Yes, here are Ruth's kittens two weeks older. John and I stopped in there last night to unload the van after a three hour drive together and sharing from the heart about LIFE as we passed through the two week older crops that look green, lush, and wonderful. We were thankfully surprised by a half inch of rain while we were at the Very pool party. They are once again looking for rain in July here in our part of the prairie, and any we can eeke out is much appreciated. Lord, please send more our way. The forecast is for heat and dry, so Pat is already out putting down the tons of hay that are needed for the cows and calves over the winter. John has just come in from helping to get ready to go out for a lunch interview - sending out his resume on line has gotten him some calls about jobs in the area, so please continue to help us pray him into the right job. He is taking some time off of seminary to work in the real world, and a lot of our discussion on the way home was about his excitement to share his story with the world - starting here in our diocese for now, but hopefully expanding out into the state, country, world in the future. Writing his book is so big in his mind and heart now, and he received a lot of encouragement from his sisters and family up at the Big Lake.
Spectacular family time with the Verly family yesterday at the Pool Party!!!! Thank you, Joyce and Andy!
I was near to bursting with the Gospel yesterday - the Good Samaritan! There was so much calling out to me as I prayed morning prayer, the readings, and a sharing called Light Unto my Path by Very Rev Robert Barron! Really what it all boiled down to was the idea that what moves us the most with compassion when we see someone who is hurt and suffering - "Whenever we come across someone who is engulfed in a suffering we ourselves have suffered." See www.magnificat.com This burst from the page after sharing these two weeks with my family in Michigan. I recalled one conversation with my 8 year old grandson, Simon, who is within the autism spectrum. He has shared that at recess at school that he finds himself walking around talking about the ideas in his head and not joining in on the group games with the other boys. "How does that make you feel, Simon?" asked his Godmother Nancy. "Alone." he said with no hesitation what so ever. How that tore at the heart of Ruth and I... we too experienced that on the play ground. I remember being totally alone and miserable and that feeling still gives me the greatest pain! Yet, to watch my oldest daughter go through that hurt so much more! She was also shy and alone, and would crawl into my car and beg for me to bring her home, but I would give her a pep talk and make her get out and face the hardness and pain of her world. Today she has a deep compassion for those that are picked on, left out... ALONE! And I know when her small son says that he is experiencing that - it is a brutal pain! Yet, it is the Cross that has formed us and softened us and made us care for those that suffer. Just as John's prayer for Faith brought to him his Cross - cancer/healing and transformed his selfish little world into one of looking outward with much more compassion!
Sharing mass as a family before we headed over to Pat's sister's for the pool party.
Lord, we fall at your feet and gaze up at you on the Cross. There we see what you have called us to as we yearn to leave our selfish world behind and follow after YOU. We are weak and fail so often in our desire to love and serve You with our all, yet that is when we remember that we need you and we come to you and cry for your help. You lift us up into your loving and forgiving arms and carry us down the path you have laid out for us. We might not work with those that are physically sick and dirty as Blessed Teresa did in Calcutta, Lord, but we do come across those in our lives that we find repugnant and don't want to "touch." Those that are sick and needy in the interior sense..."When we handle the sick and needy we touch the suffering body of Christ and this touch will make us heroic; it will make us forget the repugnance and the natural tendencies in us. We need to keep the eyes of deep faith to see Christ in the broken body and the dirty clothes under which the most beautiful ones among the sons of men hides. We shall need the hands of Christ to touch these bodies wounded by pain and suffering." Blessed Teresa of Calcutta May we see Christ in those that surround us in our domestic Church/family. It seems that those that are the closest to us are the ones that we treat the worst. Lord, may that change this day as we recall how you suffered for us and died to take away our sins - the silent spotless Lamb of God! Jesus, we trust in YOU. Amen and Halleluia
Bless-bless, Barb
"Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Jesus speaking to us today in the Gospel - Matthew 10:34-11:1 St Bonaventure pray for us on this your feastday!
We carry the Beauty and coolness of our Big Lake in our hearts as we work in our steamy yet prolific Minnesota gardens - Ruth was already out there toiling in hers this morning as Pat and Paul and John tied up the fair cows and calves again after two weeks of being free in the pasture. Fair time is just around the corner!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHdcyue0bSw Praise You in this Storm by Casting Crowns!
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