How grandpa Pat loves it when the kids and grandkids show an interest in his cows and calves! David spotted the 3 red steers as they stand out in the crowd of mostly black ones. He thought that it would be fun to bring them home to pet and care for. Not realistic with the winter around the corner...they need to stay with the rest so that grandpa can care for them and feed them daily.
The amazing Gospel for today from Matt 15 shares this scene of glorious mountainside occurance!!! Jesus goes up on the mountainside and great crowds are with him and they lay all the "lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute and many others. They placed them at his feet and he cured them. The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Isreal." Then we find out that they have been there with him for 3 days!!! Wow! just putting myself there and laying down to sleep after witnessing the miracles and hearing his Words of Truth! What excitement would fill me as I lay there in the dark and thought about how I personally have been touched by HIM. I have been healed by him over and over in my life and within my domestic Church/family. Everytime I go into the confessional and lay my sins and burdens at HIS feet - I am healed and leave there with great JOY. Every time I receive his Body and Blood in the Eucharist - I am fed by HIM with Jesus!
Dave having a cute conversation with grandpa about his having some steers at his house and how they could be fed. He is sad when grandpa tells him that they have to stay with the others and be fed by grandpa every day!
To think to this scene on the mountainside once again... the need for food was probably overshadowed by the wonders they were witnessing and hearing as Jesus spoke to them, and taught them, and healed them inside and out! After 3 days they were weak and Jesus wanted to feed them - "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for 3 days and have nothing to eat. I do not want them to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way." In like manner He is there to feed us as we are healed and whole through the sacraments of the Church, prayer and looking to our Church! I remember that with John's battle with brain cancer... there were many books suggested and this and that, but I wanted to put my all in my Church and all that it has to offer to me - Christ and his Bride, the Church healed our son, and taught many the value of the Church and the power of PRAYER!
Learning at the feet of grandpa about the good life we have on the farm - caring for the animals and crops that feed the world. A constant and sometimes difficult job, but for those that love it a good life.
Jesus feeds us and cares about us - He is there for us in the Eucharist and His Word always! How He fills us with LIFE and LOVE! Would you have slept for those nights, or would you be glowing from being face to face with God and gathered around HIM or in groups just talking and sharing those deep feelings of LOVE you have witnessed over those days? I work retreats where you encounter Christ, and yes you do sleep at night but many times it is very fitfully and you lie awake many nights thinking and feeling and yearning for sleep. The food is wonderful there, and plentiful too. Although those that are serving at times are left with the remaining food and that can be less. We give it up as a penance for those that are making the retreat for the first time. Much time spent in prayer and penance- wheat! Please consider making a Together Encounter Christ retreat... it is going on the mountianside with Christ for 3 days! Truly- you will encounter HIM in all his glory and sacraments of the Church!
Davey's special steer - Bullseye - likes grandpa because he feeds him and cares for him. We love and need Jesus for the same reasons, and because He came to show us the path to LIFE! Jesus, how we love you and praise you for ways you care for us and feed us on our journey of LIFE. We are sitting on the mountainside with YOU as you break the loaves and divide the fish..."They ate and were satisfied." Yes, Lord, we are given the food to strengthen us to leave that mountainside and carry forth your Truth and healing to all in our lives in our domestic Church/family. We have met you face to face in the confessional and in the Eucharist and we are satisfied as we walk away from our selfishness and become more and more YOUR DISCIPLE! May we allow our LIGHT to shine and no matter how hard life is to LOVE! "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE." May we live this as the Lamb showed us how. The innocent child is welcomed into our hearts at this Advnet time of year. May we be childlike in all that we do. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
26 "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?"Matt 6:26-27
The sermon on the mount!!! Wow!
Dave and grandpa find Snowball out there with the cows and they pet her and spend some time with her. I guess that is why Dave would like to have some animals at his house - he remembers this summer when they had Snowball and Snowflake in their barn getting ready for the fair. In a few years, Dave, you will have some beef pets to show at the fair too!
"That is the very deepest meaning of Advent. Our holy seasons always ought to be something special. They are really holy mysteries, and they should awaken a mystery as echo, as consideration, as prayer, in our minds and in our hearts... Indeed, after all, the ultimate and deepest meaning of this coming feast, the Christmas and Coming-of-the-Lord for which we are preparing ourselves, is that the created being, man, actually finds himself in the presence of the Absolute Ultimate.... become ready - really ready- to encounter and respond to HIM, the Ultimate, in an appropriate way, as befits a creature encountering the Ultimate."
Fr Alfred Delp (1945) was a German Jesuit priest condemned to death by the Nazis in Berlin, Germany.
http://www.riverbendtec.org/ Check out a retreat!!! You will never regret it!
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