This morning I cleared the clutter that has been building up in my dining room after Nancy and I spent the day working on the amazing banner for our weekend, Christmas cards, scanning pictures for the 40 year slide show... it all adds up to craziness and the dining room reflected that! It feels so good to have it all hidden in its appropriate places, and to put up the special nativity scene that I got from Ruth probably 10 years ago when she was a college student at the University of Mary in Bismark, ND. She bought the stable and many of the individual pieces, but baby Jesus and the manger were sold out so I have the joy of having them handmade by her, and while she was at it... she made me a cow that looked like her special show cow, Carmel. She also made a cat that looked like Tom-Tom, baby Jesus and the manger, a baby chick, and a cow pie that lies in the bottom of the stable and makes me smile year after year! Oh, she also made a star that stands part of the time on the top of the stable... it falls over all the time and I have to restand it and that makes me pause and thank the Lord for this thoughtful and beautiful gift - mostly because they ran out of stock and my wonderful gifted daughter made these precious items that give me joy beyond measure!
Such a gift to share this project with my Nancy. She has a passion for art projects and has delighted me by sharing that she remembers so fondly the Saturday mornings when we would have art projects as being so instrumental in her passoin and the art room that she has in her home filled with this and that. "I say to myself when I run across something, that I might find a use for that." We collaberated and came up with a wonderful work of art to grace our weekend, and many times over the day that we worked together, we commented on how (just back from a trip to Lake Wilson with Pat to exchange a part) the banner came together with her input and mine. How I stood in awe as she so effortlessly made letters or took felt and made a special Our Lady to stand at the foot of the "Cross"! My sister in law had sent some fabric scraps that just made the whole thing come together so wonderfully! An old table cloth for the background and a rainbow piece like a deacon's stole crossways across the front... it seemed as though it was a robe over the High Priest of Heaven and Earth, Jesus Christ! We said many times that it seemed to be a garment worn by our Lord! Then the Cross that signified the many that have grown from the original 13 - now over 80 and growing by leaps and bounds! I got a surprise phone call last night from the priest, Fr Custodio, who had been a priest for 10 years and was assigned at the Basilica of St Mary, when we joined the Church. He was unable to commit for our family mass celebration, but looks to come and see us sometime tomorrow and be a special guest for our celebration! The representative of Christ - His priest - who ushered our way into the Church with his gentle, loving, kind hearted laughter with his childlike ways and joking with us kids! He continues to shed so much light and laughter and healing into the world! He layed hands on John and prayed over him for healing as he is given the gift of healing of memories as well as the physical. Such a blessing to us, and to have him stop in tomorrow will make it so special and complete! 
I need to do so much to get out of here today... but I am just so filled to overflowing by the gift that I and my family have been given - His Bride, the Church! Thank you, Lord! There is so much crowding inside of me that it is hard to express it! I just had the gift of reading over some of the special things I had put into a book in my early days of Catholic journey... Yes, Merton and A'Kempis are there, and of course your Word... but I am reminded of C. S. Lewis and JRR Tolkein and how they spoke through the characters that spoke so eloquently to me of the JOURNEY! Haldir the elf of the Lothlbrien Forest; "The world is indeed full of peril, and there are many dark places, but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love in now mingling with grief, it grows perhaps the greater." From the Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien... speaking of the beauty of the Cross and how it brings us to true joy and LIFE! Jesus, thank you for guiding and directing us with so many wise and deeply spiritual guides along the way to give us light and excitement as we grow with each new day! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"In love..."
"Whatever she tried to think of led her back to Jesus himself and, in him, to joy. She saw from the windows of the train the outlined beams of sunlight pouring over stubble of burnished woods and felt that they were like the notes of a trumpet. Her eyes rested on the rabbits and the cows as they flitted by and she embraced them in a heart with merry holiday love. She delighted in the occassional speech of the old wizened man who shared her compartment and saw, as never before, the beauty of his shrewd and sunny old mind, sweet as a nut and English as a chalk down. She reflected with surprise how long it was since music had played any part in her life, and resolved to listen to many chorales by Bach on the gramaphone that evening. Or else - perhaps - she would read a good many Shakespear sonnets. She rejoiced also in her hunger and thirst and decided that she would make herself buttered toast for tea - a great deal of buttered toast! And she rejoiced also in the consciousness of her own beauty; for she had the sensation - it may have been false in fact, but it had nothing to do with vanity - that it was growing and expanding like a magic flower with every minute that passed. In such a mood it was only natural, after the old countryman had got out at Cure Hardy, to stand up and look at herself in the mirror which confronted her on the wall of the compartment. Certainly she was looking well: she was looking unusually well. And once more there was little vanity in this. For beauty was made for others. Her beauty belonged to Jesus." How I groaned over this amazing description of LOVE by C.S. Lewis in That Hideous Strength! Reading it this morning while I waited for Pat in the feeder wagon store... it has continued to be this way for me every day of the last 40 years of my love affair with the True Church! I would love to say that of our 33 year marriage, but for the most part yes!
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