Pat went to Madison, SD with Paul and our 3 grandkids for a cattle sale yesterday... You have to go right through Colman, where my dad was as a permanent deacon ran it as an administrator... My parents lived in the rectory and it was an hour and 10 minutes from our door to theirs! A dream come true for me, and my parents, who are city dwellers through and through, learned to love and appreciate farm life, much like the life I have been blessed with while married to Patrick Verly in Southwest Minnesota! Here is my dad preparing the altar on Easter weekend back in 2000... it is a stunningly beautiful sanctuary!
This was a special Sunday for our family as we gathered around the baptismal font to support Carol as she had her son, Alex, baptized... As my dad poured water over her head - " I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen." There is wonderful stuff that I have read about the power of the Holy Name of Jesus, and I just thought that this is one of those instances as we are brought as infants into the Church. 
So using some of my cherished pictures that remind me of the cherished gift I have been blessed with by my father listening to the Lord telling him to leave the Protestant ministry and become Catholic - at the same time that the Lord was telling me to consider the religious life and also to become a Catholic along with my parents and 10 siblings! Then he heard the call to become a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church and to do all the things that he had done in the Protestant church now as a Catholic! He was able to baptize, marry, preach, and visit the sick and homebound with the annointing of the sick... all he was unable to do was to consecrate the mass, or hear confession and forgive sins in the sacrament of reconcilliation.
St Bernadine of Siena
Litany of the Graces of the Holy Name of Jesus - see http://www.magnificat.com/ Your Holy Name is the name that contains everything. Lord Jesus, save us. Your Holy Name is the heart of all Christian prayer. Lord Jesus, save us. To say the Holy Name of Jesus in prayer is to call you within ourselves. Lord Jesus, save us. When we repeat your Holy Name with a humble and contrite heart, our prayer brings for fruit and patience. Lord Jesus, save us. By the power of your Holy Name, we are washed, we are sanctified, we are justified. Lord Jesus, save us. Your Holy Name lifts us up from loneliness, from isolation, from discouragement, from fear. Lord Jesus, save us. To utter your Holy Name is to be blessed with the assurance of your presence - that you are with us even until the end of time. Lord Jesus, save us. Your Holy Name gives us solace in suffering. Lord Jesus, save us.
My dad married us also - My sister, Paula's wedding at the Bascilica of St Mary... it must have in in 1983 as I have newly born Maria Theresa in my arms... Back to the amazing litany of the Graces of the Holy Name of Jesus...
Blessed with your Holy Name, we know that we are not alone in the problems that afflict us. Lord Jesus, save us.
Through the invocation of your Holy Name I experience anew your forgiveness of my sins. Lord Jesus, save us,
The gift of your Holy Name frees us from doubt, enlightens our darkness, and brings assurance and hope in the face of the world's emptiness. Lord Jesus, save us.
When I am without adequate words to adore you,I can always say - Lord Jesus, save us.
Your Holy Name brings us strength when we are tempted. Lord Jesus, save us.
Through the gift of your Holy Name we are ever certain that you have come close to us. Lord Jesus, save us.
Through the utterance of your Holy Name we are transformed and made a new creation. Lord Jesus, save us.
Your Holy Name beckons us to the deepest experience of union. Lord Jesus, save us.
You have called us not servants but friends, and we know that friendship is real whenever we say your Holy Name... Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus... with every beat of our heart and every breath that we take - You are our LIFE and our LOVE!
My dad marrying Ruth and Paul! The legacy continues...All these reminders to us that calling upon Jesus in our lives is a lifeline and a source of strength... we are never alone or abandoned - He is with us and when the storm is all around us and we are weak and terrified by life - His are the footsteps in the sand as He carries us as lambs close to his bosom - His heart burning with Love for us! All those issues and distractions in life are silenced when we take a moment or longer to just focus on His Most Holy Name - Jesus, and all that it means to us! 
I received this picture from a lay member of the Community of the Lamb in France - Pierre lives close by and with his amazing camera he captured this time of deep worship and focus on Jesus of the Altar... I sent it to my mom with the French words that he had written to describe it... telling her that I couldn't understand French. She wrote back saying that to understand what he had written wasn't necessary - when you could "see the deep sense of worship of Jesus in all His glory and Magesty." The sense of prayerful worship was so powerful in the image that he shared with us! Every day Hallel and the community share mass and Adoration... they study throughout the day and the night before His Word - the Gospel, and become Christ to carry forth the Gospel to all those that they encounter! Jesus has called Hallel to leave all behind and become his bride and she has given Him her resounding "Yes!"
Adoring the Cross on Good Friday - He paid the supreme sacrifice as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world! We are unworthy... yet you loved us so much and now we need to remind ourselves of that love and that sacrifice every day of our lives - with every beat of our hearts and every breath that we take. The miraculous gift of life is given us as you created man in your image and likeness! 
The procession on Palm Sunday... we praise you and honor you Lord Jesus, our king... you humbled yourself to accept death - death on the cross, although you were without sin and were God with us! May we follow you and embrace our cross and find the Life and Love that we need to love and serve You within all those we meet - especially those in our families! Jesus we trust in you! 
Bless-bless, Barb"Anguish has taken wing, dispelled is darkness: for there is no gloom where but now there was distress. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone. You have brought them abundant joy and great rejoicing, as they rejoice before you as at the harvest...." Isaiah 8: 23-9: 3 The first reading from mass of the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
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