After chemo number 2 for rare brain cancer... John is even better so we decide overnight to go to France to be with Susan as she takes the habit of the Community of the Lamb! Aug 09
Susan sees John for the first time! She is very surprised that he is there... unable to walk on his own due to the brain biopsy he had to have to diagnose his cancer! 
Susan/little Sister Hallel helps her brother walk and supports him as she always has in her life with her younger brother! John chuckles..."I have my first little sister."In the preceeding post I wrote about how Susan always modeled a beautiful example to John of someone that had no concern with the trappings of the world... humble and concerned with the bigger picture of her relationship with her Lord and always aware that she could have a call to be his spouce... at 12 coming home from a Schoenstatt camp, she told me that she thought that she wanted to be a "nun". The symbol to John of her "good example" was the way she made it fun to drive around in an old run down minivan and to make it a great experience! Now he looks at her in her humble blue habit and the fact that she goes out to beg for her daily bread... On our way home from our visit to KC where she is living with 6 other little sisters... John said that the one thing that he wished that he could have done with Hallel was to go out on a mission...to go door to door begging... Susan has shared that this is one thing that you never get used to doing... "It is the hardest thing to do, but I feel such peace with them!" This was the way that she described her experience of begging with them when they came to the US shortly after she had met them in Rome... while studying there for a year through the Catholic Studies program at St Thomas... the shere lesson in having to rely on others and the Lord to see you through came through to me when she described how they were given a can of tuna at one house and when they sat down to eat the food they had been given.... they realized that they needed to go to a door of a house to ask them to open the can for them to eat it! In this culture and world where we need to have everything we can imagine and then some to make sure that we are self sufficient and not have to bother anyone! This is truly a lesson on humility and trusting in the Lord to provide! And think of the people they come in contact with as a result and the ways that they allow them to help another human being and to talk with them and gather their needs that they can in turn pray for!
Last evening before I headed out to work at the Nursing Home for the night...I found that I had time to pray evening prayer with John and Pat... They were amazed by the beginning Psalm and how it set the scene for the Truth that.... "Some among the rich and famous, and powerful seem to be spared all ordinary human ills despite their apparent disregard of God and of human decency. Even their problems seem unreal in the glare of the spotlight and camera flash. The public idolizes and imitates them." They were naming some big sports stars that fit this description, and the idea that they model for the world this lie that wealth and perfect looks will make you happy and is what to be worked to achieve... Read Psalm 73 when you get a chance... It ends with... "To be near to God is my happiness, I have made the Lord God my refuge." The author talks about how these "stars" are untouched by bad things and are surrounded by this amazing life of luxury and liesure... but then he (probably King David writing) realizes that this is not where true happiness is found!
For those that are swayed by the example of celebrities - that they may choose to imitate the good rather than the heedless: Lead us in your ways, O Lord. Allow us to know in our heart of hearts that you are the way, the truth and the life! Jesus we trust in you! Amen and Halleuia! Bless-bless, Barb
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