This hangs in my front window... it seems to be aglow even in the midst of the cold blowing rain with the green of spring to give it LIFE! I will today be bringing in my lilac branch... they are starting to leaf even outside with the later Easter this year, but it is still a gift to watch the leaves open in the house... a sign of LIFE once again... this thought from 40 days for Life today...
"Darkness is responsible for the despair and hopelessness that leads women to choose abortion.
Scripture says that Jesus is "the light of the world." Sometimes, the darker the place, the brighter the
light shines.
That is certainly the case when we bring the light of Christ to the sidewalk outside abortion facilities.
Our role in this historic 40 Days for Life campaign is to be the of light-bearer. We bring Jesus to a
place He is desperately needed."
Pat and I just shared morning prayer... see http://www.magnificat.com/ , and we were delighted to read the meditation for the day by Fr Eugene Boylan O Cist. R... after reading his profound words... the rememberance of my mother's absolute love for his book, This Tremendous Lover, came pouring over me. This led to a discussion about our conversion story once again... it seems that my husband wants to understand every bit of it and I love so much to share it! I think that Pat knowing through his sister, Marge about the conversion that my family went through, made him come to love me before we even met! Now that says a lot to me about the character of the man that I married! He was going much deeper than the surface things like looks and possessions... He wanted a strong Catholic wife - he certainly got that with me, along with my flaws and weaknesses, but never when it comes to my Catholic faith!
Oliver nursing on his mother... she healing from a C-section and he from wounds on his front legs as a result of trying to bring him into this world the normal way - not to be... it has been not an easy road for the two of them... they are truly marked with the sign of the cross! 
Using pictures from my early Catholic and dating Pat days... I will share some quotes that I just came across on a site called - http://www.catholicdadsonline.org/posts/2157/this-tremendous-lover/
“… No matter what we do, unless we do it in the love of God, it profits us nothing. God wants our love, He will be satisfied with nothing else. That is what He principally looks for in our works. The things we do or achieve are not of primary value to God, for he can create them by a mere thought; or with just as much ease He can raise up other free agents to do what we do. But the love of our hearts is something unique, something no one else can give Him. True, He could create other hearts to love Him, but once He has created us and given us free will, the love of our particular heart is something unique and in a way irreplaceable. In any case, it is not for His own sake that He wants our love, but because He desires to make us happy with Him forever, and He can only do that if we are in love with Him ……" Fr Eugene Boylan
So powerful to really get in touch with His LOVE for us, and to what lengths it goes. How can we doubt or falter in our lives with HIM there to love us onto the right path, and show us how to carry our crosses with grace and gratitude?
"There is only one source of true happiness in this life or in the next, and that is to love and to be loved. Knowledge that does not lead to love is worse than vain and sterile. It is of course quite true that love expresses itself in many ways, and it is true that its reality can be questioned if it does not seek expression in some way; but for all that, it is love, and love alone, that matters. St. Paul and all the saints knew that; our Lady knew that; our Lord knows that, and God Himself knows it and tells it to us in the Scripture. I have loved thee with an everlasting love (Jer xxxi, 3). My son, give me thy heart (Prov xxiii, 26). Love is the culmination of the law (Rom xiii, 10).”
The weekend before I "met" Pat at his sister's wedding... I just talked to my mom to tell her that I was writing about This Tremendous Lover today. She filled me in on the details of her discovery of this book..." I found myself going into a Catholic Bookstore for the first time in my life... It was totally foreign to me, and I felt almost like you would going into an adult bookstore - guilty and uneasy. It was like this book jumped into my hand and I bought it and left. I go back to it regularly to read this or that and the margins are filled with "groans." This along with some encounters with Catholics here and there in my early years all added up to my yearning to be Catholic."
“Let it be noted here that charity does not compel us to like people, but to love them. And love is an act of the will wishing one well. Further what passes for fraternal charity is often not really Christian. Modern civilization is full of a humanitarianism which is not Christian charity, for its motive is not the love of God. It may be a love of man, though it is more often a love of management. Whatever be its motive, unless it be derived from the love of God, it profiteth nothing. It is on this point that many Catholics – even many Catholic religious – make a fatal mistake that renders much of their works for their neighbor sterile and unprofitable; for their motives are human. To them can be applied that threefold warning of our Lord: Amen, I say unto you, they have received their reward. Still we must not be too general in our condemnation, for when a man works according to what he believes to be his duty, God will not fail to have compassion on him, and will give him the grace to rectify his outlook. But for a healthy Christian life, all a man’s work must be done with God, for God, and in God; the love of God is at once its source, its end, and its principal value.
For the whole spiritual life is a love affair with God, and if that expression has associations that are out of place here, it is because of the abuse of it, not because of its proper use …”
That is truly something to groan about! Wow! Words cannot compare to his and how deeply he "knew" the LOVE that will set you free! 
My mother and me - the first born precious daughter! Lord Jesus, I am filled with such joy this day as I ponder the wonder of your LOVE for me! You give that to me always and ask that I carry it forth - "Charity does not compell us to like people, but to love people." May we truly come to those closest to us and love them truly and completely... this is the hardest place to carry this forth. Those closest to us bring out the worst in us! Jesus, Mary, all the angels and saints - help us on this monumental mission to make our families a small piece of heaven here on earth! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, BarbMy parents at our wedding- August 3, 1978.
My mother shared with me about going to a rented cabin on Lake Michigan with her family at age 17 and finding on the shelf a copy of Of Imitation of Christ by Thomas A'Kempis. "I sat on the sand dune and read this book, that opened to me a whole new world. One that I didn't undertand, yet I knew to be deep and powerful."
"If you wish to learn and appreciate something worth while, then love to be unknown and considered as nothing. Truly to know and despise self is the best and most perfect counsel. To think of oneself as nothing, and always to think well and highly of others is the best and most perfect wisdom. Wherefore, if you see another sin openly or commit a serious crime, do not consider yourself better, for you do not know how long you can remain in good estate. All men are frail, but you must admit that none is more frail than yourself."
Thomas A'Kempis
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