"The Shepherd bleeds..."

I keep returning to this wonderful gift of an adventure I had with the 3 Lanoue grandkids just the day before we were blessed with the arrival of our newest family member, Rose Ida.  Last evening as I read the evening prayer in the Magnificat - see http://www.magnificat.com/ ... It was all about the Good Shepherd including the ever amazing 23rd psalm!  I just love these pictures as they seem to reflect the words come to life!  All the way to the waters of the creek and the baby calves laying safely in the green grass close to their mothers..."Along the ways they shall find pasture, on every bare height shall their pasture be.  They shall not hunger or thirst, nor shall the scorching wind or sun strike them:  For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water."  Isaiah 49: 9-10  To have the experience every summer of the beauty and delight of the cows and calves being out on the lush grass - washed clean of the mud from the yards, able to wander great distances... eating to their fill on the lush and lifegiving grass and clover, and drinking from the rushing steam!  And no matter how bad the weather can be one day or night - the sun comes with the new day and gives them new hope in the protection and guidance of the Good Shepherd!  "If I walk through the valley of darkness no evil shall I fear.  You are there with your crook and your staff; with these you give me comfort." Psalm 23

The kids were fascinated to see this little calf walk across the water, with his mother showing him the way.  Now with the creeks much more full after the bountiful rain that we have gotten... and the calves growing with each new day of nursing on their mothers and eating the grass in the pasture.  They still can cross the much deeper and more rushing waters, and go from one side to the other many times a day probably!  There are many that are requesting prayers these days, and the battle of cancer seems to be largely the problem they face.  I am especially thinking and praying for a cousin of mine - Marc- he is on his way to Rochester today to get a second opinion on his brain tumor! See his caringbridge site at - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/marcz  It is a truly too close to home time for me... almost exactly 3 years ago we found ourselves in Rochester for John's brain surgery-biopsy!  It was one of the hardest places we can remember on our journey called cancer/healing.  Thank goodness that John does not remember it at all!  He was so sick right then, after coming off the steroids a few weeks before so that the cancer could "grow" back and they could get some of the cells in the biopsy to identify what it was.  The pressure in his brain was building each moment of each day, and all he did was sleep!  The prayers surrounding him were tremendous, and the timing of Susan coming right when Fr Craig was annointing him the day before the biopsy... too wonderful for words! 

These healing prayers and annointing protected him!  Protected him from the second biopsy site into the center of his brain... as they found two lymphoma cells in some blood they had removed from he area of his first biopsy... a site we chose because they entered through the back of his brain and seemed to be more safe!  How we prayed and trusted as best we could!  How we fell on our trembling knees at the foot of the Cross, and looked up to see the Good Shepherd "bleeds" for us!   We embraced the Cross - knowning the pain of suffering, and helplessness to change the suffering of our only son, John!  "The Shepherd pastures us in peace, To living waters leads, All hurts now healed, we are at rest - But see!  The shepherd bleeds."  From the opening hymn for evening prayer last night.  We grasped at the Peace we could find by reminding ourselves with each breath and beat of our hearts - "Jesus, I trust in you.  Jesus, I trust in you.  Jesus, I trust in you!"

Pat's constant care and work to keep the fences working and keep his cows and calves healthy reminds me of the "work" of the Good Shepherd, and that definitely includes that he bled and died for us and our sins!  Jesus, we are filled with many deep concerns and we lift them up to you in prayer this day - reminding ourselves that we can and must Trust in you!  We are overwhelmed by the concerns that we can do what seems to be nothing about.  We are seperated by distance and cannot be there to physically help those in need.  One thing these last 3 years has shown us beyond a shadow of a doubt - Prayer is real!  We are doing something very real and powerful to come to you with our needs and to remember and look upon you bleeding on the Cross - knowing and trusting that you overcame the power of sin and death!  Jesus, we trust in you, and lay all of these huge issues and darkness at your feet!  You are in control and all is possible with you there to carry us on your shoulders back to the fold!  ..."losing one of them would not leave the 99 and go after the lost one until her finds it?  And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and,upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.'  I tell you in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who have no need of repentance."  Luke 15: 4-7  Let us rejoice to know that we will not be left alone or wandering, but he is pursuing us with great diligence!  We are found and placed on his loving and forgiving shoulders and carried to safety.  We have seen his fingerprint on our lives again and again... sometimes we see the blood of that fingerprint -the suffering and dying that he did for us and the way that He asks us to share in that!  "The shepherd comes to set us free from snares of piercing thorn.  Released, we are made whole, but look - the Shepherd's hands are torn."  From the hymn last evening!  Jesus, we trust in you, and we are never disappointed.  Amen and Halleluia!

Bless-bless, Barb

"In order to remain spiritually free men, we must live in truth.  To live in truth means to bear witness to it in the outside world at all times and in all situations.  The truth is unchangeable.  It cannot be destroyed by any decree or law... Courageous witnessing to the truth leads directly to freedom.  A man who witnesses to the truth can be free even though he might be in prison.  We can overcome fear only if we accept suffering in the name of a greater value.  If the truth becomes for us a value, worthy of suffering or risk, then we shall overcome fear - the direct reason for our enslavement."

Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko (1984) was a courageous Polish Priest who preached against Communism and who was murdered by agents of the Polish Communist internal intelligence agency

"The lost I will seek out,the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, shepherding them rightly."  Ez 34: 16

St Boniface, pray for us and give us the courage to suffer persecution for our service to your people.

May this day we be the peaceful chirping/singing bird with our feet placed safely between the barbs on the barbwire fence - trusting and singing our JOY to HIM!  Jesus, we trust in you!