I know that Maria was with us in spirit, and longed to share the weekend with Hallel, and I always love to see my kids together with my eyes as they are in my heart! So.... I had my fun putting them together in the LIGHT! To be honest, I do yearn for the actual time that we all can come together! In a week and a half on the day that John has his 6 month checkup in Rochester - MRI to check and make sure that his brain cancer continues to be healed and gone - we will return to the Cities that evening and pick up Maria and the kids at the airport and take them to Marshall for the day. They will visit great grandma and other relatives, and then off to the Cities again and seeing family and friends there. Grandpa Pat has yet to see his namesake, and after all the praying that he did for him as did so many others... he is such a special sign of Faith, Hope and Healing for him. He is looking forward so much to see his grandson, who had the Cross placed on his shoulders in the womb. Maria's womb ruptured and he was without oxygen for 20 minutes before he was born and brought back to LIFE! The only issues we are unsure about is his siezures. He is on medication for them morning and night, but the neurologist told them that his brain could heal yet and he would be able to come off of them. In a month or so they will be doing another EEG to check his brain. We, and the entire prayer army will be called to prayer for that event for sure!
Another fun time I had making this painting of Hallel with all the neices and nephews. Three couldn't make it last weekend, so it was just great to put them all in front of the chapel they are building as the centerpiece of their little Monastery - Lumen Christi - Light of Christ! I put Mary in her blue apron that she wears when she is there helping in the kitchen. Hallel is holding the two baby girls, Rose and Bernadette, and Therese is holding her baby brother, Patrick! She loves to care for him and her mom has asked her to take care of her dolly, Anna, so she is right beside her mommy all day caring for her dolly just like mommy does Patrick! I have heard that she is filling up coloring books as she sits beside him all day, and colors in her books. How she loves and watches out for her little Lamb brother, Patrick. I love the part of the picture that describes the little ones as the LIGHTS of Christ, for they truly are being raised to be LIGHTS for HIM! So wonderful to behold and it brings us closer to HIM knowing that we are all called to become humble and lowly as the little helpless Lamb/children. A beautiful sight to behold! My heart is warmed by gazing at this simple painting and it speaks of the mission of Truth that my Patrick spoke to me 35 years ago at our engagement weekend. When I asked him if we were being selfish to want to have a large family in this mess of a world... "The world needs LIGHTS!" he said through the Holy Spirit! Yes!!!! May the Truth be known by all that the Church asking us to be open to family is their call to raise LIGHTS in our domestic Church/family!
The kids are off to school on this feastday of St Andrew... There is this glorious sharing of St Andrew speaking about the Cross just before he was crucified. He did not feel worthy to be crucified as was Jesus, so his cross was the shape of an "X."
"Hail, O Cross, inaugerated by the Body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as though they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired an earthly fear. Now, instead, endowed with heavenly love, you are accepted as a gift. Believers know of the great joy that you possess, and of the multitude of gifts you have prepared. I come to you, therefore, confident and joyful, so that you too may receive me exultant as a disciple of the One who was hung upon you... O blessed Cross, clothed in the majesty and beauty of the Lord's limbs!... Take me, carry me far from men, and restore me to my Teacher, so that, through you, the one who redeemed me by you, may receive me. Hail, O Cross; yes, hail indeed!" St Andrew
Wow!!! That is TRUTH of the Paschal Mystery so beautifully shared! Through the Most Cherished Cross we find LIFE eternal in HIM!
Jesus, I am filled with wonder at the message of LIFE we gain through the Cross. How we hate to suffer, Lord. Yet without the pain and hard things that come to us... the good and happy times would not be near so great. May we carry forth in our lives today always clinging to the message of the Lamb and of the Cross - "Wounded, I will not cease to love." Give us the strength to respond with patience and kindness when we are treated in difficult ways this day. May we not fly off into a selfish reaction with those closest to us. Jesus, you modeled for us how to LIVE and to die to self. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleuia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Here, as can be seen, is a very profound Christian spirituality. It does not view the Cross as an instrument of torture but rather as the comparable means for perfect configuration with the Redeemer, to the grain of wheat that fell into the earth. Here we have a very important lesson to learn: our own crosses acquire value if we consider them and accept them as a part of the cross of Christ, if a reflection of his light illumines them. It is by the Cross alone that our sufferings too are enobled and acquire their true meaning. The Apostle Andrew, therefore, teaches us to follow Jesus with promptness, to speak enthusiastically about him to those we meet, and especially,to cultivate a relationship of true familiarity with him, acutely aware that in him alone can we find the ultimate meaning of our life and death."
Pope Benedict XVI
"The world needs LIGHTS!"
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matt 18:3
The litany of Humility by Danielle Rose ... Lord, help us to pray for Humility this day and always!
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