Feast: All Souls Day

This is the screen-saver we'll have on the family computer all month ... so that we remember to pray to, and for, the souls in Purgatory.

[A cool side note:  we actually have seen this fresco in situ ... it was done by Luca Signorelli as part of his fresco cycle done in the Chapel of San Brizio in Orvieto (Italy) Cathedral (1499-1503).  This particular part is titled, "Resurrection of the Flesh".  We saw his gorgeously restored during a visit back in 2003 -- we were taking a lunch break on our bus trip from Gaming, Austria to Rome, Italy to see Pope John Paul the Great!  The kids especially remember the stop as we had a great lunch from one of the little groceries on the way back to the bus!]

String Bean (3), dh, Kotch (almost 12), BamBam (in the backpack at 4months!), me, LegoManiac (4), Brikhead (almost 14) in Orvieto!

Feast Day: St. Bruno

St. Bruno -- founder of the Carthusians -- 1030-1101

We like St. Bruno around here ... he's a very cool saint who is usually pictured with a skull.  This, the family (especially my boys) think makes him one of those really cool saints that comes along every so often.  The reason for the skull?  St. Bruno taught his fellow Carthusians that they should always look death in the face -- this is our goal, to live our lives with the thought that any day ... any day ... we could meet Our Maker and we need to be ready!  The Carthusians keep a skull in their cells for this reason.

I think we have a special fondness for St. Bruno as our stay in Austria was in the shadow of the Kartause (Carthusian) Monastery in Gaming, Austria -- aptly named Kartause Maria Thron (or, Charterhouse - Throne of Mary).  Our youngest was born in the shadow of the Kartause.  Dh spent two years acheiving a Summe Cum Laude in the Kartause itself.   Our kids ran through the corridors, played in the courtyard and explored the nether regions of the partially restored Monastery.  I even wrote an article for the NCRegister about the Kartause Maria Thron!

Our flat was in the 2nd house to the left of the Church (altho the wall is now down and the house was right on the major thoroughfare to the skiing -- which now-20yo Brikhead thought was fabulous!). 

Memories! 

By your work you show what you love and what you know.  St. Bruno