Mary did a funny thing yesterday, while I was distracted with little Dave getting ready to go out with grandpa... she took some blankets and made a bed for herself on the coffee table in our family room by the Easter tree. "This is a comfortable place to sleep!' she exclaimed to me. I was overjoyed and could tell her that this is how her special Aunt - little sister Hallel - sleeps. "If you like to sleep on a hard board like that maybe the Lord is telling you that you should be a little sister too, Mary." I couldn't resist, and it made me laugh at the thought!
Mary showed me how she had laid a blanket underneath and rolled up a rug for a pillow... I told her that her Aunt sleeps in a sleeping bag, so she has a blanket underneath and on top, and that they have a wooden cupboard that lays on the ground - they store their few possessions inside, close the doors down and then lay on top of that - basically on a board without mattress. This was a hands on and experiencial lesson for Mary.
It was interesting to get a call about my article about Blessed John Paul II in our local paper, from a dear friend from TEC and Birthright! I got to share with her that it looks like John will be going to spend the summer in France with his sister and recouperate and really digest just what has happened to him inside and out for the last almost 2 years now.... We together marveled at prayer and what many consider to be miraculous healing, but it surprised her to hear that John would be embracing a hard life of poverty, and that things would be less than comfort and enjoying the beauty of Southern France for the summer! John has been there and has no delusions about how hard this will be... there is manual labor in clearing brush on their huge property, and there is construction underweigh on buildings that are being constructed or repairs on... Hallel has learned that she loves to do carpentry there and also spends long days out working on the grounds, and John knows that he will be called upon to walk alot and to do physical work along with the hours of prayer and mass and adoration every day. I know that the one thing that he said that he wished that he could do when we go to KC to visit the community there is to go on " a mission" with them. I hope that he gets the chance to do this most humbling of experiences in France!
I have explained in the past that a very radical thing this community does is to go to poor sections of town and go door to door begging for their food! Their foundress, Little Sister Marie, who is still alive, felt that the Lord was telling her to do this crazy thing - beg from the poor! How can this be? She in prayer was led to the story in I Kings - I Kings 17: 8-24... the story of the drought and Elijah coming to a widow with a son... he tells her to make him some bread and she tells him that she was just to take the last of her oil, flour and water and make some bread for her and her son and then they would die as there was no more... "Don't worry... Go on and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf and bring it to me... For this is what the Lord God says: 'The bowl will not run our of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.'" 
She does as he asks and never runs out! This was Little Sister Marie's answer to her dilemma... and they have had many tell them that in giving til it hurts... from what little they have to share... that they have been blessed not only in deep spiritual way - and they always ask for the prayer requests of the people they encounter, and lift those up the following morning when they gather for mass and holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament! Susan/ little sister Hallel met the Community in Rome in 2006-07 while she was studying the year in Rome... then shortly after she returned home in the following summer - they came to do "a mission" in Kansas City.. their first time in the U.S! She went to be with them and to experience firsthand this radical thing that they do... begging for their food from the poor!
As she returned home.. this was her joyful explanation of the experience - "It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I have so much joy when I am with them!" I think that the handwriting was on the wall at that point, and now look at her 4 years later... dressed in their simple blue habit and now little sister Hallel - soon to take her first vows! Well, I just got a call from outside and I must go out and help move the bulls to pasture... camera will be in the pocket. 
It is probably good, because I could just go on and on and on and on... Jesus, the world is seen in such a different light as we now have this wonderful community in our lives. We are so moved and touched and changed to know that they truly take your call to represent Christ knocking on the door of the poor! So life changing and powerful for all those that open to the knock, or for those from the community that stand there in total humility and ask for their bread or just a cup of water... allowing those to see Christ in them. They carry with them the Gospel... and your Word reaches out to minister to all those that they come in contact with! Thank you for the gift of possibly Hallel and John to share the summer and all the richness and poverty of this amazing life with YOU! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"I have felt you would be someone that would make a difference in this world when I would see you in church or at the fair with your family before your cancer. You really do not even know me but I noticed this in you at a very young age. I can only imagine that after your fight against cancer your daily life now seems different to you. I can see where it is appealing to go away for awhile to grow deeper in your faith." A friend wrote this to John on his caringbridge site in responce to his dilemma about working for the summer or going to France! If any want to catch up - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnverly/journal
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