I know that I am a broken record when it comes to LIGHT, but that is what our entire family is based on! Back before we were married at our engagement weekend Pat calmed all my questioning fears about being open to a large family with this statement- "The world needs LIGHTS." The road has been rocky and up and down... I would say that this statement from Christ today in the Gospel pretty much describes our childbearing years and pain that came with our losses in our quest for Family
"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his lfe for my sake will save it." Luke 9: 18-24 Yes, Lord, sharing the pain of our
lost children - 7 of them - was something that I prayed my girls would never have to go through in their quest for family, yet it was what bound us together so closely with LOVE for each other. We are very close as a family and sharing that pain/cross is the reason! Through the Cross we found LIFE and LOVE and being a LIGHT was a part of that also.
Such amazing LIGHT on this day out in the pasture! My Sunday afternoon nap is calling me, so I will just say that it is through the Cross that we find LIFE eternal. Jesus, doesn't just say this for nothing and He didn't just model for us how he suffered and died on the Cross and then rose again to Newness of LIFE! This is true for us also as we lose our selfish life to save it and bring it ever closer to Christ's LIFE eternal! We can find a little slice of Heaven here on earth if we look to Jesus and his example to us. Jesus, we are Yours and want to die to self so that you can live and reign and have your being within us! Jesus, we Trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Crosses are the great means which God employs to destroy self-love in us and it increase and purify his love within us... the Crosses finish the work; without them it would be imperfect...There are so many different crosses that it is impossible to enumerate them all; and the same crosses are capable of infinite variety. They change according to different characters, different circumstances, different degrees. Some are simply painful, some are humiliating , others unite humiliation to pain. Some assail man in his worldly possessions, in those who are dear to him, in his health, in his honor, even to his life. Others assail him in his spiritual interests, in that which touches his conscience, in that which concerns his eternal salvation; and these are undoubtedly the most frequent, and most destructive, and most difficult to bear...
All have an effect upon us which inward mortification is unable to produce, and without them we cannot expect to attain to an eminent degree of holiness."
Fr Jean Nicolas Grou (1803)
Praying the office with John - What JOY!
Lots of rain - the water is deep and flowing!
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