Sweet Dave with his sleeping 1month old baby sister, Rose Ida. Some days I just need to make an acronym out of a word to express and think about how much that word means to me. Today that word is PRAYER! I have been reminded very much in the last week the power of prayer, and how it was something so real and constant with the year battle we had with John's brain cancer - in two weeks we are at the 3 year mark for it all began in earnest on Father's Day 2009! John at morning prayer - which is a reminder of the daily prayer we shared as we together faced the enemy cancer - prayed "for all those,who prayed for me." Really this is very close to all of our hearts... I still pray the Crown of Thorns decade... for all those that were prayer warriors with us, and that adds up to thousands! There is someone in my life now, who is coming to Rochester to meet with the same surgeon that did John's biopsy, and is going to have him do surgery on his tumor! It is so close to home, and to go back to that point is about the worst place in our year for us! We were terrified to allow him to go into John's brain with that needle to try to discover what the tumor was, but for him to be unable to walk afterwards and never be entirely the same since... it was a very scary place and I am shaking inside to go back there! I was reminded by his cousin - "What did little Sister Hallel tell you? And we must trust that Jesus is in control and it is all in his hands." Such a good reminder to me!
Hallel told me to consider the Gospel for that Father's day 2009 - Mark 4: 35-40 Jesus calms the sea! "Mom, do you remember the Gospel for today?" She asked me when we called her after leaving the ER in Marshall and a CT scan showed that there was something in his brain. "Yes, it was Jesus calming the storm." "Well, mom,this is the storm and Jesus is in control!" It was as if He had stood up and rebuked the wind right then and there. 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” After all my life with the finger print of God on my life... my family, my conversion, meeting my Catholic farmer, Pat Verly, our 11 children - 5 with us and 6 in heaven, my daily journey of Catholicism and the joy of walking with HIM and his Bride the Church, the faith of my children in our domestic Church, and then their through strong Catholic marriage and openness to LIFE - family... how could I not remember, and have faith, and KNOW that Jesus is in control of the storm? Brain cancer! That is about the worst "storm" I could think of, and in my only beloved son! So overwhelming! Yet, just look at how he has cared for my every need and blessed me beyond measure! And remember the army of prayer warriors that were gathered around us and the spiritual army that fought for us... the angels, saints - especially Blessed John Paul II, Venerable Solanus Casey, and Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady, the Holy Catholic Church with all the sacraments there for us every day... John was annointed 3 times on our journey - one time was at 8a mass with the entire packed church blessing him with out reaching hands and the relic of Solanus Casey pressed to his head! Prayer transformed and healed not only John, but many of those that were praying with us. Prayer became so REAL and powerful and something that truly is a Personal Reaching Always Yearning Everlasting Realm! 
Rose responds to the love of her mom and dad and siblings. Mary calms her with a kiss. From the Gospel today - Mark 11 - "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples..." How we found this to be true as we were united behind John and his battle against brain cancer! I remember a young 14 year old girl in our faith formation class being so excited when we announced last year that John had been a year without cancer - " I was at that mass when we all prayed over him, and I have been praying ever since, and now he is healed!" She could see that her prayers were answered and that prayer is a powerful and real thing! Jesus tells us this in the Gospel today too..."I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours. When you stand to pray, forgive anyone against whom you have a grievance, so that your heavenly Father may in turn forgive you your transgressions." When I finished reading this today John immediately responded with an joyful..."That's so good!" He thanks God for his cancer, because it has brought him true faith and he knows that PRAYER is for real and true!
Rose me the cows for the first time! Jesus, we are filled with such deep rivers of lifegiving waters as we come to you with prayerful needs. Life is filled with the uncertainty of what each new day will bring. There are storms on the horizon, but we must focus on you, and trust that you will continue to be in control of our lives! We see how you have touched us over and over and calmed the seas that looked to be washing over us. Even when we are tossed out of the boat - your reach down and grasp our hands and show us how to walk on water - trusting in you and "believing" in prayer and your listening ear. When we are weak and in need is when we turn to you. We find that when all is going well in our lives - we can forget that you are there, and become puffed up with ourselves and the "stuff" that distracts us from you. "Have faith in God. Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen,it shall be done for him." Yes, Lord! We do believe and ask that you come and dwell within us - Come, Holy Spirit, Come! We are yours, and long for you to show us the path to eternal life - yes, we know that we must pass through the Cross to find the resurrection. May we follow after you carrying our Most Cherished Cross, and leave our selfishness behind. "Wounded, I will not cease to love." Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"Speak tenderly to them. Let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well. "
"The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give. But the less you have the more free you are. Poverty for us is a freedom. It is not mortification, a penance. It is joyful freedom. There is no television here, no this, no that. But we are perfectly happy."
"I pray that you will understand the words of Jesus, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Ask yourself “How has he loved me? Do I really love others in the same way?” Unless this love is among us, we can kill ourselves with work and it will only be work, not love. Work without love is slavery."
Quotes from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to give us things to ponder this day! St Justin, the martyr pray for us this day! "God in his very essence is truth and light, and when he enters his temple he drives out ignorance and darkness, revealing himself in all his brightness." Fr John Tauler(1361)
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