The Feast of St Mary Magdalene is a big one in the community and we celebrated it with them with the vigil on Thurday night and the feast on Friday the 22nd. This beautiful icon of Mary encountering her Risen Lord outside the tomb was in front of the altar. After only 3 days... after she had stood at the foot of the cross, and watched her Lord die a horrible death.... what Joy to find him ALIVE with new life... yet how much had that cross changed, and made that beauty and joy more intense?
Every time I describe our "out of the world" week.... hard and beautiful... I am reminded of the Cross, and the "Most Cherished Cross" that Hallel wrote about to her sister, Nancy, on the event of her engagement last year in April..."
Nancy, Look I am writing you a letter... aren't you impressed? Well, you better be because both you and I know how often this happens. I am writing to tell you now extremely excited I am about your engagement to Bill. I have to admit, when I got the news I wasn't really shocked but that night as it sunk in during adoration and the next day during mass I was so happy. My heart overflowed with joy for you. How beautiful to know that you have found your... most cherished cross. While I have never had the experience of being married, from what I hear is that he will truly be your cross. But not your cross as human eyes look at it, as a thing to run away from, as a thing of torture but rather as that which is truly the tree of life. It is only when clinging to the cross that one can truly live, it is the source of all life and of all love. Your marriage to Bill will be this, not something to run away from when it gets hard and when it hurts, but something to hold tight to, especially when it hurts because it is in this that you will find life and love. Know that it is through your marriage that Jesus wants to show you his great love for you and also that the best example that you can give to the world of Christ's love is a marriage lived in truth. So, in other words, know that I am so happy for you and that I love you a whole lot. Know that you are in my prayers during this crazy time of wedding planning; that you may not go crazy but rather learn to love each other better and that you may both have great joy and great peace. Remember to pray for me too! God Bless, Your little Sister Hallel"
Nancy, Look I am writing you a letter... aren't you impressed? Well, you better be because both you and I know how often this happens. I am writing to tell you now extremely excited I am about your engagement to Bill. I have to admit, when I got the news I wasn't really shocked but that night as it sunk in during adoration and the next day during mass I was so happy. My heart overflowed with joy for you. How beautiful to know that you have found your... most cherished cross. While I have never had the experience of being married, from what I hear is that he will truly be your cross. But not your cross as human eyes look at it, as a thing to run away from, as a thing of torture but rather as that which is truly the tree of life. It is only when clinging to the cross that one can truly live, it is the source of all life and of all love. Your marriage to Bill will be this, not something to run away from when it gets hard and when it hurts, but something to hold tight to, especially when it hurts because it is in this that you will find life and love. Know that it is through your marriage that Jesus wants to show you his great love for you and also that the best example that you can give to the world of Christ's love is a marriage lived in truth. So, in other words, know that I am so happy for you and that I love you a whole lot. Know that you are in my prayers during this crazy time of wedding planning; that you may not go crazy but rather learn to love each other better and that you may both have great joy and great peace. Remember to pray for me too! God Bless, Your little Sister Hallel"
Little Sister Hosanna with our daughter, little Sister Hallel! They represent the praise that they feel for Christ, their spouse, in all that surrounds them! Hosanna! Halleluia! Little Sister Hosanna is directing the voices of the Community in the most beautiful of Praise and Worship! We feel like we are with the angels in heaven as we join them for their worship and prayer! 
Another beloved daughter, little Sister Maria Angels.. she came with the first group to Kansas City and came to visit us on the farm a few years ago! How we rejoice to have our expanded family, as the Community of Hallel becomes our family as well! The motto they live by - "Wounded, I continue to love." Lord, give us the strength!
Today is the feast day of St Martha - happy feast day to my sister, Marty - we are reminded that " Instead of chiding Mary, Jesus, albeit very gently, chides the busy, well-meaning Martha. He defends Mary for doing the right thing, choosing the better part. Luke is using this incident to stress the point that, in the presence of Jesus - the only proper thing to do is to allow him to feed us, to serve us..." Sr Ruth Burrows, O.C.D. is a carmelite nun from England
So much beauty fills us, O Lord, we need to Trust and allow you to feed us and serve us! You ask us to pick up our Cross and follow after you, and we listen and stumble ahead... it is hard and painful, yet we discover that there is so much joy in giving up our desires and selfish ways and turning to YOU, the Tremendous Lover! May we not look for false happiness... the pleasures and lures of the world - and find real happiness in giving up of our selves and sitting at your feet as you teach, instruct, demonstate real LOVE, and feed us! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen, Hosanna and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"What then have we to do? We must realize that God is our tremendous lover, that he is our all and that he has done all our work for us. We must believe that in God and not in ourselves; we must hope in God and not in ourselves. As St Augustine told us, there is one man who reaches to the extremities of the universe and into the end of time. We have to enter into this one man - this one Christ - by faith, hope, and charity. We have to find our all in him. He is our full compliment and our perfect suppliment. No matter how weak we are, he is our strength; no matter how empty we are, he is our fullness; no matter how sinful we are, he is our holiness. All we have to do is to accept God's plan - to say as Christ said coming into the world: "A body thou hast fitted to me; behold I come to do thy will, O God." We have to accept the self, the surroundings, and the story, that God's providence arranges for us. In humility we must accept our self - just as we are; in charity, we must accept and love our neighbor just as he is; in abandonment, we must accept God's will just as things happen to us, and just as he would have us act. Faithful compliance with his will and humble acceptance of his arrangements will bring us to full union with Christ. For the rest, let us gladly glory in our infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in us. In our weakness, and in our love we shall thus become one with him, and there shall be one Christ loving himself."
Dom M Eugene Boylan, O Cist. R. (1963) was a monk from Ireland and he wrote the book, This Tremendous Lover... a book my mother found in a bookstore and she "groaned over" as she read it... leading her more powerfully to His Church! It speaks to me so powerfully of the "little helpless lamb" that is so lovingly referred to by the Community of the Lamb - when speaking of the poor and humble and lost and hard situations in life! Help me, Lord, to look on with love!
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