Today is Saturday and the Church devotes Saturdays to the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary...With all the kids together in Duluth to support John as he competes today in a speech contest for Farm Bureau, and knowing how much John has been supported by his sisters as we faced cancer over the last year and a half, and how much having Nancy for his English teacher and speech coach for his last two years of high school bonded them in a special way - I thought that to start this sharing today with this picture of Nancy caring for her brother, as he was undergoing his 3rd chemo, after we had just shared our amazing miraculous time in France with Susan/Hallel... as she took the habit of the Community of the Lamb and changed her name to little sister Hallel. The rivers of emotion, and family, and faith, and healing, and the Lord's hand in action in our lives, was so powerful at this time in our lives! We were carried along in the "storm" which once again is the Gospel for today...but we were at peace and trusting as the Lord was with us and in control! Christ says to us; "Why are you terrified? Do you not have faith?" They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even the wind and the sea obey?" Mark 4: 35-41
John... having been blessed with 4 older sisters... has always had such a peaceful life and found comfort in their midst. They have always cared for him and looked out for him...there are many pictures taken of the 5 of them and John has his head resting on the sister closest to him in a physical sign of his total acceptance of their love for him and lack of fear or worry when they are around him. They "saved his life" when as a young boy he was walking into a shed just as Pat was backing a tractor out! They have cared for his every need, and corrected his every fault with love and caring and sometimes annoyance! How they came to his side with the discovery of his brain cancer - the journey began on Father's day 2009, with the exact Gospel reading that we are having today- Jesus calming the storm! WE called France and Susan reminded us of the calming fact that, "mom, Jesus is in control." Once again John was put to peace, and found comfort in the arms, thoughts and prayers of his sisters and family! How real and powerful did his faith and his family become! And his family grew to become a huge family-army of amazing loyal prayer warriors!
Nancy has said that she so badly wants for John to do well this weekend with his presenting himself in this contest. Her heart breaks for her talented brother... he has always been comfortable on the stage and has been somewhat of a big fish in a small pond here in Marshall. He has been in many plays and speech is his love... he even started a speech team at the U of M! But he has had some big dissappointments lately, and we all can see that there is a different John, after going through the last year and a half. After the surgery to discover the caner, and the many procedures... there is a difference... and the fact that he will never get his beautiful thick hair back makes it obvious to the world that he is a cancer survivor. It is very possible that the gift that John thought would be his future - his ability and desire to entertain and to be in front of large groups of people - has now been changed, and replaced with something else. That the Lord is closing the door to what John thought would be his future, and has other plans for him! Hard for him to face -yet we have no doubt that the Lord has great plans for John. and that John will discover that as the doors open, and as he follows along the path ahead with eyes of faith and a heart of obedience!
It seems appropriate to use pictures from our time in Lourdes as part of my sharing today... with this being a feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary... here we are waiting to be let into the place where the Blessed Virgin appeared to Bernedette around 1850... they allow you to walk along the grotto, and place your hand on the rock wall on which is the moisture and running water that our Lady caused to start - thus the healing waters that continue to flow, and there are many healings and miracles that take place here since! John bathed, as did all of us for his intention of healing... they do not dunk your head in the cold waters, so he requested that they take some water in a pitcher and pour it over his head - "That is where I want the healing."
Over our heads the statue of the Blessed Virgin looks down on us just as she appeared to St Bernedette... we are filled with amazement that we are there in France - it all was too mirculous... that within 24 hours we could see that we could go to France, and be there for this huge and powerful step of Susan joining the Community of the Lamb! And then to spend the day in Lourdes - a place of such power and healing! To have Hallel with us newly garbed in her habit, and radiating with such joy and hope for her "Johnny!" How she has been the first and foremost one to care for her baby brother! She was the one, who saved his life, always looking around to see where he was at,when the rest of us were distracted... she had alerted us to his wandering to the shed in search of his dad and the tractor! Now she is once again responsible for John getting to France, as she follows the Lord's call in her life, and at this critical time in John's life and for his life - we find ourselves touching the place of an ongoing miracle - the place where our Lady appeared to give us healing and light! Too overwhelmingly powerful, and a story that I will tell over and over. John said of the day... consisting of bathing in the healing waters, as well as mass celebrated in a small private chapel in the church by Fr Craig Timmerman, and confession as well as a Eucharistic procession...."It was good, mom!"
"Listen , my faithful children: open up your petals,
like roses planted near running waters;
send up the sweet odor of incense,
break forth in blossoms like the lilly.
Send up the sweet odor of your hymn of praise;
bless the Lord for all he has done!
Proclaim the greatness of his name,
loudly sing his praises,
with music on the harp and all stringed instuments;
sing out with joy as you proclaim:
The works of the Lord are all of them good." Sirach 39: 13-16
With thoughts of my kids all together supporting and enjoying each other... this from morning prayer about "faithful children" and the thanking of the Lord for all HE has done! Too much and too appropriate for all that we have experienced in the last year of our most cherished cross - cancer/healing!
John's hair and head wet with the healing waters of Lourdes... so many hopes and prayers that now we can say that John has been healed with the cancer now gone for a year! A few days we celebrated his first birthday... as he was reborn with his own healthy stem cells were returned to his body, after bringing him to the brink of death with a lethal dose of chemo... never fearing and couragous in the face of all odds - John with his faith and his family found healing and hope for the future! We have no doubt that great things are ahead for him, and that the Lord will continue to use this in a most powerful way!
Jesus and Blessed Virgin Mary - we are filled once again with the powerful way that you have touched our lives in the last year and a half, but more than that we are reminded of your love and concern for us from the beginning of time! WE are loved and filled with joy to "know" that you have a plan for us and a love for us that astounds and surrounds us - the ways that we can "feel" that love within the loving arms of his family are very real and so powerful when we are weak! Jesus, we love you and Trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"So be immitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma." Ephesians 5: 1-2
"It is so good, so sweet and above all, so beneficial to suffer." St Bernedette
After sharing a powerful morning prayer with my husband - see
http://www.magnificat.com/ I want to share the meditation of the day by St Peter Damian (1072). He is a Doctor of the Church.
"Mary, Star of the Sea"
"A star... had four main characteristics: it has the nature of fire, it is bright and clear, it sends forth a ray, and it shines in the night. We can find all of these qualities in our star, the Virgin Mary. She is that burning bush in which the Lord appeared to Moses, which burned with fire yet was not comsumed; for though she was with child she was not consumed by the flames of desire. She is in herself bright and splendid, so that it was said of her in the Song of Songs: "Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?" And she has sent forth from herself a ray which pierces to the secret places of the heart and searches the heart and the reins; this is the living Word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing assunder of soul and spirit. The meaning of her name is very fitting, for Mary means "star of the sea."
The sea is this world, of which it is written: "This great and wide sea, whererin are innumerable creeping things." And she is rightly named "star of the sea," for she shines on the world like and incomparable star, and her brightness makes the whole world light, and she has sent forth from herself the ray "which lights every man that comes into the world." And just as the ray issues from the star without destroying the star's integrity, so the Son came forth from the Virgin while her virginity remained inviolate, as Ezekiel prophesied: "This gate shall be shut, and no man shall enter in by it, but the Lord alone shall enter in by it." A star shines in the night, the Virgin shines in the night of this world with an incomparable light, so that it was said of her: "You alone have destroyed all heresies thoughout the whole world." Such is our star, brethern, such is the Virgin Mary, the star of the sea, and because she has left us an example, that we should follow her steps, of such kind should our souls be." St Peter Damian.
The crazed and staring look of the cat, Herbert, reflects the feel of desperation that begins to set in with the inactivity of a winter like this. I am appreciating the fresh air and walk.... that going down our fairly long driveway yesterday to help drive the car out of the snow where it had gotten stuck! More work for Pat now as he is fighting the snow to feed his cows... It has been a challanging winter for him and the cows!
We had to call and cancel John's trip to Rochester tomorrow... Hopefully we can make it by Wednesday... only time and Mother Nature can answer that question. We plan to celebrate with John his two birthdays! His first birthday of his new rebirth on Jan 27th of last year, when his stem cells were replanted and yielded 100 fold! And his 22nd birthday which is on Thurday the 3rd of Feb! Both of them to be celebrated cancer free for a year! 
With thoughts of warmer days to come... but still with those cow-calf type animals that we have around here... soon it will be grandkids instead of kids doing the push me- pull me actions!
