I am not used to walking into church and finding Jesus in his little hidden chapel.... Can you see HIM? He is right in the center of the altar in the golden monstrance! I have such a disappointed and sad feeling when I walk in to see the altar empty, but then I see HIM and I am relieved and happy and a peace flows over me. "My Jesus is here! He is here to listen to me and to give me sight in the eyes of my heart!" Today is the healing of the blind man in Mark's Gospel - Mark 8: 22-26.
We are thoroughly enjoying reading James as the first reading this week! He speaks very forcefully to us in terms that cannot be ignored...I feel convicted today, as he points out that all the Truths that we take each day from His Word aren't just eye openning, but the Word is something that we need to take within us and "do" in our lives! I think of the Community of the Lamb and how they "chew" the Gospel for each day - they repeat it and meditate on it and mendicate it - repeat it over and over line by line - speaking it 5 times and chanting each line 10 times! The times I have joined them in doing this in their little chapel in Kansas City - I have been amazed at the things that jump out at you in verses that we have heard and read so many times in our lifetimes! They represent Christ knocking on the doors of the poor as they go out on "mission" begging for their food! They share this with those that they come in contact with. They take the food that they will offer them, even if it is only a glass of water, and then they ask them for prayer requests that they might have and share with them many times their own witness of their spiritual journeys to HIM. They will pray with them and carry their requests back to lift up as they gather for prayer throughout the day! So powerful! When Susan first was considering joining this radical community that she had met while studying in Rome... They first came to the U.S. just a few months after she returned from Rome to do a mission in Kansas City. The Archbishop of Kansas City had invited them to come and open a house in the U.S. - it would be the first in the heart of our country! So Susan/Hallel went down to beg with them for a very hot week in the summer of 2006! She came home saying that it was the hardet thing that she had ever done, but it gave "me so much joy!" A year later in Kansas City in the chapel she had just helped them build in front of Our Lady of Guadelupe - She told us that she would be joining this community of the Lamb! There were tears of JOY and truly we saw the fingerprint of God on our daughter! We continue to think about Hallel,who is in Rome for Archbishop Timothy Dolan to be ordained a cardinal on Saturday! I just went to this news spot - http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/new_york&id=8544601 and found out that he is saying mass at St John Lateran Church in Rome for all those that have traveled to celebrate with him from New York, Milwakee, and from his hometown of St Louis - also Little Sister Marie, Little Sister Benedict from Kansas City, and Little Sister Hallel from Minnesota! I love to think of them all gathering to celebrate with this humble approachable man! Let us all lift him up in prayer these days, so that as he said that it won't go to his head, but to his heart and soul - that he may be "a doer of the Word!" 
Jesus, we thank you for the magesty and wonder of our amazing Catholic Church! The Word is a part of each day as it is shared throughout the world at every Catholic Church from the mud hut in Africa to ST Peters and ST John Lateran in Rome! The entire Bible is read in a 3 year cycle and we are forever changed and touched by you and our sight goes from "people looking like trees and walking" to seeing clearly. May the Truth that comes to us from your Word forever change us and give us the courage we need to take it forth into our lives - into our domestic church - our families! May we share you LIGHT and LOVE there, and raise LIGHTS for the world... sharing your Word - sharing YOU as we represent Christ knocking in the doors of all those in our lives! With all the armor of faith we go forth into battle against all the lies and evil that tries to mislead us. Bless all those that "humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls." James 1 We need to take time each day to immerse ourselves in the Word of God, and then armed with that Truth and given that sight by the "touch" of Christ - we need to carry that forth into all that we do each day! Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, BarbThe Shadow of Peter
"It was the first time that the two Little Brothers, who were praying as they walked, had gone out to beg in the streets of the USA. The neighborhood was peaceful, and they walked a long way in the mildness of the evening. As they knocked at the first door to beg for their daily bread they felt very inadequate and lost in what was to them a strange country. They paused to pray once more and to consult the word of the Lord.
'... the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people by the Apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past." Acts 5: 12
The words struck their hearts, in their littleness and their poverty they would see the shadow of Peter in the city. It was as sent out on a mission that they knocked at the first door:
'Peace be to this house!'
An elderly couple, Ted and Debby, radiant and with unaffected goodwill, welcomed them in. On the door of the house of this Protestant minister the Little Brothers noticed that these words were written: 'Enter with a peaceful heart.' "
Little Echoes of the mission in the U.S. of the Community of the Lamb
June 19- July 10, 2006
All I can say from personal experience and from going through discernment with two of my precious daughters - really all 4 of my daughters considered it- allow the wonder of religious life to be one of your options in life! It is powerful and glorious and if you are truly being called by HIM - you will find your Most Cherished Cross and LIFE and LOVE without measure!
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