Out to bottle the calves and climbing through snowdrifts in the sunny bright white world. A tree that was putting out it's springtime seeds is awkwardly out of place in the winter picture that just lingers and won't let go! After just reading the reading from Acts and the amazing Gospel from the meat of John 6, and praying for all, but most especially for 7 year old Mary on her birthday... filled with so much that I could burst from it. Then the news starts to distract, and draw me into the moment to moment events happening with the two brothers that were the bombers at the Boston Marathon! Finally I just had to turn it off and walk away, and cut the horrific and confusing details out. There is so much more uplifting and soul/heart feeding Body and Blood to devote time and energy to. Walk away from the rest and leave it for a while. At the news tonight it will all be over and done with and this moment to moment anxiety will have been an unnecessary use of my time and energy!
Mary over her shoulder - her amazing namesake is always with her on her journey in this life. Seven years ago it was a scary birth with Mary limp when she came out, and then her mom being airlifted to Sioux Falls with a ruptured uterus! Mary was fine within minutes and oxygen, and her mom is now expecting her 5th child - 3rd since Mary! Many miracle children that have been surrounded by prayer for their safe arrival! We are totally praying without ceasing for Ruth and the baby from the moment we knew that that new life was planned by God to be here! Just as Patrick and John have taught us the miracles that result from prayer... Mary and her mom also are leading into that journey of FAITH and prayer is so powerful!
Just back from picking up Paul with the 4 wheel drive pickup, and getting a true picture of the deep snow everywhere and most especially at the end of our driveway. Paul shared a "story" that will go down in the history of Mary's 7th birthday - April 19, 2013! You can see the footprints in the snow coming from the house this morning. After talking to the bus company, Paul offered to have the kids walk 1/4 mile down their road to meet the bus as it went by on the tar road. Mary had her backpack filled with her birthday treats for her classmates, and she grew tired in the deep snow and wind that blew more snow on them. Paul was carrying 4 year old David, but put him down to help carry Mary's heavy bag. There was a sense of high adventure and the making of a very profound memory to share with their children and grandchildren - the April of 2013 and a storm so bad that they had to walk a 1/4 mile to catch the bus! Tonight as we gather for Mary's party there will be a sign on the barn - Happy 7th Birthday Mary! But now dad is busy putting the snowblower on the tractor and trying to keep ahead of the blowing snow. I just had to walk up the driveway as the snow had blown in behind me in the 15 minutes I was gone to get Paul! Stumbling through the blowing snow truly gives you a sense of how crazy this all is. I sit here and listen to the wind howling and know that Paul and Pat will have a very big day of work to keep the 120 calves warm, dry and healthy!
Too much today to hold within - starting with the reading from Acts - the conversion of St Paul! Then the Gospel where Jesus speaks to us plainly and powerfully about his Body and Blood - "For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me..." John 6: 52-59 This is our all in all! This is our LIFE everlasting! This is the heart beating in our Church - the LIFE, LOVE, and LIGHT that comes into us, and makes us into the Bread that will feed those in our domestic Church/family! St Paul was against those that ate the Bread of LIFE - Christ's Body and Blood, and then he was struck down by Christ and kneeded/crushed to then take Christ to all the world! He is like us! He never walked with Christ in this world, yet he is the strongest of his disciples and stands next to the first Pope - St Peter - as leading the world to Jesus Christ! How many times have the words of St Paul touched us and brought us into the Truth? Too many times to count - as the sands on the seashore! Just thinking about I Corinthians 13 and how that is such a lesson to us about LOVE!!!
We tried to get some outside birthday pictures for Mary - this was a couple days ago, and today is is deep whiteness!
Jesus, sometimes we need to just shut out the distractions of the world and focus on YOU! We are so blessed with the beauty and peace and Truth that comes to us from our amazing Catholic Church. We are enriched and fed with Your Word as you dwell there to show us the path of everlasting LIFE! Fed with your real Body and Blood we are able to become more and more Yours! Jesus, we place all those in danger's way in Boston in the palm of your hand - we lift this situation up in prayer and know that You are in control! We pray for the soul of the brother that has died and the younger brother that is confused, angry and afraid. Lord, you love all of us with Your LIFE! Jesus, bless Mary on this her 7th birthday - one for the record books! May she always walk with YOU and know that when she is weak - YOU will carry her in your arms! Next year when she is to receive her first Communion as her older brother, Simon, is next weekend... may she see YOUR TRUE BODY AND BLOOD and carry it forth into her LIFE filled with your LIFE everlasting, LOVE, and be a LIGHT for all those around her! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
1 Corinthians 13
New International Version (NIV)
13 "If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
We love you so much Mary! Happy Birthday! You light up our world!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xODpgyqGCYM Casting Crowns - Glorious Day
Therese and Mary with their patron saints!!!
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