In a few hours I will be interviewed for our local paper. The topic will be John Paul II, and this happened as a result of my mentioning to them that there was an AP article written this week in which I was quoted... then I qualified it by saying that I was OK with the article, but I had so much more that I wanted to share about him, and the usual bringing in of the sex abuse issue was a disappointment too. If you are interested... here is the link - http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLnC0CT6H-mKej-zvJn_RrHmgiNw?docId=6e1dadca72494995a34f4382bed3c70e
One of my pictures of St Peters at night... Well, the local paper went from putting the AP story in today to not doing that and instead interviewing me about my deep love for him. I am kind of happy about this, because I hope to gush profusely about the meaning the man has had for me in my life and continues to... I just am praying for the Holy Spirit to take over and for the words meant to be shared to come forth. He is so interwoven in so many powerful experiences in my life that I get bogged down in all the details and I need to be concise and yet share from the heart! I attempted to write my sharing of what he meant to me for the National Catholic Register, and wrote 4 pages!
with two children, with two priests then deacon/seminarians in Feb of 2003 - Pat and I had gone to Rome for 10 days while Maria was studying there for the year and discerning a call to cloistered life at a Poor Clare! I dug out the few pictures from Rome that I can find... my album is among the missing - ST Anthony,St Anthony! Trying to crystalize how deeply John Paul II came to be the heart of our domestic Church - our family! Pat and I knew what the Church upheld as Truth when it came to our marriage being a sacrament and our openess to family. We were very clear on that, but found many others - all those that were on our engagement weekend with us- that discounted the call to being open to children, and were going to have no children to the preached at 2! I had the second of 10 tell me at one point that she wanted her kids to have all that she wasn't able to have growing up! How can siblings ever be compared to things? And Barb is off on one of her tangents once again!
Where does John Paul II come into all this? About 2 months after we were married! And what a champion for family and marriage he was! So often he would be bombarded by those that thought that the Church was archaic in their stands... thinking that they should allow those making up the Body of Christ - the Church to use artificial birth control, and limit their families size. But he stood firm, and how could he waver from the Truth! Early on I read the term "domestic Church" and that was a bell within me that continues to ring loud and clear to this day! We knew that along with being open to the children the Lord had for us that along with it came the responsibility and the joy of raising them in the faith! We took that very seriously in our home and as a family we worshiped with great excitement together every Sunday morning... usually to the early mass as Pat milked cows morning and night! "You would come into mass with all those girls with ribbons in their hair and then you had that boy!" So many have marveled at our family over the years! A witness to family and all the blessings that means to us! We found a sure guide and champion for family in John Paul II...His theology of the Body - brought God into the bedroom in a very glorious way - "free, total, faithful, fruitful love!" The joy that can be found there and for those, like my daughter Ruth,who must space their children due to physical limitations... there is the powerful journey of a couple that follows the abstinance on days of fertility - how strengthening for a couple and showing their love and devotion one for the other! A gift in the form of a Cross! 
With Maria in 2003 in Rome! John Paul was still pope and was slowly losing his health due to Parkinsons disease... we saw him the first day we arrived at a general Audience! We walked down to St Peters and this beautiful sight met our eyes...
A beautiful bride in front of the fountain in St Peter's square - we asked to take a picture - only later at the audience did we realize that there were over 20 couples dressed in their wedding clothes and going forth to have their marriage blessed by the ailing pope! She became a total symbol of the blessing that John Paul had been to us in our marriage as a Catholic couple raising "lights to the world."
Then 9 months later he was well enough to bless the marriage of our eldest daughter, Ruth and her husband Paul.. just days after they wed! This graces our home and is a reminder of how important John Paul was to us in our marriage! I think that this is the offficial picture for his beatification this weekend! His feast day will be October 22 each year...Well, there is too much going on inside of me... I need to take some time for prayer before I speak from the heart. I know that the Lord has come into the world in a powerful way and now stands at the feet of the Lord and Our Lady interceding for all of our needs. John Paul come and help me this day to spread the message of family and life and love in its truest sense that you revealed to the world in a most powerful way!
I recently found the pictures that Susan, now little sister Hallel had taken while she visited her sister, Maria, in Rome over Christmas of 2002... this was one of her most prized photos - showing the result of John Paul looking at all the saints represented in St Peter's sqare, and there are many... and his comment was; "But where is Our Lady?" She was his mother as his own had died at a young age.. how he loved her! So this special image was added and how I love that. I picture him always in a state of prayer to her to intercede for all of the needs of the world! Wow!
Photo taken by Hallel at Christmas midnight mass in 2002 - he lived a slow suffering death until April 2, 2005! Jesus and your wonderful Mother of the heaven and earth, be with me this morning in all that I share... may the beauty and Truth of your wonderful Church come through as I share from my heart and soul. May the Family and Domestic Church shine forth as the true way we are called to come into the culture of LIFE! May the words touch the lives of those that are called to read it. Use the life of this saint in our time to show the Way, the Truth and the Life! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
This picture of Susan/little sister Hallel in Rome is so appropriate now as she is there but in her blue habit and viel... how I will be glued to her on the TV... hoping to catch a glimpse of that blue! For those interested the vigil will begin tomorrow, Saturday at 12:30p and last through the afternoon. Then the beatification will begin at 1A on Sunday and go until 5a... I will be glued to the TV!
"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live."
Pope John Paul II
The Pope's last audible words, on hearing tens of thousands of young people singing in St. Peter's Square as he lay in his deathbed, Friday, April 1, 2005: "I sought you out and now you come to me. Thank you."
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