Sweet 4 year old Mary is now in preschool and the concert was at the end of the day yesterday... just like her mother and Verly Aunts... she towers over the other little ones in her class. She was beaming as her two grandmothers and little brother were there to be entertained by her and all the others...
Mary is a very beautiful Christmas tree... The first reading from mass today speaks of the family - "Lo, I will send you, Elijah, the prophet, Before the day of the Lord comes, the great and terrible day, To turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers..." The coming of God in the form of a small helpless child - the beginning of human life outside of the womb... while with the "overshadowing of the Holy Spirit" the LIFE began in Mary's womb with God starting with the union of two cells and dividing to become at 8 weeks a tiny human with arms and legs and a beating heart! In my work with a prolife organization - Birthright - this is huge for us to stress to those that come thinking that the quick fix of an abortion is the answer to this hard situation that they find themselves - pregnant outside of marriage...
Ring those bells! We use pictures of life in the womb and we also have fetal models in our office to enforce that this is a human life and not a lump of tissue as planned parenthood misleads women! In the large cities they use ultasound machines to allow women to truly see the small child that is growing inside of them! Jesus - God come to dwell among us was no different... "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God." Luke 1: 26-38
Yes, He is God, but He still grew in Mary's womb for 9 months - human in every way yet divine! His life changed the world and brought salvation into the world... Yet, there is no difference in the value that each life has.. so many have been extinguished by abortion! There is one girl here in this world as a result of my prayers and work with her mother through Birthright! Amanda Hope is now graduated from High School and is a nurse that works with children! She is touching and changing the world with her light that was almost extinguished! Her mother could not see that she could tell her mother of her mistake, but every Christmas writes and thanks me for having the gift of Amanda Hope! 
No, Mary doesn't have a belly ache... she is singing about Santa's belly... This first reading from Malachi fortells the coming of John the Baptist.. the "voice" that proclaimed the coming of the living Word! Our salvation and hope for the faith that we need to allow our families to be small "domestic churches." When we share and value our faith as a family... it allows us to love and to serve one another and to forgive those hurts that come with life! 
So fun to have grandkids back in the familiar and well beloved walls of Holy Redeemer! As we were speaking last night after teaching religion with our 21 year old son, John,who is home from his junior year at college... His dad was asking him about how we can better teach our students after a dissapointing night..."I really think that the first and only place where you can teach your kids the truth and the faith is for parents to do it in the home." How true this is! We saw that with our kids that we taught them first and foremost in our home, but we did feel that their going to HRS...really supported and allowed them to continue to grow in their faith... now to see that happening with our grandkids is a great thing!
I am excited for Mary to see the cute horse looking on in the manger scene at the chapel... I think that she will really like it! It was wonderful to go to mass this morning and a wave of the wonder of this holiday and the power of advent and Christmas came over me... reminding me of the anniversary that I will celebrate tomorrow night! The 39th Anniversary of our joining the Catholic Church and taking our first communion at Christmas midnight mass at the Cenacle convent in Wayzatta, Mn! 
It is a most amazing anniversary as all 13 of us - I am the oldest of 11 along with my parents - my dad had been a Protestant minister for my whole life leading up to this momentous point in our spiritual journey! Advent memories of sitting around the coffee table with the advent wreath in the center... my younger siblings would gather there and then we would sit around them as Fr Custodio from the Basilica of Mary in downtown Mpls - it would be our home parish after we joined - would instruct the little ones in the bare bones of the Catholic Faith... there was and continues to be much to learn and grow! 
The next two Januaries to follow were powerful experiences of the romantic years of my Catholic faith... the first one I lived for the month of January term at St Catherine's studying and considering religious life while living behind the "enclosure" with the community in Wayzatta! The Lord eventually led me to marriage - that has been shared in the past and I am sure will again in the future!
The next snowey January, I also did a J-term living with a group of women on the Marine of the St Croix - reading and studying my faith along with doing caligraphy and enjoying the beauty of nature... It was a Catholic group so daily mass was a part as well as prayer... The most amazing January winter whiteness and cleaness and dazzling glory is related to the Eucharist for me as a new Catholic over these experiences! 
Especially my attending daily mass in the convent as a new Catholic by only a few weeks... There was an elderly monsignor,who would daily slowly and with great love and care serve the mass for myself and the sisters in the subdued and glorious January light of their beautiful chapel! Christ - my Lord and my God - came to me daily and I became more and more hungry for him on a daily basis... Daily mass became my source of faith and growth, and I found good friends that shared that with me! My nun years had begun! I might not have been called to it for a vocation, but I had some pure and holy years filled with him as close as a spouce...they were a blessing and I now see my daughter that has been called and said "yes" to Him...I can reach within and share her joy in a very deep place! Thank you Lord for that special gift! 
I am missing my sweet Hallel now, but I know that she is happy and today when I discovered that there was to be no Adoration until after New Years... I was sad and dissappointed... I had longed for the island of peace with My King! I thought how this is something that Hallel and her community... their day is not complete and their life surrounds His presence in the Eucharist and time at His feet in Adoration! Susan/Hallel needs that and that fills her heart, mind and soul with Him, so that she can bear Him to the World around her! My disappointment was small compaired to the loss she would have at not being able to spend that all important time with HIM! 
A wonderful gift from my Goddaughter, Sarah...thank you! It became a centerpiece of an outdoor journey with the frosted trees beckoning me...
Today Fr Paul spoke about naming our children - as in the Gospel for today is the birth of John the Baptist - and his naming - Luke 1: 57-66 Our only son's name in John and we are finding ourselves in a much more joyful place this Christmas as John has been healed from his brain cancer for almost a year now.. A year ago this was his final week of radiation, and then we waited a couple weeks for the MRI which showed CR - Complete Responce - we like to call it Christ Rules! The cancer was totally gone and has continued to this day!
We pray daily together and we always rejoice at the fact that John is healed! There are many that continue to pray and are so uplifted with the healing! Just as with Elizabeth giving birth to her wonderful amazing son in her old age - a miracle of God! So also are we a beacon for many as our son is not only cancer free, but has returned to college and is back to a new normal! "Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her." Luke 1 So too, are we surrounded by so many that find joy and rejoice with us at the great news! 
We also feel a sense of the wonder of the people that were witnessing the miracle - "What, then, will this child be?" WE just know that the Lord is going to use this cancer journey and how it has changed and affected John to touch others and to direct his future in new and amazing ways! We trust and are filled with the firm hope and knowledge that the Lord is in control of John's future, past and present! 
We received a wonderful prayer gift card from Christian Foundation for Children and Aging - we sponsor 2 children through this organization...
"A Family prayer for Life's Journey
God of the journey,
be our traveling companion.
Guide us over terrain
both pleasant and perilous.
Share our laughter
when the sun shines.
Lead us to shelter
when the storms come.
Over the hills and through the valleys, forests,
and deserts,
bless us with stedfast hope.
For with you, the Holy Pilgrim,
we are never alone.
Never unheld.
Never unloved."
Holy Family - we are so close to you at this point of our advent journey - we can realize that the early dropping of the baby and the now and then twinges of labor pains as the full grown infant soon to come into the world - the anticipation, the impatience to have the baby out,the wonder at the change that a little one will bring as their first child becomes a member of the Holy Family! All those wonderful/ terrible feelings that accompany the birth of a wondrous product of love/life! May we come close to you and with great anticipation rejoice with the angels,shepherds and wise men - Chirst is born - the Savior of the World! WE humly bow and give you all the honor and glory in your humble helpless state! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"That is why the heart of all our creeds is our Yes to Jesus Christ: 'By the power of the Holy Spirit he was born of the Virgin Mary.' We genuflect at this clause (bow profoundly), because at this point the heavens,the veil behind which God is secluded, are swept aside, the mystery touches us directly." Pope Benedict XVI
No comments:
Post a Comment