Going up to clean in preparation for company coming today... Our foreign exchange student from 11 years ago... Breno from Brazil, along with his parents, will be arriving this afternoon! Being in the room that Susan and I painted and put up a cow border when Breno was here for that year... it brought back just how much I miss having her around, and a frequent part of my life. I found myself yelling at the air... "Susan, I miss you!"
That afternoon the phone rang and on the other end... I heard a sweet..."Mommy?" It was Susan/Hallel! She was calling to see if we had made it home OK from France over a month and a half ago now. It was a wonderful conversation filled with laughter, and a few tears on my side of the ocean. She shared with me the experience they had at WYD, and when I told her that we had seen them at the final mass... she didn't seem too surprised by that!
They had sung on the stage a couple of times - leading prayers, but not when the Pope was present. She and I spoke so lovingly of the beautiful way that Pope Benedict brings us to Jesus, as did his predecessor, Blessed John Paul II! "I feel that the two men are the same, in how they bring us to Christ, and LOVE Christ so totally and beautifully." I was totally blown away by the words and gems that Pope Benedict shared with the youth, as well as the world, on how we are to look to the man, Christ, and follow wherever He will lead us!
Susan/Hallel shared that there is a news correspondent that followed JPII everywhere, and reported on his travels... she is spending time with the community now. She shared that she had a chance to meet him, and pondered what the sentence that she should say to him.... "You usually have an oportunity to say one line." Finally she decided to say to him; "Thank you for loving Christ so much." He was very advanced in his disease of parkinsonism... "One eye wouldn't open, and he drooled, but his one good eye gleamed at her, and he took her face in his shaking hands." How he loved Christ, and he is now at his feet praising him, and taking all of our needs to him. He was a warrior of prayer for all of our needs... all those in the Church and without too! 
I felt so joyful to have had this time to share with Hallel. It was a relaxed and happy sharing and the tears were those of deep joy at the beauty of our amazing last 2 popes! How we love and are blessed by the True Church! Well, I am back to the grind of getting all ready for our guests. It will be good when they arrive and I can sit and enjoy their time here on the farm! 
Mary has regained her head, and just in time for the feast day today of her birth! I am sure the the community of the Lamb is having a rich and beautiful celebration today!
Our Savior Jesus Christ, along with the mother that was chosen for you from the womb....The birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary..."her soul was the space from which God was able to gain access into humanity." Pope Benedict XVI "Vine of life, the Virgin is the root from which you sprang"... "Living Bread, the Virgin gave you the flesh of the human race." ... "Sun of Justice, the Virgin was born before you as dawn comes before the day." see http://www.magnificat.com/ We love you, and ask that we can find the joy, and peace, and love that comes from your coming into the world through the Virgin. We are yours, and we go forward strengthened by your grace, found in our faith in you, and your Mother of Heaven and Earth. Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
"When the most holy Virgin was born, the whole world was made radiant; blessed is the branch and blessed the stem that bore such holy fruit." (Liturgy of the Hours)
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means "God is with us." 'Mt 1: 23
"Blessed are you, Holy Virgin Mary, deserving of all praise; from you rose the sun of justice, Christ our God. Halleluia. Halleluia."
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