Just off the phone with Ruth, who is bustling around getting ready for a big few days with Farm Bureau coming to our area. She already has cleaning, hair cuts and many jobs done this morning. Soon little Rose will come and spend the day with grandma while they are off on tours and visiting parks and farms in the area. This way Rose can be a happy girl getting her needed nap, and join up with them in the evening. Watching my girls and their wonderful husbands is a delight to me - watching them take the role of parenting very seriously. It started for me with my parents, and I shared our amazing story of Faith and Family - I being the oldest of 12 children - at great length on the page I devoted to our conversion story - http://familysoulstory.blogspot.com/p/the-amazing-story-of-13-becoming.html. Pat being raised as the middle of 10 children on the farm also was given the blessing of good parenting, and found firm direction for our family by answering my question of whether we were being selfish by wanting to have a large family - "The world needs LIGHTS." was his immediate responce to me! That took all the questions away for me, and gave us firm direction in being open to LIFE, and raising those 5 that we were blessed with strong faith and values and passing on our Catholic Faith with conviction and strength and most of all JOY! I see clearly that if you are excited and Joyful about what you believe that it becomes infectious and your children take it to heart!
There are many times I have heard the question asked - "What did they pass on to their kids? They gave them nothing!" You see those children that are following all the lies of the world and misled and just looking for what they want out of life - not even having the least notion that to truly find happiness they need to be asking and seeking what the Lord is wanting for them in their lives. That selfish attitude towards life which is promoted by the world we live in - do whatever makes you feel good, take the easy way out, make a lot of money and have a lot of things and maybe two kids might fit in that picture, but no more than that! All the lies that lead to a cycle of selfcenteredness, and not the rich soil where the Word is heard and understood, and bears fruit - a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. Matthew 13 - the Gospel for today. We celebrate on this feastday also the need for Good parenting in the working out of the Lord's plan! This morning doing morning prayer with John we were reminded that Joachim and Anna were at an old age and withtout children due to infertility, yet they persevered in thier faith and LOVE of the Lord. He then brought Mary into the world - sinless - surrounded by their holiness and LOVE as good and faith-filled parents! Such a lesson to us that we are to remain faithful throughout all that comes to us in our domestic Church/family, and most of all that we are to take very seriously passing on and sharing with our children Faith and the beauty of being called to Family according to the guidelines of our True Church! Being open to LIFE and using prayer and natural means within the openness to LIFE to prevent when we need to and to pursue fertility problems when they come to us! Ruth is now a instructor in Creighton Model - http://www.creightonmodel.com/ - If you need to look into this her number is
507-532-1019
Lord, there is so much JOY in watching our children carry forth into their lives and marriages the value of LIFE and LOVE and raising LIGHTS to the world! May the Truth be visible to all those they encounter - that to find happiness we need to leave our selfishness behind and look to what Christ is asking of us in our lives. Jesus, we thank and praise you for the generations of good parents we can look to - St Joachim and Anna pray for us and for all parents that are in darkness in this confused and lied to world. Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia'
Bless-bless, Barb
"Remember, of these parents you were born; what can you give them for all they gave you?" Sirach 7:28 Give them a lifelong love for Christ and His Bride, the Church! Then you will have found the LIFE they gave to you, and you will be the LIGHTS to the world that you are called to be!
I can never thank you enough mom and dad!
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