In this tired state of mind and body after working the night shift... I will apologize ahead for the content today... it will probably be fairly disjointed as I feel a bit in a fog...
I am returning to some of the many pictures I have taken over the holiday... I haven't used these exact ones, but others that are similar... I guess that it shows just how much I cherish the amazing times we have shared!
Nancy and Bill have returned to their home and jobs... Pat and John are out scooping out the headgate area getting ready to preg check the cows a month later than usual... it has always been done over the Thanksgiving holiday - when we had all the kids home from college to help out and hopefully hit some fairly nice weather. But with going to Penn for the wedding celebration... it got put off til now! It will be interesting to see how the deep snow and the cold will enter into this... it will be memorable and probably reinforce how important it is to do it on Thanksgiving and not Christmas/New Years!
I took many of the 5 with baby Jesus, and they were all a bit on the fuzzy side... think of them as just softened for effect... I always wonder when I will run out of things to write about on this sharing. I have been publishing what I have written so far, and it adds up to many books and quite heavy to carry around. How can I keep sharing?
Yes, there are the themes that I write about often and share probably the same thing over and over from different angles, or maybe just over and over... There is my story of my journey of faith that fills me with wonder and comes out often. There is my feeling about Church and Family and Farm life that I dwell on often. But also I read daily the morning and evening prayers in the Magnificat - see http://www.magnificat.com/ - it also contains the mass readings for the day along with the prayers and antiphons.
This is hugely educational for me and fills me with the wonder and what might appear to be wisdom about what is being "celebrated" in our amazing Church throughout the world that day! For instance, I just wished John a happy feastday, because today is the feast of St John the Evangelist - the one who is responsible for the glorious Gospel of John as well as I, II and III John, and Revelation! How he loved and saw the Savior of the World through the Love and Light that he brought into the world! 
Maria always has her kids kneel, and thank Jesus, and speak directly to him after mass... a touching moment, and really allowing Therese to become aware, at her tender age - 2 1/2 yo- that we have just encountered our Lord and Savior in a very personal and powerful way in the Eucharist! He will be a close and personal friend to her.. when she is in second grade and can receive her first communion! "I have spoken to him every day after mass." she will be able to say! I have shared often that my kids are teaching me about my faith and taking me deeper and deeper! 
In all this rambling that I forewarned you about... I am trying to say that as I approach this much beloved sharing with you... that rather than scraping for something to share... there are so many things that are filling my heart and mind and spirit! I today have words of Venerable JPII filling me with wonder - a book called Lessons of Living by him and a gift for teaching religion... every small and gorgeous pearl of wisdom makes me want to share and reflect on and on! Then I have a book with profound refections for each day of the year by Pope Benedict XVI! Benedictus is the name of that one... It also was a gift from one of our Godsons! 
I think you have already noticed many more of his amazing quotes... Then there is all the Magnificat gives to me each and every day! There are so many ways that I want to share... the Church blows my mind and fills me with such deep joy and excitement! I do not feel overwhelmed, but sometimes like I could go on and on and jump from one topic to another! I must admit that Family is my main thing and all that family can encompass... The issue of Life is huge here!
There was an amazing sharing in the meditation yesterday for the feast of the Holy Family by Mother Elvira Petrozzi - foundress of the Comunita Cenacolo- welcoming the lost and desperate in 62 houses in 15 countries...
"The family, the precious pearl which is the richness of every human being...Each of us has a desire in his heart to become a family...It is an essential and fundamental need, natural to us, which each one of us has inside, a need to see ourselves in the gaze, smile, and reception of another person. It begins with a true friendship, rooted in purity,without hidden intentions. Slowly, it is transformed into attraction and dialogue, developing into a selfless, gratuitous love, then it becomes a spousal love. A true vocation to matrimony is formed by the truth of a peaceful and loving dialogue with God,which is extended and developed in the couple...
"Spouses have to give life to each other, sacrificing the many small and big acts of self-interest. Only then can they conceive a child or ten children in joy, in hope, and in true love.... Even if the journey is an uphill climb at the beginning, we know it can be done if we know how to stay on our knees facing the One who speaks to us, who comforts us, who lifts up and who is in the voice of our conscience. 
"If we let Christ dwell in us, He can heal our wounds, transform our fragility, and illumine our hearts and minds with the Light of his truth. He will melt the deepest "me" to recreate our new "us," original, unique, and unrepeatable. This, then, is the Christian family. WE will then find the inner balance and harmony, which will help to draw out the paternity and maternity in each one of us...We are certain that, as the Holy Father says, 'The Christian family is the center and heart of the civilization of love.' "
From my vantage point of 32 years married... I think that Mother has a lot of beauty and wisdom here, and I know for a fact that without the faith and the sacrifice that is required to hold a marriage together... and I must say that the family we share... is the mortal between the blocks that build our domestic Church! Our children give us much joy, and to share with them as they are building their lives is deeply powerful, and give us much to hope, and pray, and love and worry/trust about! 
For Pat and I to have the strength we have gained from the examples of both of our families, and the parents that showed us how to form a family... that is solid in faith and love, and always cherishing each child as a gift from God, and a living part of our sacrificial love! 
The distractions of life are burying me and so I am called to leave this sharing for today... Dear Holy Family... how we long to find that happiness that only our faith in you can provide for us... Thank you for the wisdom and beauty of this amazing work of art - the Faith Filled Family! May we paint our portrait always looking at the model the Holy Family has set for us with all the colors and light of glory! We fall on our knees and ask for you to fill us with the love and strength that we need! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia! 
Yes, there are those difficulties in life that make it a challange, but we must accept and serve one another with a smile... Bless-bless, Barb"Beloved: What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life - the the life was made visible; we have life that was with the Father and was made visible to us - what we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete." I John 1: 1-4 First reading from mass today...St John ... evangelist of the incarnation- pray for us!
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