What a delight to come to morning prayer this morning with husband and son and to read over and over the references to the "clouds of heaven!" When we think of heaven we see in our hearts and minds these beautiful displays... how they allow us to escape to the heights and feel free and at peace to know that we can be with Him in a deep interior place... a place that allows us to soar to the heavens! Today at Adoration... I am filled with wonder and awe to kneel in the presence of the Maker of heaven and earth and pour my heart out to Him... I am filled with wonder and peace and joy! The Gospel today - "Enter through the narrow gate... How narrow the gate and restricted the road that leads to life." How I wish and pray that more could come to know Him in His Church and His Sacraments - there lies true life!
"Clouds hide him; he walks upon the vault of the heavens!" Job22:14 leaving the nursing home at about 3:30p - the rainy day had become one of beautiful puffy clouds of varying shapes and sizes... row after row moving across the green fields... I started to be concerned about my driving as my eyes were drawn up to the cool and breezy sky! 
I swing through the small town on my way towards home... thinking to take advantage of the beautiful sky with the special Catholic Church in town... "You founded the earth on its base, to stand firm from age to age." Ps 104 We look to your Church, O Lord, to be our base and guide through life. You feed us at your table and Your Word comes alive for us as we go forth!
The birds on the wire seem to be part of the specatcular and comfortable up there in the wonder of space and to fly through the air... one with the sky! "You stretch out the heavens like a tent, Above the rains you build your dwelling.
You make the clouds your chariot,
you walk on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers
and flashing fire your servants. Psalm 104 This is one of the grand Hallel psalms!One that is filled with the highest of PRAISE! The clouds are truly "chariots' that carry our hearts and thoughts up to heaven and the freedom from worry or cares of the world - I think that it called hope and trust!
"I have built heaven, my upper chamber, and established my vault over the earth; I summon the waters of the sea and pour them upon the surface of the earth, I , the Lord by name." Amos 9:6
"One dimension of God is mystery so awesome in its brightness that before it we are blinded. We imagine the God of mystery as dwelling far away, above and beyond the heavens he has made. Yet this same God of mystery dwells very near to us, in our midst, in Jesus Christ." ( morning prayer - see http://www.magnificat.com/ )
Today as I look out on a cloudless sky - thank you, Lord, as we do need the sun after the rain to get the hay baled and the garden and fields weeded... not my favorite job! Clouds are definitely a most beautiful display and how we long to see the dark rain filled ones throughout the summer to water our fields and pastures! All of life depends on the moisture from the sky! Today is the feast day of three men, but the one that I would like to speak about is ST Thomas More...He was beheaded by Henry VII in 1535 as he would not give in and OK the king's wishes to divorce his wife and take another which was against the Wisdom of the Catholic Church! St Thomas was a prominant who was then made chancellor of the king's court and was a family man... he had one son and three daughters. 
He loved the Eucharist.... He writes..."Now when we have received our Lord and have him in our body, let us not then let him alone, and get us forth about other things, and look no more unto him... but let all our business be about him. Let us by devout prayer talk to him, by devout meditation talk with him. Let us say with the prophet..."I will hear what our Lord will speak with me." "
St Thomas observes that just as God supported the Isrealites in their earthly pilgrimage by "walking with them in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night," so much more does he now "assist and comfort us with the continual presence of his precious Body in the holy Sacrament."
"All of ST Thomas More's spirituality can be summed up as a a life-long quest for heaven....In his final letter to his daughter..."Farewell my dear child, and pray for me, and I shall for you, that we may merrily meet in heaven." It was wonderful to read about his personal prayer life... he would rise at 2a and spend the first 5 hours of his day in prayer and study. Wow! I love to spend my couple hours a day here and there snatched as I travel to work or after lunch with my ever present rosary! He would also have prayer with his wife and children morning and night! We have clung to this throughout the last year with John and his cancer/healing journey, and continue to get nourishment, strength and hope as we take each day and all that it brings to us! Including the joy of beautiful fair weather clouds flying across the sky to take our thoughts heavenward! May we take the time today to revel in His creation and to turn to our Lord in loving prayer and petition. It is the day that we can come into his presence in Adoration in our church and I LOVE to kneel and pray there in the presence of my God! Jesus I love you and trust in You! Amen and Halleluia! Bless-bless, Barb St Thomas More pray for us!
"Now to this great glory no one can come headless. Our head is Christ, and therefore to him must we be joined, and as members of his body must we follow him, if we wish to get there. He is the guide to guide us there, he entered in before us, and so anyone who wishes to enter in afterward must "walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John 2:6) And what is the way in which Christ walked into heaven? He himself showed what way it was that his Father had provided for him, when he said to the two disciples going through the village of Emmaus, "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26) Who, then, can be so shameful as to desire to enter into the kingdom of Christ with ease, when he himself did not enter into his own kingdom without pain?" St Thomas More was a British , judge, chancellor ,and martyr.
"Now to this great glory no one can come headless. Our head is Christ, and therefore to him must we be joined, and as members of his body must we follow him, if we wish to get there. He is the guide to guide us there, he entered in before us, and so anyone who wishes to enter in afterward must "walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John 2:6) And what is the way in which Christ walked into heaven? He himself showed what way it was that his Father had provided for him, when he said to the two disciples going through the village of Emmaus, "Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:26) Who, then, can be so shameful as to desire to enter into the kingdom of Christ with ease, when he himself did not enter into his own kingdom without pain?" St Thomas More was a British , judge, chancellor ,and martyr.Jesus, I love you with all my life! Allow me to take each part and piece and to see your hand in it! There are those crosses that are hard and make us less than the Christian... we are weak, but that is where we turn into your outstretched arms and find forgiveness and the strength to go on... with you! Amen and Halleluia!
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