A year ago on this Father's Day weekend... Our world changed in such a powerful way... yet a way that would cause a mother to cringe and cry out in fear at the thought... my 20 year old son had brain cancer! Yet 2 months later after all the horrible ups and downs including a biopsy that left John unable to walk on his own! WE found ourselves in France to see his sister become a member of an absolutly amazing religious community! The journey of my two youngest children has been so intertwined for this last year and how do you seperate one from the other when you are born into a family? We are always connected... and John's cancer certainly brought us together! Could I ever have imagined that on this life changing first anniversary of this "most transforming cross" that John would have been with Susan and her community... this time to not only share in their deep prayer life centered around our loving and forgiving Lord.. but also to bid our Hallel fairwell as she is to fly back to France in a couple weeks... It is all too amazing for me to take in and once again I see the fingerprint of the Lord on this! With just a call to her dad on Wednesday to say that she was returning to France... he was in the car and on his way with precious cargo - his mom, John, and grandson, Simon - 4 generations - to exeperience the Life of Hallel! I have shared in the past how they "chew" the Gospel each day, and I think that todays says it all... so I will desist and let our Lord's Words of Life speak .. 
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you are to eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span?
Why are you anxious about clothes? 
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not toil or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown in the oven tomorrow,
will he not provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, "What are we to eat?" or "What are we to drink?" or "What are we to wear?"
All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow;
tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil." Mt 6:24-34
I looked down and gasped in delight at this "weed" that had gone to seed in a spectacular way! It truly gives meaning to the words of the Gospel today... as I am delighted by simple things that with a good wind will be blown to bits and all that will stand is an ugly stem where such wonder had been the day before... and then the seeds will land in varying places and some will be the "good soil" where it will grow once again and for a brief moment give delight to the world around it! The Lord has given us many blessings in the last year... John's healing supported by so many prayers, and the sharing in Hallel's life within her vocation as a Bride of Christ in the Community of the Lamb... they beg for their food! Not only that but they beg from the Poor! A poem as the meditation of the day today by Paul Claudel...(see http://www.magnificat.com/) entitled Our Lady, Help of Christians... also speaks of the work of the Little Sisters of the Lamb!"The puny child who knows he can have but little love,
When by chance upon his face he feels a kind glance rove,
Reddens and bravely smiles, determined not to cry.
So in this wicked world the orphans and those passed by...
Wherefore draw near and look upon Mary!"
On this feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary... after working all night and sleeping all day... after speaking to Pat, John, Grandma Ann Verly, and Simon, our 5 year old grandson, who are on their way home after a few days in Kansas City....leaving behind, after lovingly embracing our daughter Hallel and her community of the Lamb... after experiencing the journey called cancer/healing for exactly one year this weekend... after reading the tremendous Gospel for today and morning prayers as I ate breakfast to start my day at 4:30p... after weighing all that fills me with so many varying emotions today... this is what it all has come to for me...
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