A special booklet came with our Christmas card from the Poor Clares in Saulk Rapids. They are dear and close friends/family after our daughter, Maria, lived with them for 5 months discerning her call to religious life! The title of the booklet is Jesus, I LOVE YOU! by Fr Urban S. Adelman, a Capuchin. At bedtime last night I started to read it and Wow! It is rich and full of so much meat! There is so much in this world that is mindless and fluff with no value - it is a JOY and Delight to sink your teeth into something GOOD! The Catholic Church rarely lets us down... I would say never but that human element is the one piece that could lead to less than great stuff.
Little Bernadette's first winter!!
FOR YOUR COMING TO REDEEM THE WORLD.
JESUS, I LOVE YOU.
"For coming to do the will of the Father.
For being conceived by the Holy Spirit.
For being born of the Virgin Mary.
For the hidden years You spent in Nazareth.
For your miracles to prove Your Divinity.
For preaching a Gospel of peace and LOVE.
For every moment of your Sacred Passion.
For your terrible agony and death on the Cross.
For being our Way, our Truth, and our LIFE.
For loving us without end."
It is Patrick's first winter too, and he is here from Texas!!! Maria had to borrow winter clothes from Ruth for her children to be dressed for winter! They are getting a snowy visit too! We might be heading up there tonight to go and say goodbye to our little famly from Texas. I will probably be a river of tears!
Gus is such a loving and sweet big brother even though he is only a baby too! Patrick knows he is loved, as is little calm and peaceful Bernadette! Back to the wonderful words that Fr Adelman shared with us today! Wow! Especially at this time of year - the end of Advent - to contemplate this entire picture of how Jesus came in the form of an infant to redeem our sinful world that has been cast into darkness more and more. We all know that Christ Jesus was born to die for us, and so the manger is in the shadow of the Cross!
Jesus, we LOVE you beyond all telling for the LIFE and LOVE you brought to this world! You are the spotless Lamb that was born to show us the way to LIFE! Truly YOU are the Way for us to follow in all that we say and do. Selflessly do we give of all we have to those in our domestic Church/family. We do not count the hurts of life as anything to be acknowledged. "Wounded, we do not cease to LOVE." You show us in your LIFE, DEATH, and finally in your RESURRECTION the way we are to live our lives and to find LIFE after death of self. YOU truly do LOVE us unto the end of our lives, and the many times that we sin and hurt YOU, we are endlessly loved and forgiven. May we in turn forgive those in our lives that hurt us. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Many times a day we pray this prayer - may the answer come to us many times as we need it! We long to be ready for you to enter our hearts and minds more fully this day and forever. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
FOR THE WORK OF OUR SANTIFICATION.
JESUS, I LOVE YOU.
"For sending us the Holy Spirit.
For giving us Your Blessed Mother.
For founding an infallible Church.
For teaching us the way to pray.
For instituting the seven Sacraments.
For coming to us in Holy Communion.
For protecting us with the Guardian Angels.
For providing us with Saints for models.
For giving us each sufficient grace.
For setting an example of prefect LOVE."
Fr Adelman
"How could it be possible that anyone who was conscious that Christ desired to see the world with his eyes would willingly look on anything evil? Or knowing that he wished to work with his hands, do any work that was shoddy, any work that was not as near to perfection as human nature can achieve?
Who, knowing that his ears must listen for Christ, could listen to blasphemy or the the dreary dirtiness of so much of our conversation, or could fail to listen to the voice of a world like ours with compassion?
Above all, who,knowing that Christ asked for his heart to LOVE with, for his heart to bear the burden of the LOVE of God, could fail to discover that in every pulsation of his own life there is a prayer?
The Advent awareness does not lead to a selfish preoccupation with self; it does not exclude outgoing love to others - far from it. It leads to them inevitable, but it prevents such acts and words of love from becoming distractions. It makes the very doing of them reimders of the Presence of Christ in us."
Caryll Houselander (1954)
It's little Rose's first winter too! She keeps warm with snuggles and smiles and special hard hugs around her mom's neck!
Casting Crowns - If we are the Body
Seems to be the right one to hear today! Jesus, we are yours and yearn to do your WILL in our lives!
We LOVE you guys - thank you for coming to make our Christmas!!!
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