“Prayer is the breathing in of God”

Continuing on in John 6 today... we are on the road heading from Kansas City after a small window with the Community of the Lamb. We returned Hallel to her home away from home here in Kansas City. She lives in France, but has come to the U.S. To help out with the 4 postulants, and that time has now been expanded until mid May. It was very interesting to listen to Hallel explain to people that came to see her about her life. I realize just how different her days here with us are... when we realize that most of her days is spent in silence. With the big zoo that we have when all of us are together, especially with all the little ones, and the no-limit to the conversation and questions that we are always engaging Hallel in when we are together. No wonder she is an exhausted girl at the end of the day. After supper she would pretty much withdraw within. We would offer her caffeine with supper to keep her going. One thing that was so great was that Hallel and John stayed with us at the farm, and all the families and grandkids were together at Ruth and Paul's. So we would return to the quiet house, and do our evening prayer and – joy of joys – read the Gospel for the next day read by Hallel!!! There is no comparison to the amount of prayer Hallel does each day, but such a gift to be able to do morning and evening prayer with my seminarian and nun! Hallel even mendicated – chewed the Gospel with us a few days. Even in the car yesterday as we traveled to Kansas City through the snowy countryside – she led us as we repeated each line about 6 times and allowed the Lord to seep into our inner place of the temple of the Holy Spirit! As the priest at mass with the community pointed out last night – we need to follow Jesus and search for him as He truly is the Bread of LIFE everlasting.

“The soul lives by prayer, just as the intellect absorbs intellectual nourishment and the body material substances; the soul dies when it lacks divine warmth, just as the body dies from lack of food and the mind from lack of an education. Someone has said so aptly that prayer is the soul's breathing in of God. Never lose this breath of abandoning interior prayer, which is the grace in us and which gives us life...” Elizabeth LeSeur (1914) speaking to Working for Food that does not Perish that was in the Gospel yesterday!

Today's Gospel proclaimed at mass in the Community this morning – John 6:30-35

I am the bread of LIFE; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. Fr Christoph spoke of the Amen within us – the “Yes” to Christ as he kneeds us and forms us into the bread. It is painful and not pleasant to be kneeded and to be the crushed wheat – Pat mentioned that we were in the bread basket of the country when we are in Kansas City. WE see huge wheat elevators where we stay and the Community lives and trucks lined up at the huge elevators. When Fr talked about how we resist being formed into the Living Bread because the process is painful with the hardships that come in our journey. So True! It is very wonderful to be in John 6!

Lord, we have seen much of this country in this last week, and visited with our daughters as we sit and look out at the world of others. We become absorbed with our little worlds, yet that same living of the LIFE with Our Lord is going on with our Hallel and her Community 7 hours away in Kansas City. We can expand our horizons knowing that our daughter, who is with her farm/blood family in Spirit, yet away from us living her calling to be poor and be filled with HIS WORD! Then, dear Lord, she will be returning to France and living her LIFE, LOVE, and LIGHT there in the rustic foothills of the Pyrannies Mountains in Southern France! Our world covers the earth, and our heart is made larger and larger. Today as I watched my husband, Patrick, holding his newest granddaughter at mass in the little chapel in Kansas City.... I recalled his being my Champion for LIFE, and how his LOVE has gotten bigger and like an ocean with each new LIFE we have been blessed with as we have 5 with us and 6-7 in heaven! Now with 10 grandchildren – so HUGE is our LOVE with each new LIGHT/LIFE! The tears were burning my eyes and nose at the wonder of it all, as I gazed up at my daughter dressed in her blue habit and on her knees in deep adoration and LOVE for her Tremendous LOVER/Spouse, Jesus Christ! Jesus, I am overwhelmed with YOU in my LIFE and the heart of my Family and Farm. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

With every breath that I take and every beat of my heart...”Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...”