Sweet little 2 1/2 year old Therese ate all of her cereal so that she could celebrate with a cup of hot chocolate this special day for Grandma! I announced to the Maria's family today was an amazing anniversary for me....
39 years ago at the Christmas eve midnight mass at the Cenacle convent in Wayzatta... my family - all 13 of us - received our first Holy Communion in the Catholic Church! I was 20 at the time and just back from a lifechanging experience in a Christian Commune in Colorado...The first day there I was prayed over to stop a smoking habit I had for my first year of college - a pack a day - and I have never smoked since. I also broke a bad relationship off - I had agreed to move in with my boyfriend at the time... I knew it was wrong and from this distance I was able to break it off! 
Mostly I lived a life seperated from the men... with chores, prayer and Bible Study, and long dresses... I thought after the amazing time I had spent with the Charismatic sisters at the Cenacle... my first encounter as a Protestant with women that were married to Christ... I started to think that I might be called to religious life - and this was even before I was Catholic, or my dad had told me that he had been led to become a Catholic! As a side light to this...my son in law, Joseph, shared that his parents, who also came back into the Church at the same time that they discovered the Charismatic movement - called their prayer group, the Cenacle, also. I just googled it and was reminded that this means also the "upper room" where the Holy Spirit decended upon the Apostles!
It makes total sense that it should have been among these sisters that we not only shared the Holy Spirit in prayer over the first year that we lived in Minnesota, but that when my dad was led by that Spirit and their profound prayers for us to join the Church, and while on the retreat of St Ignatious at that convent... he heard the Word speak to him in Isaiah 55:1-2... very Eucharistic... to join the Catholic Church along with his family of a wife and 11 children! Of course, there was no second thought for me, as I already wanted to consider a vocation and needed to be Catholic to do that! It has been the most amazing journey for me ever since! 
Here we all are! Standing outside the building site - the Farm - that we bought in Milltown, WI... my folks wanted a project to get the 11 of us out of the Cities and Trouble mostly in the summer months... It was a lot of work, and for me the memories of being on our farm and being a new Catholic are very much tied together! At the same time all this was happening in my life... it blows me away to know that Pat was proclaiming to his siblings that he wouldn't marry anyone that wasn't Catholic... So amazing the way the Lord was taking our two pathes and soon they would converge into one!
This was the actual picture that we used for a Christmas card this year - 1971! Soon we would all kneel in the chapel at the Cenacle Convent at the Christmas midnight mass and all 13 of us receive our first Holy Communion - taking the first step in becoming members of His Church! Too amazing and beautiful for words to describe!
Thanksgiving dinner! I fed this many last night and thought that it was a monumental job! Just to think that my mother fed this many three times a day - every day of the week! No wonder she was kind of possesssive of left overs...
Pat took this picture of our family - we were dating and there is a family tradition that the one that takes the family picture will be a future spouse... this turned out to be true! Pat was totally aware of our jouney into the Church as his sister, Marge, was my companion as we went out to Colorado together... It was hugely impressive to him, and how he loved and continues to love, for us to learn together about our faith and the amazing Catholic Church! 
Before Christmas Camp started we would go and cut Christmas trees together and then have a meal... Here I was married and had two little ones... newly pregnant with my third daughter, Maria... My sister, Mary, in the green coat in the front row... only lived for another 3 1/2 years... she died of Lymphoma on July 3, 1986! So there were huge tie ins to our experience with her... when we were told that John had lymphoma of the brain on our anniversary a year ago! 
An old Christmas card of my family - the original 7... a few years later my parents adopted 4 brothers and sisters, whose parents were killed in a car accident... that equals the magic number of 11! With new happenings - mostly a new child a year - my parents had a need for the ever popular family picture Christmas card to share the newest addition to the family! 
Another version of the family Christmas card... right about at this point of our family we welcomed the other 4! It was a powerful and lifechanging transition for all of us! How could our adjustment ever come anywhere near the pain they had experienced at the sudden loss of both of their parents? So hard! 
Oh! Those amazing 60s! My mother had a devotion to Mary, and there is no where to be but the Catholic Church... think about it! She had no hope at this point... my dad was a Protestant minister! Moving to Minnesota in 1969, and the prayers of the Cenacle sisters as well as a spiritual journey from many churches and finally ending up in a Episcopalian... we were familiar with kneelers and much of the very similar service by time we joined the Catholic Church! 
Still in Flint and still without the other 4... This was a time of my parents being involved in the Charismatic movement and asking the Lord to show them the path for us... My dad always was listening and answering that call... adopt 4 more when you already have 7? "Yes, Lord!" Leave your ministry behind and become a Catholic with your family? "Yes, Lord!" 
Trying to decide the Christmas mass we will attend... How wonderful to share our faith with our family! We are forever grateful that we can share the most important part of our lives as a family! How wise Pat was, as well as each of our married daughters, to say without hesitation that they would marry only a Catholic! It is so important!
We want to shout it from the rooftops! Many of our talks at retreats...both Pat and I share our courthship and how important it is to share what it is that you value and to be sure that you both are together - especially important to share your worship and faith with each other! 
The house is suddenly quiet and empty as the kids and grandkids just headed into town on the snowy roads... Lord, protect all those that are traveling today, and give the joy of your coming to each and every heart! The birth of each child - that includes every single one of us at the time of our birth into this world - was a time of great joy and rejoicing! May we find that this season of happy times and closeness with our families! "In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darknesss and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." Luke 1
Little Davey begged to go home last night - exhausted by active play with cousins and bedraggled kitties.... In the strong and loving arms of his daddy, he was buckled into his seat and driven slowly over snowy roads to his blanket and bed... we too are loved and cared for in that way by our loving and forgiving Lord... no matter what we do, if we come to him humbly on our knees and ask Him to take us Home... He will do it every time! WE are filled with love and the Holy Spirit today as His birth and His coming to us in the Cenacle - the upper room - are all tied into one huge and wonderful Christmas present! Jesus, how I love you and long to follow after you whereever you lead... may my ears be always open and my heart always answer with an enthusiastic - "Yes, Lord!" Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia! 
Bless-bless, Barb at Christmas Camp 1986
"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. 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." Galations 4: 4-7
No comments:
Post a Comment