out delicious grapes after Mass. At Mass, there was the most beautiful 32-person choir I have ever heard. Lawrence and I were stunned when their opening song was Kumbaya in English, a standard spiritual sung around the campfires of America since the 1950s, during which time both Lawrence and I were born. (I won’t tell you who was born first.)
We have lovely liturgies daily in English (the Byzantine Rite), Latin (the Roman Rite) and German (also Roman Rite).
 |
| Father Lukasz gives his first blessing as a priest in the new Byzantine Chapel at ITI. |
On Oct 1, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn will dedicate our new Byzantine Chapel and the Archdiocese of Vienna has promised to give us first class relics of both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. John Chrysostom!
I have fallen in love with the Akathist Hymn of the Byzantine Rite, which is a sung litany to Mary. It is the loveliest song I’ve ever heard. We have it every Wednesday night with confession.
Along with the easy chair, I gave up the big French peasant sink, the garbage disposal, screens on our windows and two separate private offices. But, hey, who wants to be turned
 |
| In lieu of garbage disposals, Austrians make their own compost, a process that fascinates the author |
What I gave up in the United States is very small in exchange for so much happiness.
I am making a ton of new friends, young and old. We have served dinner in our apartment to Catholic youth from Singapore, Germany, Holland and Australia. We have socialised with countless others from Ireland, Syria, China, California, Lithuania, Slovakia, Austria, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic. Every one spoke of their homes where Catholics are poorly catechised and ignorant of their faith. The whole world is awash in spiritual apathy! Our new young friends all confided they wanted to learn their faith well so they could share it in their native countries, and elsewhere in the world.
These Catholic youth literally want to save the world! The story of each one is unique, but it comes down to the same bottom line. Evidence of their youthful enthusiasm and sacrifice fills me with joy. The International Theological Institute is a bit of Eden on earth.
Did you know Eden was an actual physical place? The geographic description of the Garden of Eden is in Gen. 2:10-15.
“A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”
Amazingly the description of the Land God promised to Abraham and his descendants — the Holy Land — is the same place!
“Now Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.” (1Kings: 4:20-21)
That is what is called the literal sense of Scripture. It describes an historical fact. But what happens to the literal geographic Promised Land when God makes it holy? It becomes a spiritual place where man dwells with God like in Eden. God pitched His tent among men. That is His plan. He wants to live with us.
“Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land… and they will be My people, and I will be their God.” (Ezekiel 37:21,23)
The land is holy and God wants all there to put away their idols and live a holy life. So He gives them the 10 Commandments, a place to live (Paradise on earth), and asks them to worship Him alone.
So follows in the Old Testament, the life and death story of a people who fell away from God, had bad things happen, and then repented and returned to Him until finally some rejected and killed God’s own Son. The Temple — their place of dwelling with God — was destroyed in 70 AD.
This is the story of all men without Christ.
This is the story of our world today. The Catholic youth here attest that is taking place in their home lands. I know it is also occurring in the United States.
It is most apparent in the tragic story of the wars convulsing the Middle East. These conflicts threaten to wipe out all of the Christians in that ancient land.
“Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the land.” (Matt 5:5) If we lived Christ's words in His Sermon on the Mount, humanity would not be facing such tribulation.
The Land was everything for the children of Israel: family, safety, peace with God. For the Christian, who worships God in Spirit and Truth, it is — spiritually — God Himself.
Other religions expect carnal delights in the next life, but Christians expect to receive the reward of God Himself.
I once had a dream about this third beatitude taught by Jesus Christ.
In the dream, a priest entered and found me and my friends asleep on a giant bed in Mercer Island, Washington, USA. He said, “You are asleep!” I literally was asleep. But he meant I was not watchful, waiting for the coming of the Lord.
He took me outside to the front of the house — a huge mansion. He pointed to a vague area behind the house, which looked like a giant vacant lot. It went on for miles. Ah, the Land!
And he said, “You like dessert. Go to the back of the house (the Land), and I will meet you there and give you dessert.” Then he went back into the house.
I do love dessert and so I was motivated to achieve this goal. But the Land appeared to be a long way away as it was a very big house. I looked around and one of my friends was sitting on an adult-sized tricycle. I pushed her off the bike, (I wasn’t meek). I hopped on the vehicle and began peddling my way to the back of the house where the Land lay. Of course, I woke up before I could get there because obviously I wasn’t ready for it. If I were ready, I would not have pushed my sister off the tricycle. That is the action of a child.
Years later in real life, I must have made some progress on the third beatitude because the same priest walked past my table and gave me half his dessert. People around me were shocked by his action, but I was thrilled.
Years later in real life, I must have made some progress on the third beatitude because the same priest walked past my table and gave me half his dessert. People around me were shocked by his action, but I was thrilled.
Now I find myself receiving the Land that was promised to me in the dream. This is the dessert: the people with me here are God’s children, and we are studying the very inner life of God Himself and His Household. Nothing happens accidentally, all is given providentially.
"The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which God reveals himself and communicates his life." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #236)
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| Blessed Karl von Habsburg, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary, and his bride Zita, smile benignly down on me in the ITI classroom dedicated to his name |
It is heaven on earth.
And the classes — conducted as lecture and discussion seminars — are Wunderbar!
We Did It!
Lawrence and Susan Fox both graduated on June 8, 2019 magna cum laude! Larry received a Master's in Sacred Theology and Susan received a Master's in Marriage and Family. We will stay here two more years while Larry finishes his licentiate. Susan will take classes in Scripture and the Early Church Fathers.
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| Lawrence Fox prays at the Grotto of the Sorrowful Mother in Portland, Oregon, Aug. 15, 2016 on our journey to Austria. We left Denver, Colorado in late July, and flew out of Seattle, Washington, Aug 23. Note the picture in the background of Our Lady and St. Joseph's flight into Egypt to escape Herod. |
Each student at ITI is only charged 6,000 Euros a year in tuition, but the actual cost of the education is 20,000 Euros.
Donate here
Or contact: Dipl. Ing. Alexander Pachta-Reyhofen, Director of Development (Europe), International Theological Institute, Email: a.pachtareyhofen@iti.ac.at
