Sharing the rosary each morning with my parents/grandparents is a beautiful new tradition that has been added to our family Christmas. My dad shared a special story from the Magnificat meditation book for the Year of Faith we are in the midst of in our amazing Church! There was a priest sitting at a banquet next to a woman who asked him many questions about why the Church believed this or that... Finally she asked him why he was in the Church - "What else is there?" was his responce. As we then launched into our family rosary, I just sat there filled with so much wonder at the work of the Lord in my life and that of my family! My father listened to the Holy Spirit 41 years ago and left his work as a Protestant pastor to join the Catholic Church along with my mom and 11 children - I being the oldest. I do know that Jesus and His Bride the Church is all there is, and all that I need to find happiness, and peace, and joy, and LOVE in this life! I am forever grateful that I can share this with my extended family, and my husband, children, and their families! The tears just flowed as we prayed together and the phrase kept reverberating in me - "What else is there?" Each and every day of my life is full of HIM and HIS Bride the Church! There is nothing but great knowledge and LOVE of HIM which comes to me through the daily sacraments and HIS Word!
Therese made her Aunt Angela a pink rosary! She really loves it! So beautiful to give gifts of prayer and faith one to the other! When looking at gift giving for this wonderful holiday - Christmas - the coming of Christ more fully into this world and into our lives- I want to share those that have to do with our Faith foremost. We were never more touched by the rosary given to us by a man during Patrick's fight for LIFE - an older man, who gave us a worn black rosary mended numerous times showing the prayers that had been said on it! No better gift could have been given!!! Then to find out from his daughter that he had a son with Down's syndrom named Patrick and the prayers that had been said for him on that well prayed/loved rosary! I know that this pink plastic rosary will be a precious keepsake for Aunt Angela from her little great neice,Therese!
The gathering for prayer just overflows into special sharing overlooking the lake and the winter view. It was such a gift to have Maria and her family there to join us for the weekend! Sitting here on the last morning of our time together... asking Therese what if she had enjoyed the weekend. "It was great!" she exclaimed loudly. What was the best parts of it? Soon she is over by me whispering in my ear..."The best is great-grandma and great-grandpa." So true! They are the reason for the entire gathering of 90 at the peak of our time together. Without them and the opennes to family and adopting a family in need and listening to the Spirit to become Catholic. Angela said that if Dan had not been Catholic she would not have been interested in him as a spouse. I know that Pat had told his sisters that he would only marry a Catholic. Dan and I would have not had our wonderful spouses and families without the Spirit directing my dad and his LISTENING! It just overwhelms me sometime to "see" with eyes of Faith the way the Holy Spirit has worked in my LIFE, and provided me with LOVE, and given me Christ within, so that I may be a LIGHT!
Lord Baby Jesus, you are so small and precious and helpless - yet, you are God! You show us the way to follow the narrow path to LIFE and LOVE! We look at our families and the new little lives we have been blessed with in the last year... we are so grateful that they are here and healthy. Most especially our little Patrick, who is here miraculously surrounded by PRAYER! He is a sign of your LOVE and desire to raise us all from the dead. We are dead in sin, and you raise us up forgiving all our weaknesses and allowing us to be humble Lambs. May we die to self to be more and more filled with the LIGHT of your Spirit. There is nothing else in this world other than YOU and your Bride, the Church! We cling to your Truth and Trust that we will always love and serve you with all that we have. Jesus, we trust in you. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us.' " Matt 1:18-25 God you are with us in all the ways that matter for truly what else is there other than YOU and your Bride the Church? We are filled with YOU , and our cup overflows!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO_YUOAA1HU Small Things with Great LOVE by Danielle Rose
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