Yes, this is me... I am painting the window frame at our "farm" in Wisconsin, and I suffer from horrible allergies in the summer, hence the glasses and scarf around my face. There was a line that sprang out at me today, when Pat and I were doing morning prayers and the readings from the mass..."Restorer of ruined homesteads" from Isaiah 58 Our family bought a ruined building site in Wisconsin after we all moved to Minneapolis the year after I graduated high school - the summer of 1969. It would have been right when we were coming into the Catholic Church, and my parents wanted to have something for us to keep busy with and not get in trouble in the big city over the summer. We put windows in the old place, plaster on the walls and painted them, sanded and stained the floors, but never did put in running water!
Here is my younger sister, Cheryl, washing her hair at the pump. Very cold, but refreshing in the summer heat. Eventually dad rigged up a barrel, which he would fill with water and put a shower head on it... allowing the sun to warm the water for the day, you could have a semi-warm shower surrounded by some boards beside the barn. Very rustic and refreshing too. We also put in a large garden and on weekends, after all the projects on the house were done, we would garden and put up frozen vegetables for the family. We didn't do the canning that I have now learned so well as a farmwife for 34 years!
During the cool times we had a woodstove for heat, and with no TV we spent time reading and playing games together. It was really a step back into a less complicated time in the world, when you worked hard and then relaxed as a family in the evenings! As a family we have turned off the TV for many lents, and that has been a great thing for us as a family. We got out games and had them on the coffee table for us to play games together - the kids loved it! We also would every night have our time for prayer and Bible-Lives of the Saints as we gathered together. The kids all loved to read the Saints, and through them we learned that no matter what the obstacles we can overcome them with Christ at our side! The reading from Isaiah 58 today is so good for Lent..
"Thus says the Lord: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the Lord will guide you always, and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden , like a spring whose water never fails . The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up... They shall call you, 'Restorer of ruined homesteads.' "
My sister, Mary, cleaning vegetables from the garden out in the sun. So wise of my parents to teach the lesson of work, and of spending your times as a family with good times of sharing and enjoying each other. I have such a powerfully deep feeling of JOY and happiness as the beginning of my amazing Faith Journey called Catholic by choice is tied so closely to this time! My romance years of reading Venerable Thomas A'Kempis' Immitation of Christ, and Thomas Merton as a new Catholic, who was considering a call to religious LIFE! I did my internship as a student nurse at the hospital in St Croix Falls while living at the farm. So many great memories! Then I met Pat, and he felt that it shouldn't even be called a farm, since it was basically a big garden and a building site. So funny to think that I was going to the farm, I thought, only to truly go to the farm - A BIG FARM!
Sleeping on the floor after a long day of work on the house and in the garden. Our farmdays taught us to appreciate all the things that we have. This is making me yearn to turn off our TV. For sure we should manually turn off our TV and spend time in doing a Bible sharing or share a Scott Hahn Book together - we are looking at the one he wrote about Mary - Hail, Holy Queen It is so hard to have that constant interferance in between people, especially two people that have totally opposite tastes in anything of interest on TV, and there truly is only rarely things that are enriching unless you have only EWTN on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QZTpel5VK4&list=PLB1241A643EEE7EEC&index=1 Here is some of this the book on Utube!
Jesus, with your Mother Mary at your side, we are filled with the great gift of Lent, and how it allows us to rebuild the ruins of our lives and our relationship with YOU. May we with great excitement and Joy come rejoicing into your inner temple within, laying all our burdens and sins at your feet in the confessional! Then we can embrace the Most Cherished Cross and find LIFE and LOVE on the other side! You have come to us sick - we, who repeatedly are weak and sinful. "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners." Luke 5:27-32 The Gospel for today! It is so good to get away from all the darkness of this world and allow YOUR LIGHT to fill our hearts, minds and souls! Jesus, we trust in you and need you to minister and heal us, dear and glorious Physician! Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the Lord will guide you always..." Isaiah 58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4uauw38GBM Sound of your Voice by Third Day
"Jesus entered human history for ever and lives on in it with his beauty and power, in the frail body - ever in need of purification but also infinitely full divine love - which is the Church. To him she turns in the Liturgy, to praise Him and to receive authentic LIFE." Pope Benedict XVI
The motley crew in the early 70s.. Looks like we all could use a good shower - maybe a dip in Half Moon Lake!
No comments:
Post a Comment