Lilienfelt Abbey..summer 2011..Lower Austria

Dear friends and family...I am finally able to post my summer travel reflections..Booey had the opportunity to attend the summer music academy in Lilienfelt Austria (near Vienna). Her teacher Helen De Pastel goes every year as her daughter Doctor Karen De Pastel is the founder and leader of this Academy. It is a two week musical experience ,basically German speaking, but reflecting Vienna as it is as international as could be imagined. Bulgarians, Russian, Czech, Poles,Ukranian, Hungarian...Asian..etc. We were the only Americans. The setting in the twelfth Century functioning Benedictian Monestary, founded by Bernard of Clarivoiux...includes a castle , a gothic-romanesque cathedral, and a full abbey. Lilienfelt is a sleepy Austrian village set in a valley on a river. The bridge is Roman...the oldest towers in Austria stand as the entrance to the old part of the city. They are of the early middle ages standing against the steep green hills that go straight up around this untouched fragrant lush green strand. The only sound to be heard are the sheep baaing..or an occasional cow bell. Of course the cathedral bells can peel and break the silence. There also is the town clock.

The beauty is so enrapturing...the massive Abbey agaist the towering greenhills...i bought a sketch book and began trying to capture the essence of what my eye could see. Sitting under the trees at the local gasthaus..I attempted...booey encouraged me. Amidst this setting one can hear the singers voices out the windows. Juli from Russia the teacher everyone wants. I know why, his students are unbelievable. His beautiful wife accompanies and it is known ...the charge for private lessons, seperate from the camp one euro a minute! This truly was the summer of Euro! (more on that later).

To properly describe the character of this academy, one must enter the earthy color of a Tolstoy novel. Everyone is there; The Hungarian, the Pole, lots of Russians and Bulgarians. You must complicate this setting with high middle ages and the monastic significance. Now throw in THe Hapsburgs and The Austrian-Hungarian Empire. We can't leave out the organized, intelligent,financially-secure Germans. We stayed in the original ninth century castle..that boasts of a real dungeon. (untouched by modern hands). What we discovered is the middle ages pattern of growth of cities and towns. Usually began with a castle, then a monestary and cathedral, then the village naturally grows u p around these structures.It is the middle ages found on the chess board : the king,queen, bishop, abbot ,knights and many surfs(pawns).

The music academy offered instruction in all stringed instruments,flute, trumpet, piano, pipe organ, harpsichord,vocal...private instruction , and recitals and concerts every evening. The setting with chandeliers and white painted Russian fireplaces set the backdrop in the room called the Kaiser-zsalt where some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard was presented.

My last Sunmday in Lillienfelt we of course went to church in the beautiful cathedral...here is an excerpt from my journal ...

Sunday morning July 17, 2011
While sitting Sunday morning in the Lillienfelt Cathedral...breathing in the Schubert mass in G major..hearing my voice teacher Lilia from Bulgarian weaving her voice with Russian Baritone Juli. All the professors from the camp were standing behind in the organ loft participating in this worship service. Next came an excerpt from Rachmaninoff's Vespers..I scanned the hugh altar with the statue fo king David in Gold standing full life sized on top of the monks organ.The Baroque touches are everywhere laid over the gothic design. All the centuries of worship to God merging together.The highest setting to hear these great works is in a worship service, for this was their original intent. I felt lifted to heavenly spheres of Gods glory and holiness. I whispered a prayer ..Dear God, what is wrong with America? I cannot go back to one more depressing worship services. I saw written before my mind...in vivid letters. MEDIOCRITY...this is the sin of America.
It affects every area, from morals, to the way we dress, to what we allow in a church service, to how we serve dinner to our families; to what we prepare,to how we observe the sabbath, to how we treat each other. How do we HONOUR God,ourselves, our fellow-man, our authorities?

Do we use our abundant resources to increase our level of spiritual and cultural (one does affect the other) growth? Almost all great classical music is written from a Christian base, encompassing a world view that involves a striving for excellence with view of the eternal. In the word classical I am including of course Baroque and pre-Baroque. Bach, Beethovan, Mozart Schubert...Can someone raise the bar? It seems only in sports, business etc. do we see, hear lectures on excellence.We must not be silent, or we also will succomb to brain-numbing mediocrity. Bernard of Clairvoux (eleventh cent) founder of this monestary and hundreds like it across Europe...shone as a light of spiritual revival and renewal across the dark ages of hopeless despair . His theme was "WORK AND WORSHIP". This movement was to change history. Really it is a precursor to the reformation. Bernard called for a purifying of the church. His monks established the rescue of hikers with the Saint Bernard dog. They helped the poor, established schools, wrote hymns and lifted the broken from themud puddle of human existence. The flag of Austria was developed, designed and christened in this very monestary. Bernard is attributed to have written the Hymn O Sacred Head Thou Wounded, later used by Bach in the St. Matthews passion. All through History it is the power of one , brave enough to stand and say " enough...this is the truth and I cannot be silent! " excerpt from susan elizabeths journal Lily House 2011...documented today sunday January 29, 2912