My prayers were answered for a "real hug" from Susan/Hallel!!! We got a call from her telling us that she would be here with their foundress in Kansas City over Thanksgiving. We were given the 3 days after Thanksgiving to come as a family to see her and get those hugs! She was able to meet 2 neices and a nephew that she had not met before, and see a lot of the family for the first time in 2 1/2 years. For Pat, John and I... it had been 1 1/2 year since we were in France for her first vows. Except for the bugs we brought along with us and stuggled with including making Hallel sick too... it was a wonderful time of sharing in their life and having Hallel there with us to visit and hug and laugh and shed tears - that would be her mother, who surprises no one with her tears of joy as well as deep emotion... as my kids are known to say, when I say that I cried about something - "So what else is new, mom?"
That is a Susie smile!! Why are my thoughts so strongly about Sue today? I had the joy of sharing the wonder of her Community, and how they digest/chew/mendicate the Gospel every day with some others yesterday! I have been forever touched by how they start the night before with the Gospel for the next day. They take each line and speak it numerous times and then chant it - it is close to lectio devino - in how you start to take it into yourself and how different things come to you through the work of the Spirit! As they ponder the Gospel - you are touched by parts of it that might not come to you otherwise. The following morning at prayer they open the Bibles before them and look for "echoes" that relate to the Gospel throughout the Word... whether it be from the OT, psalms or NT/Gospels or letters. To see these men and women prayerfully sharing places in the Word that relate to the Gospel... it expands and stretchs it to reveal other ways the Word can touch us and allow us to grow in our knowledge and LOVE of HIM and His Bride, The Church!
Hallel teaches Mary and David how to set up for Mass! Such a beautiful gift that they have Hallel and the Community in their lives - they are totally unaware of how special they are to have a Little Sister in their family! So wonderful! There is a hope out there that next summer/fall we could be blessed with her coming home for a visit when they have the dedication of the new monastery when it is finished! It would be wonderful for us, yet a sacrifice for her to be away from her prayer and mass with the Community every day. Most every day we have mass here, but not always on Saturday and there is also adoration two days a week - Tuesday and Thursday - the best hours I spend all week!
Rosie over this morning to visit Nancy and her two kids, along with mom and brother, David. Grandma had fun doing her topknot... My day gets off to a great start when I can do little girls hair! Hallel was my baby girl... and when I had her hair to do, I would go down the line and do 4 girls' hair! Joy, joy, joy, joy!!!!
Jesus, today is a day when our house is full of little ones, and those girls/moms that were my little ones not that long ago! I love to have them around me, and it is crazy how fast they have grown up and now have families of their own! Time has just flown by, but the blessings are immense! We are so grateful for having the Community of the Lamb in our lives. They show us the wonder and power of your Word, and how to carry it forth into our lives/domestic Church! We truly are in not only our family but your family, O Lord! "For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother." May we be that, O Lord! How we long to be one with you and to leave our selfishness behind! Looking at little Bernadette and how she looks around for the people around her to smile at rather than the toys in front of her. May we, too, love the people in our lives and not the things... How Hallel shows us the JOY of poverty and the freedom to leave the world behind and cling to YOU and your Bride, the Church! Possessions are weights that drag us down - how I long to simplify my life and I LOVE YOU, O Lord! Jesus, I trust in YOU! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"You are a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in distress; Shelter from the rain, shade from the heat."
Isaiah 25:4
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
"Like Jesus we belong to the world living not for ourselves but for others. The joy of the Lord is our strength."
Quotes of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCR24-tkWI Danielle Rose - If I touch HIM!
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