Time for a photo shoot while it is daylight and in my favorite spot as the snowy background can be a backdrop... we tried anyways to get the 3 smiling and looking in the same direction....Thinking possibly a valentines picture with the coordinating red color... we might have to try this one again, and that is such a hardship for grandma to do! Not! I do love to just capture the three of them in their own kind of world and the resulting LIFE and LOVE picture of family times. It is well worth recording and keeping as a fond memory... maybe not picture perfect for a special Valentines greeting, but darn special just the same! I am not sure what Mary is talking about, but it could be the cat or the roses that she picked up from the table to have in the picture. Or it could just be that she is singing a song to pass the time, as her brothers wrestle with the kitty!
Grandpa was making them laugh a little too much!!!!!!!!! They certainly are happy. Today we are still very moved and touched by the news that Maria and Joseph are expecting their 5th child! With two losses in the last year by mischarriage... Maria called yesterday morning to let me know with this - "Mom, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I don't want you to come and see me for 14 weeks, and the good news is that we are pregnant!" The reason for this harsh statement is that the two losses were shared- I was with her as she miscarried both of her little ones! I was in shock at Thanksgiving, when the first day there Maria told me that she had started spotting the day before we arrived! I sat in the Eucharistic chapel the next morning numb with grief and the thought that not only did I pray for my daughters to never have to lose a pregnancy, but I had to be with her when she lost them! Why God?!?! So humbling and so hard! "... to the humble he shows kindness." Proverbs 3:34 Lord, how I beseech you to be with Maria and bless their desire for family with a "happy healthy" new life in 8 months! The "happy healthy" is part of Pat's prayer daily for his litany of those pregnant women - he lifts up daily - "for Jody, JoAnn, Ruth and Maria" - how wonderful it felt yesterday to add our Maria to the group of women, who are joyfully filled with LIFE which will come into the world and give LIGHT to all in their lives! Maria is such an icon of humility and trust as she goes forward with daily reception of Christ in the Eucharist and living the Truth within her domestic Church - her beautiful family! The Joseph and Maria family has so embraced a life of simplicity and discipline - as Mary Ann Kulharski said on Sunday - that is one of the important pillars of a family - praying together, eating together, working together, playing together, and discipline! I know that my mom raves at the beauty of Therese and David and that it is very evident that they are children that are humble and sweet thanks to discipline in their home.
I just went to Maria's blog and was gifted with some pictures she put on there on Sunday. Here is a Therese story that I have shared in the past and just want to replay... Maria traveled back with me to see baby Augustine - I had just driven our college car down to Missouri for them to use. On the way, I had stopped in Kansas City to see the Little sisters and spend the night. While there Augustine decided that it was time to be born... about 2 weeks early! Maria and the kids jumped into the car and we drove straight to the Cities to see our newest member of the family! Augustine and Nancy were coming home the next day, so the girls - Ruth, Mary, Maria and Therese headed out to the second hand store to get some onesies and other things for Gus, and I stayed back and watched the boys play in the yard. When they got back Mary showed me a plush animal purse that she had gotten for a few dollars there, and Ruth was surprised to see that Therese didn't have the purse, like Mary's, that she had looked at getting. "Therese, I thought that you and Mary could have the same purse." Maria told her; "I told her that she had to choose between a gift for baby Gus or the purse for her, and she chose the gift for Gus." "But why couldn't she get the purse? It was only a few dollars?" "She had to choose and she chose to give a gift!" So amazing! It was so heart rending to see her wash the little plush animal rings, and sit with Gus and show a two day old baby how to grasp the animal rings." It was wonderful to watch her little shining eyes and smiling face - so much more wonderful than a purse that is prized for a few days and then long forgotten. Just another thing! "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." Mt 5: 9 How much better it is to give than to receive! Such a beautiful lesson for a 3 year old to learn... we must give our children the choice to GIVE and not to always TAKE!
Now pictures of "no crawl Gus" from Nancy's blog - http://thegreatgusadventure.blogspot.com/... Jesus, thank you for the lessons of... thinking of others ahead of ourselves... that we can learn from the little ones. WE see that truly it is a beautiful gift to discipline our children out of LOVE! May we realize that we are the instructors of faith for our children, and not that we are called to be their friends. It is not a good thing to shower them with anything and everything their little hearts desire... this is not showing them how to deny themselves and follow HIM! "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." Mt 11: 28-30 Let us work on humility in ourselves and those we are given to raise as lights of the world. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"I am a poor, frightened little creature, the baby of the family, timid and shy by nature and completely lacking in self-confidence; and that is why I should like people to let me live unnoticed and all on my own according to my inclinations....but although according to my temperament I am shy, nervous, and as timid as a mole, I want to have a good try to overcome these natural passions and little by little learn to do everything that belongs to the office which obedience has laid upon me. ... Living according to the spirit means doing the actions which the spirit of God asks of us, saying the words and thinking the things that he wants... So live wholly according to the Spirit... live sweetly and in peace. Be quite confident that God will help you, and in all that happens rest in the arms of his mercy and fatherly goodness."
Doing the Will of God by St Francis de Sales (1622) Pray for us on this your feastday!
No comments:
Post a Comment