We found ourselves rushing across the fairgrounds to attend an outside mass across from the 4H building... after rising in the dark to hit the road with Ruth and her family! Pat has spent much of the fair here year after year, and we still had a friend showing two of our small calves today for FFA, plus John had been up here for the week showing pigs, so we made the effort to come up and spend a wonderful day at the Fair!
It was so sweet to look over and see that 4 year old Mary had taken ahold of John's hand while we were listenting to the Gospel of the day about how we should take up our cross and follow him... As a family we have certainly done that in the last year and we cherish having John healthy and now starting to head into his college life in two days!
It was a big push and early rising to get the 7 of us up there and across the huge fairgrounds in time for mass, but at this moment it was all more than worth it! To see the content look on both Mary and John's faces as they were in the special place of sharing Sunday mass together in the midst of the State Fair! The day was started with the blessing of faith and family!
Father gives a powerful homily on the words of Christ in Luke 14:25-33..."If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children. brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." The words that caught me in my own weakness...as Father talked about how we are called to Holiness by not becoming tied up in those things in our lives..."You cannot find happiness by your family..." was one of the many things he commented to us as ways that we put things and people ahead of Christ! I do have my family up there pretty high! Help me Lord to keep it in right order... you over all!
Armed with Christ we go forth! Blessed Angela of Foligno (1309) was a wife and mother and esteemed mystical writer speaks about carrying our cross...."Extreme suffering... accompanied the soul of Christ; for his holy soul, united with his body to his divinity, was filled with highest wisdom. He became, all in an instant, both a pilgrim on life's way, and one who comprehended what that way entailed. Already in the womb of his mother, his holy soul began to feel the extreme suffering as perfect reparation to God, and this not for his own faults but for the faults of humanity. For Christ saw, felt, understood, together and seperately, all the torments and each one in detail which he would have to endure, soul and body, with deep-felt pain."
Continuing with these words of Blessed Angela that cut to the marrow...."The Holy soul of Christ knew beforehand each of the knife-like tongues, that is, each of the sharp words which would cut him up in the future. Christ knew when, how, by whom, and where he would be attacked. He knew and saw how he, as man, was to be betrayed, sold, arrested, abandoned, renounced, bound, derided, beaten, whipped, judged, condemned as a thief, led to a cross, stripped, crucified, put to death, blasphemed, pierced by a lance which opened a wound in his holy side. He also knew beforehand all the hammer blows and all the nail wounds. His holy soul knew in itself and had before itself all the sufferings, the groans, the wailing, and the pain-filled lamentations of his Mother. It is thus that the whole life of Christ was accompanied by continual sufferings."
"I believe that even Mary, watching her beloved son lamenting and dying on the cross, did not ask of him then to experience sweetness but rather suffering. It is in a soul the sign of very weak love to want from Christ, the Beloved, anything in this world but suffering."
Why focus on suffering today? It is a part of all of our lives... To realize how Christ went forward into his earthly life, and embraced it, with the knowledge of all our sins... that is huge for us to remember as the small and the large things come at us... carry your own cross and come after me... be my disciple!
Morning prayer shared on the road yesterday had an "Hallel Psalm" - 105
Continuing with these words of Blessed Angela that cut to the marrow...."The Holy soul of Christ knew beforehand each of the knife-like tongues, that is, each of the sharp words which would cut him up in the future. Christ knew when, how, by whom, and where he would be attacked. He knew and saw how he, as man, was to be betrayed, sold, arrested, abandoned, renounced, bound, derided, beaten, whipped, judged, condemned as a thief, led to a cross, stripped, crucified, put to death, blasphemed, pierced by a lance which opened a wound in his holy side. He also knew beforehand all the hammer blows and all the nail wounds. His holy soul knew in itself and had before itself all the sufferings, the groans, the wailing, and the pain-filled lamentations of his Mother. It is thus that the whole life of Christ was accompanied by continual sufferings."
"I believe that even Mary, watching her beloved son lamenting and dying on the cross, did not ask of him then to experience sweetness but rather suffering. It is in a soul the sign of very weak love to want from Christ, the Beloved, anything in this world but suffering."
Why focus on suffering today? It is a part of all of our lives... To realize how Christ went forward into his earthly life, and embraced it, with the knowledge of all our sins... that is huge for us to remember as the small and the large things come at us... carry your own cross and come after me... be my disciple!
Morning prayer shared on the road yesterday had an "Hallel Psalm" - 105"Alleluia!
Give thanks to the Lord, tell his name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
"As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God." (Gal 4:6-7)
"As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God." (Gal 4:6-7)
"Eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works!" - Romans 2:7
We still have cattle at the State Fair! 
Little Davey remembers them... dad and Uncle John broke them for the other 4 Hers that wanted to show them.
Just checked on 2 year old David... once again struggling with a cold that gets really bad for him... "He's doing a lot better today." dad reported and grandma is relieved! Continuing to pray for the health and wellbeing of my dear family... Yes, there is suffering there as we watch them go through illnesses and challanges... always praying with hope and trust!
Today as Jesus does good on the Sabbath... we ask Him to walk with us and show us how to do "good works" with all that we do, and to look for holiness and Happiness in Him alone! Jesus we trust in You! Amen and Halleluia!
The final song for mass gave me great joy at the spelling of Halleluia! We all smiled broadly and I stuck a copy in my purse to share with you all! Bless-bless, Barb
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