My maiden name being Cross... it was obvious to me that I wanted that symbol on the banner Nancy and I made for the celebration this weekend of our 40th anniversary of becoming Catholic as a family. I had thought of many facets to it being that now we are up to about 80 of us from the great grands that are arriving almost monthly to my parents, who are both alive and still reasonably healthy! Nancy took this idea and made it a beautiful thing of many parts... we all come together to form the Domestic Church which we have become over these last 40 years! I have recently come to realize that the prayers of my husband for a Catholic wife could have been instrumental in my conversion and that of my entire family! I knew the story of him shocking his sisters, when as a teen he had told them that he wouldn't marry anyone who wasn't Catholic... I always kind of joked that it was a good thing that we had converted, but with all the talk to young people these days about waiting for marriage and praying for your future spouse... it just struck me that Pat's wish and prayers for me over those years certainly was a part of the whole beautiful picture of conversion that has colored my entire life in the True Church, and my marriage to him 33 years ago and the children we have raised here on earth together, and are in heaven waiting for us to meet later... is all a part of the beautiful work of art - masterpiece - that I feel my spiritual journey is! Wow!
How he has loved to have 6 month old Gus here, and to see that he is getting to know and love his grandpa Verly - the farmer! Nancy and Bill are determined to have him come to love and appreciate the farm and hang out with his farm cousins with joy and excitement not with fear. It is so great to have them pop down for a visit, and grandpa certainly is spending time with him and spoiling him! He is a delightfully peaceful and happy boy, and just shows his contentment with having his loving mom with him, and her ability to feed him, and that special closeness that sharing the breastfeeding time is for the two of them. I have always told Nancy that she has no idea how lucky she is at how easy Gus's birth was, and also how well they do with breastfeeding! So many blessings for her, after all her years of waiting and wondering! We just shared morning prayer at breakfast, and now Nancy has gone to watch Ruth's baby as she has her 20 week ultrasound! Life is abounding, and we are thrilled with it all! Jesus, we put Ruth and her baby in your hands, and TRUST!
Sleeping (?) with the babies... has always been Pat's favorite things to do! It looks like Gus is OK with it, but not really wanting to sleep... Well, with family here, and a big meal at noon, before we head into the Christmas program at Holy Redeemer School - I decided to have turkey and dressing with Ruth and Nancy... as I will be working at the nursing home on Christmas day, and Nancy will be in Pennsylvania so that Gus's other grandparents can spoil him with LOVE! I also have a double batch of Belgian cookie dough ready to put in the lucken iron... It is that kind of a wonderful day with family and activities that require many hands... Family days that started with sharing our faith around the breakfast table. And thanks to Pat's prayers for me it started for my family 40 years ago as we all came into the Catholic Church... leaving no one behind - all 13 of us! So amazing, and I have been celebrating and rejoicing inside every day since that Christmas midnight mass 40 years ago, when I received Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time! I truly do feel that way! That not a day has gone by that I haven't grown, and been awed or amazed about my Church, and all the endless things about it that bless and instruct me! I am filled to bursting with all the saints, sacraments, liturgical seasons, Mary Queen of Heaven and Earth, and Jesus in the Word and the Eucharist - walking with me every day! The Cross journey is one of blessing and salvation! 
Jesus, I am rejoicing in your LOVE and LIFE and LIGHT! I ask that you are with Ruth and her new little one now... Jesus, we trust in you! May this weekend with my family be one of great joy and healing and deeper walks with you as we discover and renew together the great gift we are given in your Bride, the Church! Looking into the eyes of your small lives that are surrounded with so much love and caring... we see peace and love and happiness... may all little ones find such wonderful loving and faith filled homes. We certainly ponder the beauty of the Holy Family this time of year, and lift all families to them! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"Saint John tells us that Jesus "must increase" and in order that this should be, "I must decrease." Our aim is not that I should decrease until there's nothing left of me: here I am, an empty shell!... God does not want us to be empty, to leave us empty. He wants us to decrease so that he can get in. What he wants, most of all is that he can be totally there, so that we are all his, and all the space is his."
Mother Mary Francis (2006) was the abbess of the Poor Clare Monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Roswell, New Mexico
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