Thank You!!

Thank all of you for your kind words concerning the birth of Ezekiel. We are so very grateful for all your prayers and support - much more than words can ever express. Your prayers and support have kept us going on so many occasions when it seemed easier to say "Forget it." and come home. Thank you for interceding for us. Every prayer makes a huge difference in our lives.

We pray for you all everyday!

valentines day!

Hey its C.J. Today is Valentines Day so I don't know how it's going to be in Austria??? I hope we have a party! I bet F.U.S does (Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio). Remember though that today is about how St.Valentine became a martyr. There were three different St.Valentines all remembered on Feb 14 (get the name) =^). St. Valentine is the patron saint of people in love. Even though Valentines Day is fun and I like the candy let us remember St.Valentine in respect. I have got to go. Word out Cody Lee.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

With the coming of baby Ezekiel, I completely forgot that we passed the six month mark?? I can't believe that we have been here six months already!! I have always marveled how time seems to go faster the older you are. There were times i thought we'd never make this far. God is so good. We look forward to the next six months as Ezekiel grows and changes so fast.

He’s here!!

Ezekiel Thomas Lee was born today, February 10th, at 1:40 pm Austria time. He was 3.4 kg (7.5lb) and 52 cm (21 in.) long. It was a long 24hr labor. Mom needed a little induction to progress but everything is fine. Mom and baby are healthy and happy! She should be home tomorrow sometime. The Austrian hospital was wonderful. The Lord is so very good!!

The Dead Theologian's Society

You might be asking yourself, "What is the Dead Theologian Society"? You might even be saying, what a strange name? The Dead Theologian Society is a Catholic Apostolate for teens. D.T.S. teaches teens from today how to become the saints of tomorrow by inspiring them by the lives of the saints. D.T.S. strives to teach teens about the lives of the saints, about their heroic virtues, and by teaching them the content of the saints inspirational writings. D.T.S.'s goal is to train up today's youth to be positive role models and to obtain the virtues that the saints perfected, so that the youth of today can live out their Catholic faith to its fullest.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend D.T.S.'s Franciscan University chapter in Gaming, Austria. When we arrived we all came in and took a seat. Then the leader of the group taught us about a saint. We then as a group discussed the saint and what we each personally knew about the saint. We ended the evening with praying a decade of the rosary and various other prayers. Then the class ended and we socialized with the group and personally discussed with each other about what we had learned during our evening. This is a really fun way to learn about saints! If you live anywhere near a group of D.T.S. I personally recommend you joining the group.

For more information on a D.T.S. Chapter near you go to: www.deadtheologianssociety.com

Poor Priests and Poker...

Say that three times fast... ;-)

We have had a little poker gathering on a couple Friday nights with the priests and profs from Franciscan University. What a blast! It is so fun to gather with people that are interested in having fun - but good, clean fun...which is 'funner' that the 'fun' I used to have before I knew the Lord!

We have two Franciscan Priest's that host the get together. What fantastic men. They even have enough money for the massive €2 buy-in!! ;-) The first time we played I won the whole night. I got creamed the time after that.

When you live in a place where you have no car, no TV, no radio, no movie theater, etc. it sure is nice to have good company, good food, and especially good cards!

It is so good to be Catholic!

Wait a minute....

I was reading an article today from a certain Father Cozzens about priestly celibacy. He gives the same old story about that it should be re-visited and eventually optional.

Here in Gaming, we live among several Eastern Rite priests that are married. The sacrifice of their wives and families is enormous. They survive partly because in the East the parishes are quite small (or there are many priests) to lighten the load.

Anyway, I don't link and comment to this story to discuss celibacy, as such. I want to point out a very interesting comment that he makes at the end of the article that is crucial for us to understand as Christians. Let's pick up the article:

Cozzens, 67, a priest for 41 years, says he has been faithful to the celibacy vow. "Celibacy has worked in my life and that is due to the grace of God," he said.

A moment later, however, paraphrasing poet T.S. Eliot, he confessed that "at times I feel it's cost not less than everything."

When did the Lord EVER teach that it costs less than everything??

He said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. Mark 8:35

and

"If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

Jesus, in the above passage, is using hyperbole to make his point: to be his disciple he must be first in everything.

Jesus gave us everything in love - to the very last drop of his Precious Blood - so that we might in return give everything - our very selves - in love.

So yes, Father. He calls for everything. To the extent we keep a part of ourselves for ourselves whether it be sex, family size, money, possessions, our own opinions that contradict Church teaching, or time (etc., etc.) from the Lord is the extent that we are separated from him; thereby living a life less than the full, abundant life he desires for us.

We only fully realize ourselves in full union with him. We are only in union with him when we give ourselves completely to him.

What's the Time?

Time to hit the snow.

Dateline January 27th, 2007: Gaming, Austria.
The world sledding championships were held today in Gaming Austria, a small village in the Eastern portion of the scenic country. The competition boasted contestants from the United States, England, Slovakia, and Austria. High winds and blowing snow made conditions extremely difficult. For the first time in history an American competitor was named the champion. Zechariah Lee, better known as "Zach Attack" (pictured below), hails from Kuna Idaho, a small village in South-Central portion of the state. He attributes his success to rigorous training on a Nintendo GameBoy SP, homeschooling, losing four front teeth (for aerodynamics), and the sweet green goggles given to him by his parents. To celebrate he wishes he could go to McDonalds, but will get some good home cooking instead.

Herr Michael Lee, the President of Buffalo Chips Potato Chips, (shown here from an undated file photo) said that "Zach Attack was a fierce competitor and that the entire USA can be proud of their sledding champ". Buffalo Chips Potato Chips announced a multi-year deal made with the new champ. We can expect Zach "Zach Attack" Lee to star in a new series of commercials touting the new Buffalo Chips product called "prairie pancakes".

My Eyes Were Opened by Homeschooling

There are many schools of thought on homeschooling. Some are good and some are bad. I just wanted to share our experience for people who still have their kids in the school system. If we came back to the states right now Mike and I would have to discern if we still were going to home school or not. Lets just say starting from scratch with a 7th grader, a 6th grader, and a 1st grader has been quit the challenge.

But the part I really wanted to share is that we thought that our kids were getting a great education. We were in a strong school district and our kids were doing great. We were very pleased with the teachers and the schools our children were placed in. We realized our kids were exposed to somethings that we weren't excited about, but we had made sure we addressed those things with them regularly. Our children were considered the top of their class and were charting off the ISAT tests. So we felt great about the education that our kids were getting and the work we were helping them complete for school.

Since we have started homeschooling, what we have realized is that with the program "No child left behind", the schools were targeting their efforts to the lowest child. So the fact that our kids were doing so exceptional meant nothing. Our kids were not being challenged at all and when we started to home school we were met with a huge struggle and with lots of tears. Now we are more hands on and know what are kids are learning. We are making sure they are working at a level to help them develop to their full potential. If we ever came back to the states and decided to put our kids back in school, I would most certainly be supplementing their education, so that my kids would reach their full potential. I am not pushing either way for homeschooling or not, I still feel that is a decision that parents have to discern through with the Lord. What I am cautioning parents about is when in the school system, private or public, be aware that your kids may not be getting the education you thought they were.

Next time I will tell you where we found our kids education was lacking. Love In Christ!

Book Recommendation...

Deb and I discovered (well recommended to us) a fantastic book. It is a personal retreat based on the teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux. It is called: I Believe in Love: A Personal Retreat Based on the Teaching of St. Therese of Lisieux. It emphasizes St. Therese's teaching on confidence, trust, and abandonment to God. It is excellent!!

If you are interested...

Here is the Fall 2006 Newsletter from The International Theological Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family.

It is called the Consortio. It is interesting and informative. It give a view into the life here at the ITI.

Enjoy!

Sigh....Teenagers...

In the immortal words of Ivan Ooze (Power Rangers villain extrordinaire) "Smell's like....teenagers!! Well, he is right! The lee house now smells like a teenager...yuck!!

Felicity turned 13 on the 30th. Look out world! I am so glad we have here chained up in the basement here. 8^> Needless to say that Deb and I are in a whole heckuva lot of trouble...

Doesn't that just look like a teen to you?

Epiphany...(Oh yeah, Merry Chritsmas and a Happy New Year)!!

I was just struck by the thought that it was just a year ago when the whole ITI thing began. I'll never forget sitting listening to Father Tim's homily as he talked about following the star wherever it might lead us. A year and 10 days ago and I would have laughed at you if you would have suggested I would be in Austria the following year. God certainly leads us on a "Great Adventure" This is a name of an old Steven Curtis Chapman song of the same name. The lyrics are fantastic:

Saddle Up Your Horses
by Stephen Curtis Chapman

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head of all I had to do today
Another time around the circle try to make it better than the last

I opened up the Bible and I read about me
Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages it hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me and I heard somebody say "let's go"!

CHORUS
Saddle up your horses we've got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God's amazing grace
Let's follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is a life like no other - this is The Great Adventure

Come on get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion in a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for

(Chorus)

BRIDGE
We'll travel over, over mountains so high
We'll go through valleys below
Still through it all we'll find that
This is the greatest journey that the human heart will ever see
The love of God will take us far beyond our wildest dreams

There is no doubt that following the Lord is a great adventure!! Sometimes it is rocky and other times it seems so mundane. hoever, it is precisely here we are invited to see by the eyes of our faith the adventure of loving God and others in the very midst of the humdrum. Trying to love others perfectly truly is an adventure!

Christmas in Austria..

We went to the Byzantine Rite Liturgy today (for the 4th Sunday of Advent). We had quite a surprise...it was in Romanian! I can say for certain that was the first time I have ever prayed in Romanian. It was beautiful...

The neatest thing happened at 3pm this afternoon. We borrowed a small hurricane lamp, that just holds a small tea candle, and headed down to the Parish in Gaming. Every year, a child from Austria is selected to go to Bethlehem and light a candle at the Church of the Nativity. They bring the fire back to Vienna where other candles are lit. Then, the fire is taken across Austria via train. At 3pm today, the fire was brought to the Church in Gaming on horseback. We lit our candle and headed home. Now, we will keep it burning for the entire 8 days of the Octave of Christmas and light every other fire or candle in the house from this holy light. I will post a picture as soon as I can.

May your Vigil of Christmas be holy as we await the coming of our Savior!

Stillness...

The Franciscan students left last week and most of the ITI students will leave today. There has been a profound quieting - a stilling that has occurred here. It is appropriate as we prepare, in the stillness of our hearts, for the coming of the King. We simply cannot receive him in noise or activity. The hustle and bustle surrounding Christmas can be the greatest obstacle to Christmas. Our hearts must be like that cave 2000 years ago - still, receptive, listening. On that stille nacht, heilige nacht of so long ago the entire universe waited in silence for the advent of the One. Waiting, watching, longing to receive the Son of God made man. So must our heart be. Let us not forget that without this humble babe we would still be lost in our sin - slaves with no hope to receive what is our deepest desire - union with God.

It is ok that the cave of our heart is dirty and smells. Our heart is the very place he chooses - wants - to be born. He knows he is not coming to a palace. He could have been born in one if he so desired...He chose a humble cave. The point here is not to wait until your heart is a palace to invite the King. he wants to be born in the humble confines of your heart. There he can make it into a fitting palace for himself.

Once born in our heart, we must bear him to the world. Our Lady becomes our example here. With her deep love of God and her humility, she was the "handmaid of the Lord" ready and accepting of all that her loving God had for her. How many people want to ride a donkey nine months pregnant? How many would be willing to bear their child in a stable? When you knew how special the child was? And yet, if Jesus was born in a palace, it would be very difficult to call him my Savior since I wasn't born in a palace. God desired to reach down to the lowest - to save all. Mary's suffering came from God asking her to let him reach down to the least brethren through her. For God to reach all, he needed Mary to ride that donkey and give birth in that stable, and, later, to immolate herself at the foot of her Son's Cross.

See, God asks of us, the baptized and confirmed, to do the same thing! He asks us to love him and trust him enough so that he can "reach down" into humanity through us for the salvation of the world. To do so, we must expect there to be trial and suffering just like Our Lady as we bear Christ to the world.

So let us then prepare our hearts, this Christmas, for the coming of the Savior with silence and stillness resolving that when he is born in us we will bear him to the world no matter the cost.

Winter in Gaming...

This winter has been amazingly warm and dry here in Gaming. We have had temperatures into the 50s quite regularly. Finally, we are getting some snow (as I write). We are hoping for a white Christmas but the weather report is not too favorable. Here are a couple pictures of the Kartause Maria Thron from different angles.

YAY!!

FINALS ARE OVER!!
FINALS ARE OVER!!
FINALS ARE OVER!!

(Now, hopefully, I didn't flunk out! 8^>)

DEO GRATIAS!!

Switching,,,

Please be patient as the whole family finishes finals. In addition, we are switching to the new blogger software so it will take some time to fix the template.

Thanks!

Gifts from God

Isn't it funny what we see as gifts from God. We often look for blessings only in things we want to see them in. It is easy not to see the forest for the trees. Since we have arrived in Austria I have seen the huge miracles that God has always done for Mike and I. Helping us get a home in Kuna, bringing me to Christ when I was in utter darkness etc.

But it is often that we miss the miracles that come our way, that to us don't seem extraordinary. Maybe its that we only look for extraordinary things to be miracles, but miracles happen each day for all of us. The miracle that we have a job and we get to go to work everyday and this is how Christ provides for our family. Or that God has placed certain people in our lives that keep us afloat when we otherwise might just sink straight to the bottom of whatever crisis we seem to be having at any certain moment. In my case the miracle that I still have the ability to tie my shoes at 7 months pregnant. HaHa.

But the point is that we often miss the gifts Christ gives us right before our eyes. I full realize that on any given day, that Austria is truly not my home in my heart. Yet, I am realizing that it has been a true gift because I was in a place in my life that the security, comfort, and almost a complacency had come over me sitting in at my comfy home in Kuna. This wasn't a good place to be for my spiritual growth and my walk with Christ. Maybe even to the point of my salvation being at risk. Although realizing what a gift it is may not ease my heart in the suffering of missing all of you that I love and my home in Idaho.

It does make me realize that we are all on a journey and that Christ's gifts come in all types of packages, just like presents under a Christmas tree. Some are simple gifts that we take for granted. Others are tougher gifts that stretch us beyond ourselves and our comfort. These are the gifts that help us grow in our faith and in Christ himself. Some gifts are unexpected, undeserved, and beyond our wildest imaginations. But these are all pure gifts and I am trying to look for all of them and be thankful for each and everyone of them.

So for all the beautiful people that Christ has put in our lives, thank you for the love and Christ's presence that you have shared with us. As for the gifts that Christ gives that allow suffering or stretching I am thankful to Him for them, at least for today. (I am sad to say, tomorrow may be a day I grumble about them :) I just pray as we all go into this most beautiful, blessed season we can see things clearly and see the miracles and gifts all around us. For we all are so blessed, by every kind of gift that He has so preciously given to each and everyone of us. May our most priced gift this holiday season be the one we most need from Christ, placed neatly under our Christmas tree!

Study Break!!

I had to pop in for a minute and share a story. Hang in there...I know you stop by everyday just hoping, pleading that I posted something...yeah right....ok, anyway, I have a bunch of stuff that I am storing up for blogizzard (that is a 'storm' of posts) once the semester is over. However, this one was just too amazing to pass up.

I admit. I am a sucker for a good conversion story. I never tire of hearing about the wondrous works of our God. I found this story first over on a first-rate blog The CurtJester and was absolutely enthralled by it.

I had never heard of Mr. Wright before. I discovered he is a semi-famous (no offense Mr. Wright) Sci-Fi writer. Please see his Wikipedia page. Mr. Wright sounds as if he was a committed, devout atheist. Then he met the Holy Trinity and all that changed drastically. I am going to post a couple excerpts here but please, please, please, please, O please, go read this for yourself. The beginning of Advent is a perfect time to read something as beautiful as this. The link to the entry is: http://johncwright.livejournal.com/59241.html#cutid1.

Why I am not a Deist.
I was asked a good question:

"I suppose I still don't really understand why you flipped from fervent atheist to Christian. Not Deist, but *Christian*. Meaning you went from not even believing in God - and I assume all supernatural elements - to believing in a very specific story about Jesus."

Well, I don't like talking about this, but it would be dishonorable if I avoided answering. I am Christian because I had a religious experience with specifically Christian elements in it, albeit the mystical unity of other religions was not absent. What I saw was as simple as Love itself, and as mysterious. It was not some vague light or misty sensation I met, but people to whom I spoke, a ghost, an apostle, the Madonna, the Paraclete, the Messiah, and the Father. The Holy Spirit entered my soul, I felt it happen, and something changed inside me: grace was poured into my like wine into a tin cup, alchemic wine that turns tin into gold.

I was taken on a journey outside of time, and saw the fine structure of the universe, encountered a mind infinitely superior to my own, as well as infinitely loving, and also was shown the secret roots of thought, the somewhat Platonic place ideas live before they pop into human awareness as ideas. I have had prayers answered. I saw millions of spirits, a choir as large as a galaxy and as intricate as a formal dance, bending all their efforts to save just one soul. The list just goes on and on. I should say experiences. Plural. Not one, but six, over a period of months, and continuing to the present day. I have seen visions and experienced miracles, seen prayers answered, and had things even stranger happen. One supernatural event would be enough to convince an honest atheist that there was something in the universe which could not fit into the materialistic, scientific model. I have had half a dozen such experiences, each one different in nature, duration, and kind from the other: An embarassment of evidence; overwhelming; overkill...

snip

You might think all this was some great privilege or awesome experience.

It was totally humiliating.

So much evidence of the Christian religion was given to me so abundantly that it is an embarrassment to me. Other Christians, who have faith, do not need to be hit over the head with the blunt instrument of obvious supernatural events, one after another after another. I was visited not because I was wise or smart, but because I was foolish and stupid.

You might wonder why, if God can convince atheists to worship Him merely by dropping by for a visit, He does not do it more often. The reason is that it does not help, not at all, not a bit. When I suffer doubts, when my faith gets weak, my faith in my memory gets weak too. Faith and faithlessness have NOTHING TO DO with evidence presented to reason or senses. It has to do with a humble will and an upright heart. If God presented evidence to skeptics, all that would happen is that skeptics would doubt their evidence. If God gave a logical argument to prove His own existence, all that would happen is that skeptics would doubt the power of logic to prove anything. Skepticism pretends it is all about open-mindedness and evidence. Not so. Skepticism is about suspicion and pride and self-will. It is about pretending you are smarter than people who, if you only knew, are actually wiser than you and your sneering questions and foolish word-tricks. The only place we ever see a humble skeptic is in the physical sciences, because scientists are willing to let their conclusions be ruled on by nature.

Once I was touched by the Spirit (I, who did not until that moment even believe the word 'spirit' had any meaning) everything else fell into place...

snip

So I am not a Deist because Deism is not a satisfactory model for my experience. I did not meet a generic god, the god of the philosophers, or some nondenominational new age Being of Light. I met the three persons of the Trinity, one after another.

And Mary. I spoke with her. I wish I could tell you of her kindness, her simple, unaffected goodness of heart. She is more celebrated now than any queen, and lives where joy lives forever, and bright spirits like votive candles surround her, but I wish I could do something, anything to undo the sorrows she knew in life. Poor woman. Poor, poor woman.

If this was all hallucination, if this was all madness, I tell you truthfully that I would believe it nonetheless, just on the smallest chance I might see her again in heaven, and hold her hand again. Hers was the callused hand of a working woman.

Those last lines were some of the most beautiful I have ever read. Yes, we so want to hold her hand and to feel the arms of her Son wrapped around us welcoming us home...Marana tha!!!! Come Lord Jesus!!