I rushed out of here this morning in the midst of sharing with you all and return with a heart still full to bursting with the memories of my early Catholic days. Returning home as I would describe the Prodigal daughter from my trip out West to Boulder, Colorado... My first year of college was filled with spreading my wings in ways that could have led me down a very different path.... NOw I marvel at how the Lord took me in hand as I arrived at that Christian commune, and the life that I started at that point has been this path with Jesus always at my side and sometimes carrying me... much as the poem... Footprints.
My mom was amazed at the girl that returned to her from my month in Colorado... I call these my "nun years" because I returned with a very peaceful and humble state of mind and heart. I stripped my bedroom down to the bare bones and painted the whole thing white... My bible, prayer book, soon a rosary, and school books were all that were by my bed and allowed inside.... I wore only long dresses for a long time and for a while was not the wild and crazy me that we all know and (?)love. I really was focused on just my Lord and His Church! I wanted to run off to the convent, but knew that I needed to become Catholic first and then there was college... I ended up starting at St Catherine's nursing, which was amazing to have that beautiful chuch right there to go to daily mass or just take time in the day to sit in and pray...
WE started to be prepared to join the Church by Fr Custodio... he sat my youngest siblings around the coffee table in the living room and spoke to all of us through them... in very simple terms. Many times I have appreciated the fact that we knew very little in the grand scheme of things, but with the future ahead with so much to grow and learn about... a lifelong journey... and one that is beyond anything I could have ever hoped for! Then Christmas midnight mass at our Cenacle Convent... all 13 of us received our first communion! So amazing! I think I remember a few tears shed by us and the sisters and of course so many HUGS!
Now the floodgates were opened for me to look into religious life.... I decided with the permission of the sisters of the Cenacle there in Wyzata to do for January term... a independent study paper on religious life while living with them for that month. Much like my daughter, Maria, did... I had a cell back where they live in community and shared their meals and their prayers and read books on religious life and wrote a paper about it.
What stirs me still about that month was the beauty of attending daily mass led by an elderly priest in a beautiful way... the mass became intimately familiar to me in the January sunlit beautiful yet simple chapel. The reality and nourishment of this filled me with awe every day! By far every part of the mass came to be a thing of beauty for me in my new eyes and heart.... as I came to know Jesus in the Eucharist and to see how His brides of many years came to Him each day.... We were fed daily in the Love Light! I think looking back that describes those beautiful days in January... Love Light!
Returning to home and school after that month... I started to attend daily mass at our home parish... the Bascilica of St Mary... the beauty of the church blew my mind! The statue of Mary...so beautiful and touched me deeply. When I put the roses in front of her on my wedding day, and prayed for her guidance and support as a new wife...she was a beloved and close spiritual Mother to me... There were young people that I met and we started doing things after work or on the weekends. Walking around the Lake of the Isles was one of our top things to do when the weather permitted and rigatoni at Mama Rosas had to happen about once a month!
I think that I will call this enough for today.Looking at a "art book" I started at around this time using the caligraphy I was teaching myself and writing scriptures or gems from the spiritual books I found to devour.... This is an appropriate way to end using Psalm 139 to put my thoughts into words... thank You dear David!
How precious are your thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them.
If I count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with you. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and thou knowest me right well. Psalm 139:14-16 Jesus I trust in You... bless-bless, Barb
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