The Visitation - we too experience Visitations in our lives!

So overjoyed today to discover a glorious feastday celebrating the JOY of carrying LIFE in the womb in anticipation of our salvation in the form of a tiny newborn infant!  The Magnificat sets forth the deeper and more powerful image of The Visitation - "A Visitation aims to accomplish something.  Specifically a Visitation is an encounter that carries within it a meaning that is exceptional."  Carries within it... Christ, the Word, and John the Baptist, the Voice, are carried within these two cousins... they are truly exceptional being carried within!  When we come together with The Holy Spirit within and it is in charge of our times together is that not also our own Visitation?  Yes!  I love the part of the Gospel which really jumped out at me the two times I shared it - first with Pat when we did morning prayer from the Magnificat, and then again with John when we prayed the office..."When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out with a loud voice and said, 'Most Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb..."  Yes, once again reminding us that the words we repeat in the "Hail Marys" are scriptural!  But what caught me was the fact that the infant - the LIFE that Elizabeth carried in her womb recognized Christ's presence in the womb of Mary, and that is what filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit!  It speaks volumes to me about how we are called to be open to LIFE and through that LIFE we are blessed with Christ more fully in our homes/domestic Church, hearts, minds, souls, LIGHTS are brought into the world!  The Church in her wisdom tells couples that being contrary to the lies of the world and saying yes to family and to LIFE we are blessed hugely with the Truth that brings all that is good into this world of darkness - LIGHT! 

Mary made a tent that billowed in the prairie wind on the clothesline! 

As our family grows in size and number the LOVE we have does not get spread more thin but it grows and grows!  There is no limit to the boundaries of LOVE as we celebrate all the LIFE we have been blessed with - just this morning Pat and I prayed for all the life of our children and grandchildren whether here with us or in heaven.  Having those losses keeps our eyes and hearts focused on meeting them someday and their looking out for us and praying for us here below.  It was quite powerful the other day to visit the cemetary with Ruth's 3 oldest and for them to realize that mom has brothers and sisters in heaven to meet someday!  The losses were so hard and I would ask the Lord - "Why,Lord?"  But I now see that they played a powerful part of our story of FAITH/FAMILY/FARM... with sharing the pain as a family we are so close and appreciate each other so much!  And each day remembering that they are part of our family and looking out for us from the feet of Jesus... it draws us ever on to HIM and His Bride, The Church!  Yes, we are united in the Eucharist with Hallel but we also know that sharing the same Faith unites us with all of our family no matter where they are!  I came across this on Facebook today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NDVLBUK5FGw  Fr Barron speaks on the mystery of eating the Flesh of Jesus

Then Rose and mommy joined Mary for a super fun time - Rose giggled with great JOY at her first ever wind in the tent experience.  JOY!!!

There is just so much today that I find myself bouncing around like that sheet in the wind yesterday, and equally giggling with great glee at this day of great celebration!  Take this in a savor it..."We can be certain that the mystery of the Visitation is effective in our life if we do now, before Jesus is born, what Christ will command us to do as he dies:  'Behold your Mother.' "  see www.magnificat.com

As John and I were going to start morning prayer, I mentioned that today was a big feastday.  "Let me guess - it is one for Mary.  Most of them are Marian."  Yes!  We thought that should only be right, as she is our Mother of Heaven and Earth and the Mother of God!  Every day for me is a celebration of all that she does for me as a mother when I take all my needs and joys and sorrows and ups and downs to her in the rosary, which is a huge part of my days!  Whenever I travel, as I find time during my day I reach in my pocket and feel those beads and begin to pray and the peace flows over and around me.  I feel such happiness as I spend time looking to Christ and His LIFE which is the result of her "yes."    I feel a buzz within my heart at the memory of how she has been the mother I needed to face all that has come and continue to come in LIFE/LOVE/LIGHT!  That is not a rosy and easy world - it is the Most Cherished Cross which has become the Tree of LIFE and brings us to LIFE eternal!  It is a world of suffering as we die to self!  That hurts us terribly as we are always in the battle to live for Christ and His Bride, The Church.  It is all there to help us in this venture, if we will only take advantage of all that is there to help us on our journey!  I am sorry, but if it isn't Catholic and in keeping with the True Church... I just don't want to waste my time with it!  It is that black and white for me!

Jesus, with Mary at your side interceding for us as our Mother, we are so filled with the JOY of the Truth this day as we see in this beautiful feast - that LIFE fills the world with your Holy Spirit and the great Magnificat of Truth!  The Magnificat of your Mother teaching the world that in humility we find YOU!  In denying our selfishness and seeing that without YOU we are nothing..."My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor upon his lowly servant.  From this day on all generations will call me blessed:...He has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit.  He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly."Luke 1:39-56  The Gospel for today!  The Magnificat is truly a lesson to us of how you call us to be poor/humble!  May we realize that our pride will get us nowhere but separated from YOU and your unconditional LOVE and forgiveness!  We are lost without YOU, O Lord!  May we find that the pain we experience in leaving our selfish desires behind will turn into the happiness of finding our home always with YOU.  "Wounded, I will not cease to LOVE."  Looking to the example of the sacrifice of the Lamb, who was spotless and without sin and died for us.  May the Blood of the Lamb cover us this day and may we become as dazzling as white snow!  Jesus, and Mary, we trust in you.  Amen and Halleluia

Bless-bless, Barb

"May your Church proclaim your greatness, O God, for you have done great things for your faithful, and, as John the Baptist leapt for joy when he first sensed the hidden presence of Christ, so may your Church rejoice to receive in this Sacrament the same ever-living Lord.  Who lives and reigns for ever and ever."  Communion Antiphon for today

"Charity makes Mary forget not only her hardships but also her dignity, which was greater than that given to any other creature.  Elizabeth is advanced in years,but Mary is the Mother of God:  Elizabeth is about to give birth to a man, but Mary will give birth to the Son of God.  Nevertheless, before her cousin as before the Angel, Mary continues to look upon herself as the humble handmaid of the Lord, and nothing more.  Precisely because she considers herself a handmaid, she comports herself as such, even in respect to her neighbor... Mary's dignity approaches the infinite, yet she considers herself and behaves as if she were the least of all creatures."  Fr Gabriel of St Mary Magdalen (1952)   Mary sure teaches us about what true Humility is!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttdqieQx3Rc  The Litany of Humility by Danielle Rose