Getting up to see a new calf on the TV... that's right we have a surveilance camera in the calving barn and we can see the cows and know that they are calving or have calved from our couch! We all say Hail Marys and hold our breath until Pat appears on the screen, and we see that the calf is healthy and doing well... it is cold, so it is heading for the warming box for a quick warm up!
I am using pictures today from calving 3 years ago... it looks to be a less snowy winter and I haven't gotten out there near as much this year other than some time with the little calves in the barn... with the grandkids along to watch too... we haven't gotten out to the new barn yet, nor have the pairs of cows and calves as there are not that many yet. Pat is calving a few weeks later this year, and it still is miserable snowy and cold... Each year has its challanges! 
From the readings for mass today - see http://www.magnificat.com/ "When a husband is joined to his wife, 'they are no longer two but one flesh.' Each has found a faithful friend, and a 'faithful friend is a strudy shelter... is beyond price... is a life-saving remedy.' The spousal friends that 'God has joined together' in the sacrament of marriage 'no human being must separate.'" 
The first reading from Sirach 6: 5-17 is amazing words about your "one in a thousand confidant" - your spouse really would be this person in our lives... so many amazing thoughts about what this very close to us "freind" means to us in our journey here on earth. "A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving rememdy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself." Sirach 6
Fr Paul spoke in a homily a few weeks ago that if we all in our marriages thought of the other ahead of ourselves - "I think that the number of divorces would come to a almost complete halt." Yes, it would certainly make such a difference, and I am not saying that I do this very well at all. There are many times that I see that Pat is like sandpaper to my rough edges, and getting the shaved off is painful and hard! But I also see that he is allowing me to become a better Christian and together in our prayers every day... we come to a more loving and forgiving place with Christ in our midst... "May we always put you first in our lives, O Lord!"
The Gospel today is Mark10: 1-12 where the Pharisees approach Jesus about divorce... The words of Jesus to us..."From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." I am stirred deep within me whenever my Lord speaks to me in the Gospel... it truly is Christ come alive to me in His Word! 
Mary and her Snowball... this morning Pat told us that Snowball's mother had her calf... a bull with a white spot on it's face... Cow and calf are doing well. It was that calf that we watched Pat put into the warming box on this cold day in February! 
Sweet Jesus, your design for us as married couples has enriched our lives with the blessings of family and faith and farm! WE are humble and unworthy of all the blessings that you pour out upon us. Give us the strength to give without counting the cost, and as a result to reap the benefits of a rich harvest. We give you our spouses and our families... we are yours - use us! May we fight for all that is Truth, and Life in this world. May we protect ourselves from all that is evil and lurking in many disguises to lead us away from you and into darkness! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
"As to our love, it cannot fail to be creative love if it is Christ's. Loves that we had supposed to have no importance but for ourselves - love between husband and wife, parents and children, sisters and brothers, the love of friends - all these natural loves, if we love with Christ's heart, increase the life of the world, and build up the kingdom of heaven here on earth. The harder love to achieve, the love of our enemies, of those who hate us and persecute us, does not merely bring us pardon in our own sins, but is redemptive; it has a reach as wide as the cross, and not only brings mercy to those who are its object, but to the whole world."
Caryll Houselander (1954) was a British mystic, poet, and spiritual teacher.
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