by love i sail: Fr. Jacques' 1st Visit

Fr. Thierry is the founder of Heart's Home, but the two men that have been with him, studying to be priests and hearing their call to serve Heart's Home as priests from the very beginning were Fr. Guillaume and Fr. Jacques. Fr. Guillaume is the responsible for the Heart's Home in Naples, Italy, Alina's spiritual director, and soon to be the Responsible (legally) for the entire Heart's Home organization in case anything should happen to Fr. Thierry. Fr. Jacques, after spending several years in Argentina as well as being ordained a priest there, 5 years in India working as the founder of the home in Chennai, and several years in the center in southern France, Fr. Jacques will now be moving to Vienna! He is the Responsible for the founding of the home here in Wien and tomorrow we will be greeting him here for the second time...this time for a stay of up to 3 months, or longer. Two weeks ago, he came to visit for 15 days, to check on things here, to get a feel for the community and the progress in establishing the mission and working on the apartment. There is no way I could explain Fr. Jacques to you..you simply must meet him in order to know what he is like..and even then, there is no use trying to understand him. He is a mystery to me as of yet, but an exciting mystery with depth and insight that pours forth when giving advice, as well as a lighthearted spirit, always enjoying a good laugh over a glass of superb Austrian beer (his favorite).

The first night Fr. Jacques was here, we celebrated his 40th birthday (which was back in January). Monika had the fabulous idea to make him a birthday cake out of Austrian beer, considering that is his favorite and he dislikes sweets. But we presented the beer cake surprise to him only after a gourmet meal cooked and prepared by the master chef Monika herself. It was truly a celebration...of a birthday, of the entire community finally being together, and the new leg of our journey in mission...one priest richer.

Fr. Jacques arrived on Saturday evening. The next day we had a rest day and after mass Monika took us to Leopoldberg for a beautiful view overlooking the city and a little bit of hiking in the gorgeous sunshine.

After Leopoldberg, Monika dropped the three of us off at the Karlsplatz WienMuseum (free admission on the first Sunday of the month) and then she left for a retreat in another region of Austria that would last a week.

the time that Fr. Jacques was here...we prayed alot...

cleaned a lot...(you can see the parts where I haven't cleaned...and yes one doorway took me 10 1/2 hours over 3 days)

assembled donated furniture...Fr. Jacques even slept in his room with a complete bed, and closet for 3 nights.

had the thirds meeting of our gemeinschaft schule (the first lead by Fr. Jacques), on the beautiful dining room table from Bernhard in the still very dirty living room.

and even tried to arrange things so it looked more like a home!

(this was the day Fr. Jacques left. we have cleaned alot more, rearranged many times, and received more donations since he has been gone, so we are planning to have many surprises for him tomorrow, not to mention a freshly painted chapel...the best surprise of all!)

and then my 2 favorite activities during

Fr. Jacques' visit

1) EISLAUFEN!

The three of us joined Krista and her four children (remember the family we spend Christmas Eve with?) to meet Aberu and 3 of her 4 sons (remember the Ethiopian woman?) to go Ice skating. Since I am still in my cast, I had to sit out this round, but I got the enjoyment of plenty of time to take pictures and to hold baby Martin while Krista anxiously watches Klara and Jackob ice skate for the first time.

2) Rene Burri Ausstellung am Kunst Haus Wien

I have never heard of him before.

But I was completely floored by

his perspective and philosophy on

photography, art, humanity, and life.

Walking through the gallery,

at times the photographs incited me to laugh so hard it was all I could do to stifle the laughter

at times the photographs moved me so that chills ran down my spine.

His photography was not so good. so touching. so moving. so deep and distinct because he had studied so much the technique of photography, because he paid the most money for the best equipment, or because he was really good at using photoshop. It was the man behind the camera, what he stood for, his vision. Art conveys the artist, the artist's perception of the world, of life, of humanity, of what there is to hope in, of where despair creeps into the world. It was this that was so moving. Anyone could have photographed the events, the people that he did, but they could not have made these photographs. Only a man with such a moving perception could produce such art.

(I will post a separate Rene Burri post...he deserves more than that, but thats all I can offer!)

The Kunst Haus is magnificent in itself. It was designed by a famous Austrian architect Hundertwasser.