I was overjoyed to go to Maria's blog today and find her homeschool Catholic sharing in rare form! She shared about Therese's doll turning 2 and the first thing she wanted to celebrate was Mass! Rather than make a production at the daily mass that they attend as a family in the morning. Little 2 year old David precided over his first "home make believe" mass! I am needed outside now to help sort cows that are getting close to calving in the next week or so... I will return!
She also shared this special Valentines party..."Last Friday we attended the Catholic HomeSchool group, as usual, and we did something really great there. For an early Valentine's Day party, each kid brought enough holy cards to exchange (about 40!) and instead of getting a bag full of candy and silly notes, the kids got about 40 different holy cards from all their friends! Since then David and Therese have spent many moments sorting through their cards and finding out the names of "their Saints"!" I love this picture!
Such a special picture that their cousin, Bridget, took of the two of them on Nancy's wedding day August 28, 2010! I should include Bridget's site too... she is a wonderful photographer! http://shotsbybridge.blogspot.com/ I digress, but I am so into the JOY of family today and the lights that I see around me - reaching out in small ways with great love!
I just went to Nancy's blog and found some great pictures of Gus in a big bird sweatshirt - How I love his big brown eyes and many cute expressions! Precious! Morning prayer was hurried this morning as we ate breakfast to go out and sort out the 12 cows and heifers that are the closest to calving. The resounding message this morning is that we must choose the good things to enter into our inner places - our heart, soul and mind...."Whatever is true, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Phil 4:8 Wow! How I see that in myself - "every day offers a choice: what sort of reading, what sort of TV, what sort of conversation, what sort of friends will we choose to welcome into our home?" see http://www.magnificat.com/ I am so much happier and uplifted and better off - if I filter the things that come into my consciousness! I think of the graphic example of the Poor Clares, whom Maria lived with for 5 months and considered her call to join them! They live behind an enclosure to protect them from the world and all the evil that lurks there to distract them from the Lord. They have no TV or radio, and the news paper is not poured over... they receive their news of the outside by prayer requests that are phoned in to them! I see this as totally good and necessary, and I see the carry over in Maria's home... They do not have TV in their home and for long periods of time they do not have internet... they know that these can distract and bring wrong things into their home! So powerful to see how they truly have an "enclosure" in their home that guards and protects them from evil influences! 
Jesus, there are so many lessons on how to live life as a Catholic family that I am now learning from my daughters! I pray that they may share their light and wisdom with many that are unsure and misled! I am filled with wonder and awe at the beauty of your domestic church - family! As our faith formation book stated so beautifully - "... with the aid of the Holy Spirit, the people of the Church live together in family - domestic church - in such a way as to make the Kingdom of God real in the world. By practicing all the things that Jesus commanded - sacrificial love, forgiveness, prayer, the Eucharist, a just lifestyle, and so on - Christians are already experiencing the Kingdom of God here no earth. Of course sin is still a reality, which means this experience is only a small taste of the real heaven that awaits us after death." The Catholic Faith Handbook for Youth... Thank you, Jesus, for this statement that really puts into words that Truth that I have found in my Domestic Church - our family. When we practice our faith with JOY and LOVE by attending mass together, and joining in prayer and reading and sharing the Lives of the Saints and your Word... we find a small slice of heaven here in our midst! Now to see it passed down into our children's homes is such an amazing GIFT! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Little things are indeed little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing. "
"A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace."
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
Snowball is one of the chosen 12 - soon to calve! Mary will be thrilled and waiting with great HOPE!
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