After the frosts of the last week... I was surprised to see this lone marigold huddled under the back of my angel in the midst of all the dead morning glories and zinias! I know that marigolds are hearty, yet it gave me my title today as a visual of how we can live in a cold and crazy dead world yet be a beautiful little touch of color and vibrant life! WE are protected by the angels, saints, our prayers to them as well as our Queen in heaven with her Son standing at her side! Think of that little marigold today when the darkness and sadness of life weighs down on you... be LIFE to those around you... especially in our families!
Faintly outlined by the sunrise... Mary stands in our lives quietly and humbly... yet always there with us as a mother that has just picked up her child out of the dirt with a scraped knee and is lovingly washing it and caring for it with words and murmurs of concern and love as we wail and cry! Think of how many crying children we have heard in our lifetimes and then think of our Heavenly Mother hearing that from the world day after day and night after night! After being up all night for the last week at the nursing home... I know that there are many awake and unhappy people throughout the night! The crying is forgotten when we are held in our Mother's arms and feel her unconditional love for us... she takes our needs to her Son the Healer! WE are saved and asked to grow up!
A year ago at this time...John was home with us as we were battling his cancer of the brain that had first showed up on Father's Day! At the same time his dog, Lilly, had gotten very sick. As typical farmers we had maybe given her a shot of cow Penicillin, and wished her luck. Well, she got sicker and sicker! Finally John's pre-vet girlfriend insisted that we take her to the vet, so she and John loaded her weak body into a car and took her half an hour away to the Vet! She was treated for "mysterious farmdog disease," and came home with about 10 pills morning and night to cover all the possiblities it could be. She got better! John dutifully nursed her with a chunk of velveeta morning and night... looking outside his world of cancer to care for another! For him to see her recovering was so powerful and he would laugh out loud as she romped ahead of him when they "walked" outside. For a while John needed a walker and then a cane and then very unsteady without either... as he recovered himself from a brain biopsy he had to have at the end of July!
I know that to him... Lilly was a special rolemodel of how he could be transformed in good health and regain what he had lost! It is still an ongoing process, and there is coming to the point that we are realizing that there might always be a loss or a handicap there. Yet, we have our son with us... cancer free... and he has his wonderful Lilly, who is forever grateful for more life to live and more love to share with his Johnny!
A year ago on All Saints Day - this was the glorious sunrise! Today it was special too on the way to put letters in the mailbox....
Back to the thoughts streaming through me today... Those little pathetic yet vibrant marigold blossoms... that's us! The frost has hit the world around us and we in our smallness continue to feel the life of Christ giving us the LIFE to show the world that truth lies in HIM!
This morning as I was sharing a cherished breakfast with my farmer husband... after the week of craziness with my work schedule...On the deck barely clinging to life long after the impatience that were with it... there was a small marigold plant that I had rescued from where the dogs were laying in my garden... I love this statue of Mary as she treads on the serpent's head! She is my all time hero... by saying "yes" to God... she brought Christ into the world! She gave us our salvation by being The Mother of the Universe! She is the one that brought LIGHT and LIFE into the world! So we rejoice in our smallness as these tiny pathetic marigolds! 
How I love to be at her side and at her feet and watch her crush the head of the serpent in my life! Her outstretched arms protect me and present me to the Lord in my smallness, and unworthiness! Yet, I am not ashamed but rather aware of how small and unworthy I am yet I am LOVED! The Son shines on me and I bloom and give a spark of color and life to the dying world around me!
After just having a lighthearted joyful conversation with my husband... yet we were discussing serious things, and it makes me rejoice loudly to thank the Lord that we are so in line one with the other...How important it is to share all the big things in our life with our spouces! When Pat and I went on our first date... we realized that we felt the same about our faith - Catholic through and through with no reservations whatsoever! Our views on family were totally in line - OPEN with no reservations whatsoever! Our love of the world around us - now called the FARM! The attraction was there, so why not? When two people find that... there is no reason to wait even a year!
I thought that my granddaughter's cheering was appropriate now!
It is a delight to talk to my husband about things that matter, because we see totally eye to eye! He loves to read and be informed, so this morning he was my source of information about the election yesterday! He told me that Iowa judges that had voted for same sex marriage had all been voted out... all 4 of them! Now that is a statement! Then the conversation shifted to how we feel so alone in the fact that we see the total beauty of the Church and accept and believe it all! "You say that you feel alone on an island." he said to me... because I tell him that I do a lot of the time! He shared his disappointment with a priest he respected telling him that he had a young husband come to him that had a beautiful wife..."Fr, how can I resist my wife and abstain to prevent us having 10 kids?" HE told me that Fr agreed with the man and basically gave him permission to use artificial means to prevent! I just yelled out to the Lord! So sad! So sad to think that this couple was deprived of the joy that abstaining at the fertile times gives to a couple! And the fact that they sinned against the beauty of LIFE! With human eyes... we cannot find the strength to uphold the TRUTH!
Since I just found this great picture of Ruth with her oldest sweet son, Simon... they were told no more, but with the Creighton Model method - of which she is now an instructor, helping others too - they are able to slowly add to their family, and to trust in the Lord to protect her and her children and any future ones that may come their way! She looked at sterilization or artificial and now has found with hard work and the Lord's help - LIFE!
Her sweet little "gift" - David Lawrence is now 2!
I was very touched by the intercessory prayers from evening prayer last evening... very powerful - see http://www.magnificat.com/
Through Christ, who became like us in all things but sin, let us pray for those who have died: - It is a powerful thing to pray for all those that have no one to pray for them, and some of these seem to fall into that area...
You were born into the world of death so that you might bring abundant life:
-raise to new life all those who died in poverty and pain. Give them joy,O Lord.
You took on our flesh, subject to death, so that we might take on new life in you:
-raise to new life those who have died of illness, violence, and deprivation. Give them joy,O Lord.
You died on the cross that we might rise from the grave:
-raise to new life those who have been tortured, murdered, or executed. Give them joy, O Lord.
Your mother endured the sorrow of your death that we might know the gladness of your rising:
-raise up all those who are bowed down under the sorrow of bereavement. Give them joy, O Lord.
Now that takes praying for souls on All Souls Day to a whole new level! So powerful and hard and reminds us of the sad state that are the circumstances of the death of people in this world! We hear of many that die of starvation, and some are very young and that is so hard! A tiny little marigold that is only here in the world for a few weeks or months... that is a life and a soul to pray for, and what agony that little one knew of the pain of hunger! So hard to understand! One thing that was very deep and hard last night as Pat and I were praying before bed... I was called to realize at what a young age our Lord died! As a hospice nurse - I have become the person that turns to the obituaries before anything else in the paper! If we saw at a glance that a 33 year old had died - that would be the first one that we would read taking in all the details we could! It is one of those deaths that you ask God - "Why?" That was our Lord! He had an early and shockingly horrible death... it grabbed our attention and it was GOD, who died for us in the most brutal way! With a daughter close to 31 in a month... this is very close to home! Just the way my thoughts were going last night before bed... needless to say it took me a while to fall asleep even with the "Hail Marys" constantly going through my heart, mind and soul! Going from days to nights to days makes it all confusing for me to know when to sleep too!
This is the bell tower of St John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Rochester... daily mass, and time in the Eucharistic chapel got me through some tough stretches there with my son, John and his battle with brain cancer!
It has been a rambling one today! So much pouring out like a tidal wave that can't be held back! How I love the opportunity to share and to let it come out. I apologize if it is here and there! The message of life and not to let the smallness of who we are to get in the way... That smallness is a good thing and allows us to in an insignificant way to bring some life and color to the world around us! If we were a big amazing flower that was overwhelming... it would not allow the work to be done... we would be a distraction and in the way! Rejoice in our smallness, and find the way to bloom in the midst of our families - showing them the love and care we have for them in the service we do for them and the patience we have with them and the acceptance of the hardships we have to face with each new day! That is how we bring peace and happiness to our small "domestic church" - our family!
Lilly has found health!
Lord, we are so filled with a deep joy at the small lessons that each day holds for us - everywhere we turn we see your handprint on nature, and the animals, but most of all with all those that you have given us to love and serve in this life! Give us the grace to serve and love without counting the cost! "Wounded I will not cease to love." Yes, it is hard... but though the cross we come to life and true happiness! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"If we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection." Romans 6: 5
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