This picture taken by Nancy's cousin, Bridget.......... see http://shotsbybridge.blogspot.com/... we so appreciate the pictures she took for Nancy at her wedding! John looked at a picture of Nancy on her wedding day in our bedroom a few days ago, and said; "Wow! Nancy was so beautiful on her wedding day!" This verse is seeming to go with this picture - "Once more he will fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with rejoicing." Job 8:21 I have been working on letters for a retreat this weekend - both Pat and John are working it - and part of my letter writing is to match pictures with scripture as I make my own cards. It gives me a lot of joy and really is a special gift for myself... sometimes they just accentuate the message so much that I want to smile ear to ear! Knowing that Nancy had waited long and prayed hard for the man in her life, and that she was looking for a wonderful sharing and wise man like her dad... I see why she is so joyful on her wedding day, and also why this verse from Job is so fitting for her! Knowing the story of Job - I can also see the basis for this part of his story, as he once again finds happiness in his life with the Lord!
"Taste and see the Goodness of the Lord." Psalm 34:9
Pictures that go with verses from the Bible on a small folded piece of paper makes a card! Today is the Gospel that has really been the one that represents to us our cancer/healing journey! Today is the version in Mark of the healing of the paralytic, who was lowered by his friends through the roof, because there was on room for them to come close to him as the crowd around the door of the home where he was preaching the Word was so many... We received an amazing sketched card from the Community of the Lamb, where Susan was a postulant at the time, and it depicted just this scene! I had also heard someone give a talk one time about friends and family, and it was used to show how friends can truly put us in front of Christ, no matter what we are ill with, or paralyzed by in life. We felt so overwhelmingly that we were surrounded by thousands of friends that were carrying us in prayer, and lowering us into the presence of Jesus!
I think that you can pick out Susan/Hallel... now she wears the sky blue habit too! With this vision in our mind... we went through our year coming to John's healing from brain cancer! So today's Gospel is very powerful for us... John just headed out for his last day of helping dad outside on this vacation. The two of them will be heading off for a 3 day retreat, and then John will be going back to school from there. Sharing morning prayer at breakfast would have been more emotional for me, if I had really thought about the full impact of it! I think that my family might get a bit tired of my easy emotions, so it was probably a good thing... this is the sharing in Mark about the role of friends in healing..."Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, 'Child, your sins are forgiven.' " It is so interesting to me that Jesus says these words so automatically and easily... truly showing his love and mercy, and that HE is GOD, and where the healing that matters really takes place - our sinful nature, and the ways that we seperate ourselves from him. To have our sins forgiven is what truly matters to us! We need to come to Jesus in the sacraments given us - our friends take the roof off and lower us into his presence with their prayers for us - I know that Hallel does this for her friends and family every day, as I do I and many other Mothers in their vocation called "mother hood"! Jesus and Mary, we love you, save souls! This is what Maria told me to pray afer I do the litany of our families - there are so many needs, I told her, and how am I to lift them all up properly? There are so many that only the Lord knows, and don't we all have those things within us that need to be confessed and left at this feet? "Mom, just say over and over - "Jesus and Mary, I love you, save souls." That really helps me to put it all into their hands and to TRUST and HOPE in HIM!
"The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?" Psalm 26:1
Another card from my thoughts and prayers... Jesus, thank you for the many ways that you have touched and changed us. We are lowered into your presence by the prayers of those that care for us... that we may be released from the sins that paralyze us in life. May we do likewise for all those in our domestic Church - our family, and those that cross our paths in life. The power of prayer and trust in you... to see our faith and to heal those things that only you know...is really amazing! All those that we time and time again lower into your presence.. we trust and pray and hope! Thank you for those that are doing this for us! Especially for those that continue to pray for John's healing, and were with us on the journey! Although we do not know each of the ways that they struggle and suffer, we know that you do, and we place them in your loving and forgiving presence! Jesus, we trust in you, and Jesus and Mary, we love you, save souls! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb "You have not chose me; I have chosen you. Go and bear fruit that will last." John 15:16"It is divine forgiveness that we need, since no sinner of us knows the full malice of sin. One man is the slave of sin of the flesh, and seeks to reassure himself by the reflection that he injures no one but himself; ignorant as he is of the outrage to God the Holy Spirit whose temple her is ruining... We need, therefore, the divine forgiveness and not the human... the love of the Father who, while we are yet a great way off, runs to meet us, and who teaches us for the first time, by the warmth of his welcome, the icy distances to which we have wandered."
Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson (1914)
Yes! Jesus, I will keep lowering all those into your presence! And I know that I too am being lowered, and thank God for the faith of those that believe in YOU!
"I will praise you, for I am wonderfully made." Psalm 139:14
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