My mom sent me some old pictures of our Catholic/Spiritual Journey. Fr Custodio was at the Basilica of St Mary, our parish, when my dad called and told them that he and his wife along with 11 children would be joining the Church..."Oh, by the way, I have been a Protestant minister for the last 18 years." I wonder what crossed Father's mind, and how much he marveled at the way that Jesus had called my dad and along with him 12 others! HE came to our home to do the instruction and would sit my younger siblings around the coffee table on the floor and the rest of us would sit around the living room and listen to him tell them in very simple terms about the Church. Since then I have been involved in RCIA and have seen the months of classes and how there is so much learned and steps of initiation into the Church... someone might think that we were robbed of that and it seems that it was not done quite like that back 40 years ago. I do not in any way feel that I was gipped at that point...I took off running every day since with each day being an adventure of faith! My early days at the farm in Wisconsin that we bought at the same time of all this... is so steeped in memories of reading and groaning in joy over the words of Fr Thomas A'Kempis and the books and poems of Thomas Merton! I would do sketches sitting in fencelines and caligraphy to try to capture the beauty of my inner soul!
To have the Bascilica as my home parish and then in 1976 when my dad was ordained a deacon... he worked there! The granduer and the beauty, and how it speaks of the beauty and granduer of God! And there stands the beautiful and glorious Mother of God, Mary, over it all! She is on the top of the canopy, and through her life came into the world - Jesus Christ! And he healed those that are blind! We talked about yesterday how we close our eyes to concentrate on listening... yet we are blind to so many things that are leading us away from HIM and we need that blindness to be healed with the vision of His eyes and the eyes of our hearts! Today is the feastday of the "Mystical Doctor" - St John of the Cross! He went into the dark and interior places with prayer and "the soul so centered in God by prayer that it is free to leave self behind and become absorbed in the presence of the promised Prince of Peace. From the inward stillness flows the outward peace for which our world longs." Wow! Sitting in my hour with Him in Adoration yesterday filled me with this kind of "Stillness and peace." Such an amazing gift!
Our Godson, David, dad officiated at the Basilica! I am soon to welcome Nancy and Augustine,so this will be short today! "May I never boast, except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Gal 6:14 
More baptisms! So wonderful to have my dad there to officiate for so many of those brought into the Church as infants! Jesus, our cup overflows this day as we are in full preparation for the celebration of Life and Joy for our journey into the Catholic Church 40 years ago! WE have your fingerprint upon us and we are forever changed! May this gathering to celebrate bring many of us into a closer walk with you now and forever! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb"A person should take note that even though he does not seem to be making any progress in this quietude or doing anything, he is advancing much faster than if he were treading along on foot, for God is carrying him. Although he is walking at God's pace, he does not feel this pace. Even though he does no work with his faculties, he achieves more than if he did, for God is the agent... A soul, then, should abandon itself into God's hands and not its own, nor those of other blind men; for insofar as it abandons itself to God and does not apply its faculties to anything, it will advance securely."
St John of the Cross (1591)
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